Injuries
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Many times the cause of the injury is distant to where the symptoms are felt.
This statement, which I tell most patients, holds true so often. Why does your knee start to hurt one day on a run? Did you run wrong that day? Did you stand up wrong? Most likely not. There's a good reason for your injury, and it's not because you are lacking ibuprofen or you haven't used enough ice.
Aside from trauma, injuries primarily occur from being too anaerobic. Your body will be in anaerobic excess if you are exercising too much, not recovering properly, eating the wrong type of diet, lacking proper nutrition, or under too much emotional stress. Injuries don't just pop up one day while you are out for a run or playing tennis. There are almost always warning signs of too much stress and overtraining, just check out the other sections under Athletes. You will not become injured from a lack of anti-inflammatory medication. You may become injured from a diet that cannot fight inflammation to the degree you are creating it though. Basically, you will never be deficient in aspirin, but you may be deficient in the "good" anti-inflammatory fats. As you will see and have learned if you already read the other sections, the hormonal system, primarily the adrenal glands and the pancreas, have to deal with the burden of too much anaerobic exercise, and too much everyday stress. Most injuries have an adrenal gland component to them. Properly addressing the hormonal dysfunctions, dealing with inflammation, and balancing the muscles around and involved with the injury leads to success - not in months, but in days or weeks.
- PLANTAR FASCIITIS
- SHIN SPLINTS
- BURSITIS
- TENDONITIS
- OVERPRONATION
- ITB FRICTIONAL SYNDROME
- OSGOOD-SCHLATER'S DISEASE
- KNEE PAIN
- GOLFER'S/TENNIS ELBOW
- WRIST/HAND PROBLEMS
- CRAMPING
- SHOULDER PAIN
- BACK PAIN
| Return to Top PLANTAR FASCIITIS |
| Plantar fasciitis is a type of foot pain that occurs in the heel. Symptoms are usually worse in the morning, and tend to ease off or go away as you walk throughout the day. The pain can be sharp over one specific point, or more diffuse throughout the fascia (sheath of muscle) of the foot. Today this is treated with "night splints" to help stretch the fascia, and reduce muscle contracture. It is not a very comfortable way to sleep. As with most pain, anti-inflammatories are prescribed. Plantar fasciitis occurs from a fatigue of the posterior tibialis muscle from injury, lower leg dysfunction, and/or adrenal gland stress. The calf muscles are also commonly involved. The imbalance in the muscles causes the plantar fasciitis to tighten and spasm to help support the foot. Addressing the reason of the muscle imbalances will address the plantar fasciitis problem. |
| Return to Top SHIN SPLINTS |
| Most people know about shin splints. Just about anyone who has ever played high school sports has rubbed a Dixie cup of ice up and down their shins to deal with the painful shin splints. This is still being prescribed today. There are two types of shin splints - anterior (front of the leg), and posterior (back of the leg). In either case, the shin splints occur from a muscle imbalance between the two. If the tibialis anterior (front muscle) is [neurologically]weak, the muscle can more easily fatigue when walking or running, causing pain and therefore the "splints". But the weakness can also cause the muscle on the opposite side, the posterior tibialis, to work extra hard to support the foot, so this can cause the shin splints in the back of the leg. Same story if the muscle in the back of the shin is weak. Shin splints are an adrenal issue 90% of the time. The other 10% is from something directly going on within the muscle or involved joints (knee/foot). |
| Return to Top BURSITIS |
| You have hundreds of bursa all over your body which can be thought of as little bags of oil that help reduce friction between two joints moving in opposite directions. Bursitis is a calcium and protein issue. Here's how bursitis most commonly occurs. When under too much stress, your body needs more protein. This protein has to come from somewhere. If your body steals it from your bursa, it will want to continue to protect that area, so it will deposit calcium in the bursa. The robbing of protein creates a more alkaline medium. This alkaline environment will cause calcium deposits. This creates even more pain and inflammation. Treating this involves not only fighting the inflammation but mobilizing the calcium by creating an acidic environment in the tissues. One of the simplest ways to do this is to add 1 TB of plain vinegar to your diet everyday. Though there are many times other therapeutic and nutritional considerations, sometimes this does the trick. |
| Return to Top TENDONITIS |
| Tendonitis is inflammation of a tendon, which is where your muscle connects to a bone. This is probably the biggest complaint that athletes have. It is also one of the most used diagnoses. Resolving tendonitis involves treating the adrenal glands, the pancreas, and the liver so the necessary nutritional components can heal the inflamed area. This has a lot to do with carbohydrate intolerance/insulin resistance. Click here to read more about this. |
| Return to Top OVERPRONATION |
| Overpronation does not occur because you're wearing the wrong shoes or you're lacking orthotics (read section under Athletes), though that is the remedy given by a lot of physicians and running "experts". Pronation is the natural inward roll of your foot as you walk or run. This is how you absorb shock. If you overpronate, you roll inward too much. You'll see excessive wear on the front inside and back outside (heel area) or your shoes. If you lay your shoes on a flat surface, they'll [naturally] roll in if you've been wearing them for a while and overpronate. Overpronation is a posterior tibialis muscle issue. Yes, the same muscle that can cause shin splints, plantar fasciitis, bunions, and neuromas. So as with all posterior tibialis involvements, there is the adrenal glands issue to investigate. The posterior tibialis can no longer support the major arch of the foot, so there is excessive inward motion. |
| Return to Top ITB FRICTIONAL SYNDROME |
| If you've had Iliotibial band syndrome, then you know how it hurts. The ITB is an extension of a short muscle on the side of your hip called the tensor fascia lata. The ITB extends from the TFL down to the outside of your knee. Pain occurs anywhere along the ITB, usually in the insertion (by the knee) or somewhere in the middle. You'll have pain running, walking [usually down] stairs, and anytime you try to bend your leg, especially after keeping it straight for a while. Medical treatment these days is cortisone and if that doesn't do it, then surgery to cut and release the band. That sounds like fishing. ITB syndrome occurs from one of two reasons. First is an actual weakness of the TFL itself. This could be from a structural imbalance, an injury somewhere, an insulin issue creating gait disturbance (read my articles on gait), or from a digestive problem. ITB Syndrome can also occur from an imbalance between the inside and the outside of the leg. Two of the three muscles that support the inside of the knee are related to the adrenal glands. These are the sartorius and the gracilis. If there is adrenal involvement from overtraining/too much stress, these muscles will weaken, causing an over-firing of the muscles on the outside of the leg/knee, which as you now know, is the ITB. Treating the injury with this understanding usually corrects it very quickly, within a couple weeks, if not shorter. If you've ever had ITB syndrome, you probably went through a whole slew of treatments and still had it for three months; that is very common. |
| Return to Top OSGOOD-SCHLATER'S DISEASE |
| This "disease" most commonly occurs in boys aged 10-15, though girls can have it too. It is basically inflammation at the area where the patellae (kneecap) tendon attaches to the top front part of the lower leg. This pain, as common as it is, is very unnecessary. It almost always involves some neurological weakness in the quadriceps area, leading to the pain. Kids are told to deal with it until they outgrow it. Although they will, it keeps them from performing as well as they should, and some kids can't play the sports they want because of the pain. Treating the reason for the quadriceps imbalance resolves this "disease" in a very short time, usually within days. |
| Return to Top KNEE PAIN |
| You (or I) so often hear someone say that they can't do that because their knee hurts, or they blew out their knee. Head right over to my article "No Need For Knee Pain" and get back to what you should be doing. |
| Return to Top GOLFER'S/TENNIS ELBOW |
| Tennis elbow is pain on the outside of the elbow, golfer's elbow is on the inside. These injuries occur from overuse to the muscles and ligaments making up the elbow joint. There are usually a series of muscle imbalances present, not just around the elbow, but also at the shoulder and/or wrist/hand. One of the most common imbalances of tennis elbow is the triceps muscles. One or all three of the triceps can be an issue from direct muscle injury from overuse, or nutritionally from carbohydrate intolerance.The biceps is the common culprit of golfer's elbow, as are the pronators and wrist flexors of the lower arm. |
| Return to Top WRIST/HAND PROBLEMS |
| Whether the wrist and hand hurts because of "carpal tunnel syndrome" or not, it's better to diagnoses what is going on rather than what you're diagnosed with. So click here to head over to information on carpal tunnel and the wrist and hand problems. |
| Return to Top CRAMPING |
| Cramping can be due to a variety of issues. But rather than write them all here, you can read about them by reading my article "Cramping Your Style". Enjoy. |
| Return to Top SHOULDER PAIN |
| The shoulder is a complex joint. You've got your four rotator cuff muscles in the back of your shoulder and then your actual deltoid muscles, which people generally call their shoulder. You've got the muscles of your arm and chest which have a lot to do with forward motions. And you've got the muscles coming down from your neck and up your back to further support your shoulder joint. So with all these muscles, there's a lot that can go wrong, and a lot that does. Shoulder pain is right up there with knee pain - a lot of people have it and "learn to live" with it everyday. There can be arthritis, tendonitis, and bursitis in the shoulder. There can be loss of mobility from an elbow or neck involvement. Whatever the case, two people with the same exact shoulder pain many times have different causes or reasons for their pain. Individualized treatments are most important here to figure out why the shoulder isn't functioning as well as it should, especially when dealing with situations such as a frozen shoulder or chronic displacement. |
| Return to Top BACK PAIN |
| Rather than talk forever on all the causes of back pain and all the treatment options, I decided to talk about just two. -- That is, two of the most overlooked reasons for chronic back pain and frequent injuries. Both are structural with nutritional components. First involves the abdominal muscles. Many therapists mention the abdominal muscles when someone comes to them with an injured back, but they just tell the patient to do more exercises such as crunches. The abdominal weakness is from some digestive issue almost all the time. The digestive issue creates abdominal distension causing those muscles to fatigue and this spasms the lower back. You know your abdominals are involved if you have [back] pain when you are lying flat on your back and the pain goes away or gets better when you put your knees up (or under a pillow). You'll also have more pain trying to get up from that lying position. After standing for sometime, the abdominals will no longer be able to support you, so you'll also more than likely have some back pain standing for prolonged periods. Many times you'll have a "sway" back posture. Figuring out what is causing the digestive problem is the goal to fix the lower back pain, or at least support it. This is especially true if the pain is aggravating any lumbar discs. The most common digestive issues are a food allergy, fungus in the gut, too much sugar or caffeine, and bad "trans" fats. The second most common type of low back pain involves the iliolumbar ligament. This short and strong ligament connects the fourth and fifth lumbar to the iliac crest (pelvic bone). Irritation to this ligament often causes that one-sided lower back pain as it tries to stabilize the joint between your lumbar spine and the pelvis. The abdominal issue can cause these ligaments trouble as well. A disrupted gait is the number one reason for chronic iliolumbar ligament pain and inflammation. When this ligament loses its support, the stage is set for other injuries to occur, such as disc problems and spinal misalignments. Actually, the involvement of this ligament is a very common reason for a chiropractor to constantly need to adjust your lower back. The bone will never stay in place if the function of the ligament isn't restored. Sometimes this involves direct ligament treatment. Nutritionally this is where carbohydrate intolerance/insulin resistance becomes important as having glucose/insulin issues will "wind you up" in one direction and throw off your gait - leading to an iliolumbar ligament sprain. Check out my two gait articles for more information. |
