Archive for the ‘scoliosis’ Category
Getting enough exercise is a great challenge in today’s work-driven world: there are just too many reports to finish, too many accounts to attend to, and too many deals to close. A day at the gym can be too demanding for the busy executive, and a few hours spent at the treadmill can be hell for anyone rushing after a thousand deadlines.
A greater challenge, moreover, is getting the proper exercise: every minute of the one or two hours spent at the gym should count, and every exercise should put your muscles in stronger, better shape.
The hard gym floor, however, can tax greatly on your back and the soles of your feet, as the impact of either hard wood or stone can rattle your bones or strain your muscles. One alternative is using exercise ball routines to keep fit.
By using an exercise ball, even as a chair in your office, you can engage in easy exercise ball routines to keep your body in good shape without having to spend hours on the stationary bike or aerobics class floor.
The use of an exercise ball does not only ease your body from the impact of a hard gym floor. It allows you to concentrate on stretching your muscles and addressing major muscle groups that would otherwise feel worn out and pained after long hours of routine aerobic exercises or machine-based workouts.
Exercise ball routines, moreover, allow you to address muscle groups that would otherwise be left out in other conventional exercise routines. In fact, there are exercise ball routines built around strengthening your upper and lower abdominals, as well as the muscles of your hard-to-reach, but delicate lower back.
Before you engage in exercise ball routines, however, you must consult with your gym trainer on exercise ball routines that are best suited for your body type and fitness goals.
It can be difficult to design exercise ball routines if you have scoliosis or frequent lower back pains, so you also have to consult with your orthopedist or chiropractor on how you can avoid damaging your spine.
Albert Lee
http://www.articlesbase.com/equipment-articles/benefits-of-using-an-exercise-ball-135656.html
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that possesses both the characteristics of a vitamin and a hormone. It is necessary for growth, especially for normal growth and development of bones and teeth in children.
It protects against muscle weakness and is involved in regulation of the heartbeat. It is also important in the prevention and treatment of breast and colon cancer, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and hypocalcemia. It enhances immunity and is necessary for thyroid function and normal blood clotting.
It can be found in three forms including vitamin D2 (ergocaliciferol) which comes from food sources, vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) which is synthesized in the skin as a response to the exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays, and a synthetic form vitamin D5. Vitamin D3 is considered the natural form and is the most active.
Ergocaliciferol, the form we get from food, is not fully active and requires conversion by the liver and kidneys to become fully active. This is why people with liver or kidney disorders have a higher risk for developing osteoporosis.
Exposing the skin to the sun’s ultraviolet rays causes a cholesterol compound in the skin to be transformed into a precursor of vitamin D. Exposing the face and arms to the sun for fifteen minutes three times a week is an effective way to ensure an adequate amount of vitamin D for the body.
However, it has been found by researchers that the limited amount of sunlight during the winter months in the upper third of the U.S. continent cannot produce adequate amounts by exposure to sunlight. Therefore, supplementation is required to ensure adequate amounts during the winter months.
A severe deficiency of vitamin D can cause rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Rickets results when the lack of vitamin D affects the body’s ability to absorb calcium and phosphorus. Early signs of a deficiency include nervousness, painful muscle spasms, leg cramps, and numbness of the arms and legs.
Eventually, malformations of the bones may develop due to bone softening. Bowed legs, knock-knees, scoliosis, a narrow rib cage, a protruding breastbone, and/or beading at the ends of the ribs as well as tooth decay, delayed walking, irritability, restlessness, and profuse sweating. Fortunately, rickets is now very rare in the U.S. It is usually seen in children aged six to twenty-four months.
Vitamin D deficiency in adults is referred to as osteomalacia and is most often related to the body’s inability to properly absorb phosphorous and calcium. It is most likely to occur in pregnant women and nursing mothers, whose nutritional requirements are higher than normal, or individuals with malabsorption problems.
Osteomalacia may also affect people whose diets are extremely low in fat such that adequate bile cannot be manufactured and vitamin D cannot be absorbed. This condition can be caused by kidney failure. It is difficult to diagnose osteomalacia and it often misdiagnosed as osteoporosis.
Less severe deficiencies may result in loss of appetite, a burning sensation in the mouth and throat, diarrhea, insomnia, vision problems, and weight loss. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study which reported there are indications that vitamin D deficiency is much more widespread than previously thought. This is especially the case in older adults.
In a group of people who had few risk factors for deficiency, 57% were found to have below-normal levels of vitamin D and 67% of those who reported a vitamin D intake below the RDI had moderate to severe deficiencies.
Vitamin D should be taken with calcium and avoid mega doses of vitamin D to avoid toxicity. Toxicity can occur from taking over 65,000 international units of vitamin D over a period of two years.
Tom Nuckels
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/vitamin-d-is-not-just-for-bones-101508.html
Genes are blue print of your whole body structure. They contain in them all the key information that will decide the formation of your body parts. It is said that there occurs some chemical reactions in the normal functioning of the genes which lead to various diseases. With more and more information coming out about the functioning of the genes, there is a constant debate within all races of scientists regarding the co-relation between your back pain and genes.
Till date, it is perfectly established that some abnormalities related to back are connected to the genes. There are many characteristics of the structural abnormality that occurs in individuals. Of them, scoliosis, also known as curvature of the spine, is the most common one. This is a genetic problem that is more prevalent in females than males. The seriousness of this disease is measured in the degree of curvature of the spine. Scoliosis was a common problem many years ago, but now with the coming up of the new age science, the disorder has been controlled.
Another spine disorder, spondylolisthesis is known to affect as much as five percent of the total population of the world. The irony is that most of the individuals who suffer from this type of back pain or spine disorder do not know that they are afflicted from it. The disease involves the forward displacement of the fifth lumbar vertebra. This happens when continuity in your bones break. The severe form of this disease involves surgery that fuses the distant bones of the spine.
Another genetical disorder related to your back pain and spinal cord is Spina Bifida. The term Spina Bifida means a separated spine or a forked shaped spine. This type of abnormality starts at the time of fetus development in the mother’s womb. The activity of genes are such that they prevent the formation of a bony arch over the spinal cord. As a result there is no protection left between the cord and the spine. This amounts to serious abnormality in the infant. Spina Bifida can be surgically corrected. There is another form of this disorder. It is termed as Spina Bifida Occulta. In this disorder there occurs a small separation of the bones. It is less fatal than spina Bifida.
Apart from these there are other abnormalities that may crop up. That is, presence of four lumbar vertebra instead of five. But a point to note here is that this abnormality does not cause any problem. At the time of birth a person may also have a poorly formed vertebrae due to defective genes. The occurrence of this condition is very rare.
Remember the above mentioned conditions usually come up unnoticed. If not in the childhood, these disorders can come up in the later years. Though rare, these disorders can come up as a shock to you any time.
Ashish Jain
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/is-back-pain-related-to-your-genes-103745.html
Do you know that all the information about your body is stored in the form of microscopic structures called genes? In other words, genes are a blue print to your whole body structure. They are the key information provider. Diseases occur in your body due to some adverse chemical reactions that happens in these genes. Under such situation, they start destroying the cells. These degenerated cells in turn start destroying the corresponding organ.
Now, this degeneration of cells due to chemical reaction in genes has connection with back pain troubles as well. The connection between the duo is debatable, however.
Back pain is the most common disease that people suffer from today. It is generally associated with sitting or standing in bad postures. But, several diseases also cause pain in your back. Occurrence of most of these diseases can be explained in connection to the hyper activities that occur in the genes. Of all the diseases that have genetical roots, scoliosis is the most common.
Scoliosis is the abnormal curvature of the spinal cord. This gene-related disease affects more females than males. The reason is that the chemical substance responsible for it is more prominent in the female gene structure. To correct this order, there are many treatments available.
Spondylothesis is another disorder that has been related to some kind of hyper activities occurring in the genes. The worst part about this disease is that most of the people who suffer from spondylothesis, do not even know that they are living with it. There occurs a forward movement of the fifth lumbar vertebra, as a result of which the spine loses its balance. The only solution to cure this trouble is the surgical fixation of spinal cord.
Adding another name to the list of back pain causing genetical-disorders is Spina Bifida. Here your spinal cord takes the shape of a fork. This is a type of disorder that starts in the fetus itself giving it a shape of a birth defect. In the mother’s womb, the genes deviate from their constructive function and start destroying the protective bony arch that is present over the spinal cord. This leaves the spinal cord unprotected. This disorder can be corrected surgically. There is another variant of Spina Bifida that causes back pain. It is known as Spina Bifida Occulta, which is less fatal.
There are some other abnormalities too that are a result of the genetical awry. For instance, presence of four lumbar vertebra, one less than the normal, is a genetical disorder.
Ashish Jain
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/cause-of-back-pain-are-your-genes-responsible-131424.html
A normal spine is straight, without much change from laterally, when the body is viewed from behind.Scoliosis is a condition that is commonly associated with a lateral, or side-to-side, curvature of the spine.This condition many times gives the appearance of the patient leaning to one side although it should not be confused with unsatisfactory posture. Scoliosis is a troublesome deformity that is expressed by both lateral curvature and rotation of the vertebra frequently creating a symptomatic “rib hump” in the mid or thoracic spine. This is caused by the vertebrae in the zone of the major curve rotating toward the concavity and pushing their connected ribs posterior thus producing the symptomatic rib hump seen in thoracic scoliosis. The pulmonary and cardiac functions can be impeded if the thoracic curve and rib rotation is greater than 70 degrees. This amount of curve and consequential cardiac and pulmonary changes are frequently seen later in life in untreated severe idiopathic infantile and juvenile scoliosis patients and, as such, present a threat to life.
Anatomy
The spine displays four normal curves: the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral, all of which are apparent from a side view of the trunk. The thoracic, in the chest area, has a natural round curve, “reversed C,” called a kyphosis, while in the lower spine there is a normal “C” curve, known as swayback or lordosis. Increased kyphosis in the thoracic area is called hyperkyphosis, while elevated swayback is termed, hyperlordosis. Scoliosis changes generally accompany alterations from normal on a side view. Postural exercises can correct some round back deformities that are simply due to bad posture. A small number of individuals with kyphosis have more rigid deformities than the postural type, which are coincidental with vertebral deformity. This kind of deformity, called Scheuermann’s kyphosis, is much harder to treat than postural kyphosis, and it’s cause is unknown.
Almost anyone can help to identify a child or grownup with scoliosis simply by looking at the person in a standing position, preferably with no shirt and in briefs, and observing the following:
- One shoulder may be more elevated than the other.
- One scapula (shoulder blade) may be raised or more prominent than the other.
- With the arms hanging freely at the sides, there may be more area between the arm and the body on one side.
- One hip may appear to be raised or more conspicuous than the other.
- The head is not centered over the pelvis.
- One side of the back appears more raised than the other when the individual is analyzed from the rear and asked to lean forward until the the spine is horizontal.
The child or adult should be sent to a healthcare professional, such as a chiropractor, for further evaluation once scoliosis is suspected. your chiropractor would be happy to help.
There are various roots and many kinds of scoliosis, nevertheless the most common, by far, is Idiopathic Scoliosis, which accounts for approximately 85 % of all cases. “Idiopathic” means “no known cause” and is witnessed with equal frequency in boys and girls in the mild or low curve magnitudes. Depending on the age of onset, this condition can be sub-classified into infantile, juvenile and adolescent categories. Idiopathic Scoliosis may be linked to genetic or hereditary influences as it commonly runs in families. Though it is unknown why, girls are five to eight times more likely than boys to have their curves increase in size and require treatment. The most frequent time for the development of Idiopathic Scoliosis is during adolescence when children are ending the last major growth spurt. It is smart to have this age group examined by a professional on a regular basis because young people are hesitant to allow their body to be looked at by parents or other adults.
It is very important that if a scoliotic curve is found in a growing adolescent, the curves be monitored for any development by a periodic examination and sometimes standing x-rays. In ninety percent of cases, the scoliosis is mild and does not require active treatment, though| increases in spinal deformity require evaluation to decide if a brace or other treatment is required. In a small number of patients, surgical treatment may be necessary.~Surgery may be required for a small number of people.
Brace therapy (orthosis) is recommended for both juvenile and adolescent children when an increase in their scoliosis or kyphosis is observed, or when new cases of moderate scoliosis or abnormal kyphosis are discovered. There are quite a few types of braces, all created to prevent curves from increasing through the process of acting as a buttress for the spine during active skeletal growth. Bracing is effectual in stopping curve progression in an impressive portion of skeletally-immature adolescents. But, braces will not usually make the spine entirely straight, and cannot always keep a curve from increasing.
Scoliosis has no simple solution. The majority of cases, even though often monitored, are not actively treated. Severe conditions are sometimes treated surgically, but the general medical treatment for moderate symptoms is a brace. You may want to see your local chiropractor first.
Along with bracing, many other modalities have been used successfully such as specialized exercise, electric stimulation of spinal muscles, nutritional programs, and chiropractic treatments. It appears that the most effective results have been sustained with a multi-faceted approach to the treatment of this abnormality.
There are chiropractors, that have expertise managing scoliosis symptoms.