Wow...It Must Be The Shoes!

It's been a month since I've updated and no, I haven't quit the Couch-to-5k program. I did have a few minor setbacks, but  recently had some major breakthroughs also. Before I get to that I have to share with you an experience I had at a  local store called Run For Your Life. Several of my patients told me about them (thank you Darcy!) and I have to say I was very impressed. They specializ  in custom fitted running shoes. Honestly, I didn't really know much about the subject, but being a Chiropractor I'm obviously interested in proper bio-mechanics. Mackenzie, the most-awesome Fitologist ever,  walked me through the fitting process and after analyzing my gait, prescribed a "stability" shoe best suited for my mild pronation. After having me try and run in several shoes, I could actually feel the difference immediately.  Turns out, the shoes themselves aren't "custom"; they're off the shelf with lots to choose from. But the process of deciding which shoe is best for your needs is the custom part.  I was  so impressed that I had my wife get fitted also.  She had been experiencing some knee pain that we chalked-up to being a new runner.  After one run in her new shoes the pain was gone.  It was the shoes! Again, I highly recommend these people, they really know their stuff.  They're located on Mallard Creek Church Rd next to Trader Joe's. You can also find them here: www.runforyourlife.com.

In my next post, I'll tell you about the HUGE progress we're making and why ANYBODY can do the C25K program.

This C25k running thing just might be working

After three...yes three!, attempts to complete Week 1 of the C25k Program, we finally made it through Weeks 1 and 2 and are making huge progress. The first time we started by the third day the whole family had contracted a stomach virus. I won't explain, but a stomach virus is not compatible with running.  That was the week of Christmas. After a week of rest, we tried again and succeeded at completing the first week. Unfortunately, the "Ice Blizzard" of  2011 struck and prevented us from starting Week 2.  I won't explain but, icy, hilly roads are not compatible with running. After another week off, we decided to GO BACK to Week 1 and start over.  Argh!! But, alas success!

Week 2  called for a 5 minute warm-up, and six runs of 1.5 minutes alternating with 2 minutes of walking. Monday was tough, but by the third day we had significantly increased our distance covered.  Remember, each week consists of 3 workouts with rest days in between. Each workout is about thirty minutes if you include the warm-up and cool down and included only 9 actual minutes of running.

Week 3 will be our first real challenge.  Each work-out will start with the usual 5 minute warm-up and progress to another 1.5 minute run/walk interval.  But then things get tougher. We'll run and walk 3 minutes each, then repeat both intervals.  Still only 9 minutes of running, but now we're increasing our stamina.

That's the whole beauty of the C25k program; it really does build your stamina.  My legs feel stronger each week and I'm sucking less wind.  We have consistently increased the distance covered and haven't once experienced the kind of pain that would make me want to quit.  And remember...I hate running.  Sure, I've had a few moments that I questioned my sanity.  And I'll admit there have been mornings that I really didn't want to get up that early, especially since it involves running. But I'm really starting to see the benefits in my overall well being and my sense of accomplishment.  And the fact that my wife and kids are doing it with me has been a tremendous help.

The Get Running iPhone app has also been instrumental because it keeps me on track. At each interval a pleasant British female voice fades over my music and reminds me that I have 30 seconds left, or that I'll start the next run in 10 seconds. I've named her Victoria, it just seemed to fit.  Of course, we have a love hate relationship; I usually love the sound her cheery, upbeat voice at the beginning of a run and find myself hating her cheery, upbeat voice by the end of the run. The app just makes it easier to implement, but the program has worked for thousands of runners before there even were apps.

The bottom line is this: If I can do it, you can do it. If you haven't started yet, what are you waiting for? Go to C25k.com and check it out.  If you don't have a smartphone, just time yourself and do it the old-fashioned way, but do it. And leave comments and feedback.  I want to hear about your success as we do this together.

Until next time....

It's official...I'm a runner!

Ok folks, I told you I would be giving updates and I meant it. Thanks so much for those of you who responded with such encouraging words. Turns out my wife and two oldest children were also up for the challenge so they joined me on my first two runs. The first week of the C25k program starts with a 5 minute warm-up walk, then alternates between one minute runs and 1 1/2 minute walks. I was really proud of myself that I got through it with absolutely no pain. In fact, it actually felt good and was quite invigorating. Each work-out is thirty minutes and we covered about 2 miles.

Each week will get a little harder, but I'm up for it. And the more of you that join me will even help more. If you haven't started yet, what are you waiting for?

A Challenge from Dr. Chris - Couch to 5K in 9 weeks!

A lot of my patients run. For exercise. On purpose. I've never really understood why. Personally, my policy has always been to only run when being chased. I've always thought there were really only two kinds of people on this earth; normal people and people who run. Humor is a great cover if you're in denial. Truth is... I don't run. Because I can't. There, I said it. I can't run.

For as long as I can remember, I've hated running. Hated it. The leg cramps, the crippling side-stitch, the searing lung pain. I just didn't get why anyone would inflict such pain upon themselves. Sure, I was always able to sprint short distances fairly well. I've always been pretty active and played sports, but the long distance running thing just didn't work form me. I figured I just didn't have a "runner's physique". Whatever that is.

Over the past 20 years of practice I've dealt with a lot of athletes. Soccer players, football players, volleyball players, weight lifters, cyclists, swimmers, and of course, runners. In many cases I find it clinically necessary to have a patient rest while they heal, then slowly ease back into their workout. Normal people accept this and comply. People who run, don't. They either laugh at me or just look at me like I'm one of those horrible people who steals money from sweet little old ladies. I do have to admit that I've always admired their dedication. I'll even admit that maybe I'm a little jealous of their mysterious abilities. And I concede that I've always secretly wanted to run, I just couldn't get past that whole pain thing.

Evidently there are 2 schools of thought in training a beginning runner. Either suck it up and run through the pain - which studies have shown that 99.99999999999999999% of people who try this approach quit after 1 day - or, slowly break-in your legs, your lungs, and your liver in a less side-stitch inducing manner. Makes sense to me, but how? This is where the Couch-to-5k program comes in. A patient recently told me about it and I looked it up online at C25k.com. It was developed in the 90's by avid runner Josh Clark. I found several running websites, including coolrunning.com, where the system is recommended and over and over read stories of people like me who hated running that were now able run 30 minutes at a time without stopping or walking. In 9 weeks no less! Besides the websites, there are even iPhone Apps to keep track of times and progress. I'm using one called "Get Running" that incorporates the C25k training regimen into an easy-to-use interface that allows me to listen to my own music while it keeps track of my time. At the correct intervals a voice-over tells me when to walk or run. It also tells me when I'm at the half-way point so I can turn around. Very cool. Of course, you can do it without the App, you'll just need a stopwatch to time your intervals.

So here's my challenge to you. It's January, the perfect time to start an exercise program. If you're like me and hate running it's time to overcome. Get off the couch and do it! I'll be giving updates on my blog and would love to have you join me in my quest to actually enjoy running. Feel free to leave comments and give updates of your progress.

Let's make it an epic year together!

Not Sleeping?...Must be Your iPad.

Here is an excellent article published on CNN.com:

(CNN) -- J.D. Moyer decided recently to conduct a little experiment with artificial light and his sleep cycle.

The sleep-deprived Oakland, California, resident had read that strong light -- whether it's beaming down from the sun or up from the screens of personal electronics -- can reset a person's internal sleep clock.

So, for one month, whenever the sun set, he turned off all the gadgets and lights in his house -- from the bulb hidden in his refrigerator to his laptop computer.

It worked. Instead of falling asleep at midnight, Moyer's head was hitting the pillow as early as 9 p.m. He felt so well-rested during the test, he said, that friends remarked on his unexpected morning perkiness.

"I had the experience, a number of times, just feeling kind of unreasonably happy for no reason. And it was the sleep," he said. "Sure, you can get by with six or seven hours, but sleeping eight or nine hours -- it's a different state of mind."

Moyer may be onto something.

More than ever, consumer electronics -- particularly laptops, smartphones and Apple's new iPad -- are shining bright light into our eyes until just moments before we doze off.

Now there's growing concern that these glowing gadgets may actually fool our brains into thinking it's daytime. Exposure can disturb sleep patterns and exacerbate insomnia, some sleep researchers said in interviews.

"Potentially, yes, if you're using [the iPad or a laptop] close to bedtime ... that light can be sufficiently stimulating to the brain to make it more awake and delay your ability to sleep," said Phyllis Zee, a neuroscience professor at Northwestern University and director of the school's Center for Sleep & Circadian Biology.

"And I think more importantly, it could also be sufficient to affect your circadian rhythm. This is the clock in your brain that determines when you sleep and when you wake up."

Such concerns are not entirely new: One sleep researcher said Thomas Edison created these problems when he invented the light bulb. But they've been revived by the popularity of Apple's new slate computer, the iPad, which many consumers say is good for reading at night in bed, when the brain thinks the environment should be dark.

Unlike paper books or e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle, which does not emit its own light, the iPad's screen shines light directly into the reader's eyes from a relatively close distance.

That makes the iPad and laptops more likely to disrupt sleep patterns than, say, a television sitting across the bedroom or a lamp that illuminates a paper book, both of which shoot far less light straight into the eye, researchers said.

"I wish people would just take a boring book -- an old-fashioned book -- and [read] by a lamp. Make sure that it's not too bright -- just so you can read," said Alon Avidan, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at UCLA. "And if they do that, I think they'll feel a lot better and they'll be able to relax."

These concerns stem from the fact that people are biologically wired to be awake when the sun is out.

When receptors in our eyes are hit with bright light for an extended period of time, they send a message to the brain saying it's time to be awake. The brain, in turn, stops secreting a hormone called melatonin, which makes people sleepy and helps regulate the internal sleep clock.

Normally, our brains start giving us that hormonal sleep aid at about 9 or 10 p.m. But if bright lights are shining in our eyes, that may not happen as planned. That's what worries some sleep researchers.

To make matters worse, our eyes are particularly sensitive to blue light, which is common during the day, but is less so in the evening. The fact that computer screens and phones tend to put out a lot of blue light could intensify the screen's awakening effects, even if the light isn't all that bright.

There's no exact formula for determining how much light is needed to reset a person's internal clock. Several factors are at play, including how bright the light is, what hues are present, how large the light source is, how far it is from the person's eyes and what that person tends to do during the day.

A farmer who is exposed to sunlight all day long would likely be less sensitive to artificial light at night than a person who works in a dimmer office environment, said Mariana Figueiro, an assistant professor and director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

While there has been research to show that light -- even artificial light -- can affect human melatonin production, no research has been done specifically on whether the iPad and laptops disrupt sleep cycles.

Some researchers are skeptical of the link.

"I don't think it's an area of concern. I think it's an area of personal preference," said Mary Lou Jackson, director of vision rehabilitation at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

People shouldn't be concerned about reading on backlit electronic devices at night unless they're experiencing insomnia, in which case they should dim the screen, Jackson said.

Several iPad owners contacted by CNN said they enjoy reading on the device before bed and haven't noticed sleep problems.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

George Brainard, director of the Light Research Program at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said it's more important for people to turn off their computers and gadgets at night -- so they have a dark sleeping environment -- than to worry about reading in bright conditions before bed.

Electronics with glowing screens may create problems for people who are susceptible to insomnia, he said, but that research hasn't shown the link yet.

"Can we jump from [the available research] to an iPad? Not quite yet," he said. "But you can begin to see the potential is there for low levels of light to potentially have a biological effect."

Avidian, from UCLA, said several factors play into how well a person sleeps. It's possible iPads and laptops, when used late at night, may delay sleep because they require more focus and provide more potential distractions than books, he said.

Still, the possible relationship between reading at night on backlit screens and insomnia has led some sleep doctors to prescribe zany solutions for patients.

Figueiro, the professor at RPI, prescribes sunglasses with orange lenses.

"Wearing these orange glasses definitely will take away any of the [blue] light that the circadian system is sensitive to," she said. "Your circadian system would basically be blind."

Zee, the Northwestern doctor, said she has recommended the same. She also says people who have trouble sleeping should keep iPads and laptops out of the bedroom. It's best to stop using them one or two hours before going to bed, she said.

Changing your computer or iPad's screen settings to make the display dimmer or take blue hues out of the display at night may also help, researchers said.

A free, downloadable program called F.lux will automatically adjust the hues on your computer screen to eliminate blues when the sun starts setting -- and then replace them when it rises again.

The program, which was developed by a computer programmer and an artist, is not scientific. Sleep researchers said they are unsure of its actual impact.

Moyer, the Oakland resident who turned off all of his gadgets and lights at sundown for a month in 2009, said he hasn't kept up the rigid routine.

But he has applied some lessons from his lights-off-at-night experiment.

For one, he uses the computer less at night. And when he needs to use it, he employs F.lux to make the screen more red and less blue.

He says he's happier and more rested for it.

Dr. Musacchio's comments:

This is a topic I deal with everyday in the office. What baffles me is the amount of people that REFUSE to acknowledge the effect technology can be having on our bodies. Or better yet, the "...it never bothered me before..." line of reasoning. The human body is amazing at adapting. It is only when it can no longer adapt that things go wrong. The input or irritant can take months or years to cause a problem. To me, this isn't really about the iPad specifically, it's more about technology in general and the detrimental effects it has on our health. Something to think about.

Is There Dog Poop in Your Brownies?

A dear friend once gave me some excellent parenting advice. She would use this story with her children to illustrate a very important life lesson. The story told of making a batch of yummy brownies then going in the backyard and getting a very, very small sample of Buster's business and mixing it in the brownie batter. Still looks pretty good, probably even still tastes pretty good. But you get the point...a little bit of bad ruins the whole thing. This principle can be applied to many aspects of our lives, but if there is one area that it really shows it's movies. Have you ever watched a potentially great film just to be turned off or disappointed because of one word or one scene? Worse yet, were your children in the room at the time?

I don't normally do product reviews, but I recently came across one of the best family-friendly products I've seen in a long time and it addresses this exact problem. It's called ClearPlay and it's a DVD player with a built-in content filter. It works like this: you install the "filters" from the ClearPlay website onto a USB drive. When you insert the USB drive into the ClearPlay player it recognizes the movie you're playing and applies the filter settings accordingly. Here's the cool part - you can choose the level of filtering desired in multiple categories. So you can filter out all offensive language or just the really bad words. All sexual situations or just flat-out nudity. All bloodshed or just the really gory scenes. The really nice part is that the editing is virtually seamless. Offensive language is simply muted so it's obvious by the temporary loss of audio, but when entire scenes are cut the ClearPlay people really do a great job of splicing things together nicely. On rare occasions, I've noticed a slight blip in the action, but certainly not enough to complain about.

They do this by painstakingly marking every scene and questionable word in the movie. Then, during playback, the DVD player knows to skip a certain section based on the filter for that title. Quite ingenious, if you ask me. New filters are released every day as new movies come to market. And there are thousands of older movies already in the database. You can go to ClearPlay.com to see a list of all the movies available. Prices start at $119 for an HDMI compatible player. Filter updates are done by monthly membership. Again, you can check it all out at their website.

As a parent I'm concerned about what my children see and hear. I am also acutely aware that I set the example to them of what is appropriate behavior. By lowering the standard and letting junk into our homes and childrens' minds are we not being irresponsible? As a healthcare provider I tell my patients that it's no different than telling our kids to "say no to drugs" and then setting the example by medicating every ailment that besets us. Mixed signals, don't you think? This is just one strategy that I think you'll find helpful. I encourage comments, suggestions and similar strategies from fellow parents. Because we can make a difference.

Now, if I can just get ClearPlay for Uncle Eddie's mouth...

A Message from Your Irregular Doctor

It happened again today. In the course of adjusting a patient a certain health concern arose and the question was asked, "...do you think I should go to my regular doctor?". Which of course, makes me wonder if that means they think of me as their irregular doctor. Whatever that is. When I was younger and less experienced in practice I used to get offended by this. I went to school just as long as my regular doctor colleagues. I studied out of the same regular doctor books and took enough state and national board exams to make any doctor, regular or not, question the reason why they got into the healing arts in the first place. I used to feel like Chiropractors were second-class citizens in health care. That we weren't given enough credit for what we knew and did. That we weren't respected enough. That we were somehow less....regular. Then one day one of my patients told me he had gone to his "other" doctor and the drugs and medicines weren't working. After his adjustment and subsequent relief, he asked me if he should've come to me first. I was just glad to be referred to as equal to his "other" doctor. Finally, we've arrived. Yea for Chiropractic!!

Since then I have come to an even greater understanding of mine and Chiropractic's role in the health and well-being of my patients and the community. I've realized it's actually not about me or Chiropractic, it's about my patients. It's about helping them get the most out of life. It's about inspiring them to make healthy decisions, using reason and logic instead of fear. It's about teaching parents to teach their children that true health comes from within. And it's about trusting the God-given potential within each of us and letting it do the healing and letting it take the credit. It is so very much not about me anymore.

So, now when a patient asks me that inevitable question, I just pause. The fact that they're on my table tells me that they already know the answer. That they came to me first because they know that an adjustment will restore precious nerve function and allow their body to express itself more optimally...even if their condition requires medical attention also. It tells me that they know medicine has it's place, but how much better is it when the body heals itself, without drugs or surgery. That the only thing hindering their body's ability to heal is a lack of nerve flow brought on by the stresses of life and that there's no pill or potion for that. And that the only thing that will restore balance in their body is a chiropractic adjustment, delivered precisely where it's needed, at the correct vector, with the exact amount of force needed at the right moment in time to unleash a symphony of healing from within that knows exactly what to do. Every time.

And for that I am thankful, even if that makes me irregular.