» Chiropractic

Weekly Workout - Monday Mornings

When we decide to hold the bootcamp we knew that we wanted Windy City Crossfit to be involved.  Both Dr. McKinley and myself, as well as a number of patients, personally workout 3-4 times per week at WCCF.  I’ll let them explain what Crossfit is in their own words, but I can guarentee you that you will not find a better workout anywhere in Chicago!

What is CrossFit?

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning system built on constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity. We have designed our program to elicit as broad an adaptational response as possible to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains. They are Cardiovascular and Respiratory Endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy.

We train our athletes in gymnastics movements teaching both dynamic and static body control while maximizing strength to weight ratio and flexibility. We also place a heavy emphasis on Olympic Weightlifting having seen this sport’s unique ability to develop an athletes’ explosive power, control of external objects, and mastery of critical motor recruitment patterns. And finally we encourage and assist our athletes to explore a variety of sports as a vehicle to express and apply their fitness.

Aside from the breadth or totality of fitness the CrossFit program seeks, our program is distinctive, if not unique, in its focus on maximizing neuroendocrine response, developing power, cross-training with multiple training modalities, constant practice with functional movements, and the development of successful diet strategies.

The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs. CrossFit is also the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide. If our program works for everyone from Olympic skiers to those that are overweight and sedentary, then it will work for you.

We are pleased to announce our 1st Annual McKinley Chiropractic Wellness Bootcamp!!!

This blog will be your home for all info regarding the bootcamp.  Be sure to check it frequently as this week we’ll be putting up profiles of all our events and participating providers, gyms, trainers, etc.

In our last post we discussed the cause of the majority of the chronic conditions, including heart disease, we see in the US: the pro-inflammatory state.  Today, I want to talk about some simple things you can do the ensure you’re living a lifestyle that doesn’t promote inflammation. 

In last week’s article we highlighted two causes for the pro-inflammatory state:  the stress response and the food we eat.  Let’s talk first about how to promote a proper, balanced, stress response in your body.  We have two general classifications of nervous system stimuli, nociception (negative body thoughts) and mechanoreception (positive body thoughts).  Nociceptive input, or negative body thoughts, are stimuli such as pain, chemicals, inflammation, lack of motion, negative emotions or emotional trauma.  These nervous system stimuli cause a stress reponse in the body, leading to sympathetic effects that we outlined last week: increased insulin resistance, increase blood lipid and cholesterol levels (LDL up, HDL down), etc.  The chronic accumulation of these negative effects leads to the pro-inflammatory state and the eventually development of chronic disease (note that this accumulation occurs even in the abscense of pain or symptoms). 

We are very lucky that are body has given us a mechanism to control nociceptive input.  This mechanism the result of the second general type of stimuli:  mechanoreception (positive body thoughts).  These receptors detect positive body input such as movement, posture, positive emotions, good biochemical nutrients, etc.  Because of nervous system connections in the brain and spinal cord, the stimulation of these mechanoreceptors inhibit or block the effects of the negative stimuli (nociception).  This is HUGE!  It means we have the key to prevent heart disease, diabetes, depression, cancer, and much more!  We don’t need a drug to mask the effects, we simply have to promote healthy mechanoreceptive input in our lives.

In what ways can we promote healthy mechanoreceptive input?  The biggest key is movement, both globally and segmentally.  Global body movement such as exercise stimulates mechanoreceptors in muscle tissue.  The act of contracting and relaxing muscles stimulates the receptors repetitively.  Ever wonder why seemingly every day there is a new article that talks about exercise preventing ______?  This is why:  exercise promotes proper nervous system function! 

Segmental motion is also very important.  Segmental motion refers to motion at specific joints in the body.  Certain joints, like those in your cervical spine, have large numbers of mechanoreceptors.  When we lose motion at one of these joints, we see large negative effects, conversely, when we stimulate or movement these joints we see powerful results.  This is what we are doing with the chiropractic adjustment, and why we see such powerful results with not only pain conditions but chronic diseases such as allergies, asthma, depression, seizures, etc.  The chiropractic adjustment is a very large mechanoreceptor stimulant!  This is why chiropractic care is vital to a wellness lifestyle!

As we mentioned before, the food we eat plays a major role in causing a pro-inflammatory state.  We need to stay away from foods containing white sugar and white flour as these are turned into power inflammatory stimulants in our body.  Almost all processed food contains corn products, which are high in Omega-6 fatty acids (in part 1 we talked about how these fatty acids effect the body).  We need increase our intake of Omega-3 fatty acids:  best done by eating more cold water fish and taking a fish oil supplement.  When we eat meat, we need to eat free range beef or chicken.  These animals eat grass, they have proper ratios of Omega 3: Omega 6.  Farm raised animals are fed feed made from corn - they have very high Omega 6 levels.  Finally we need to eat fruits and vegetables, preferably as raw as possible.  These have excellant anti-inflammatory products in them.  When you cook, try to make sure they retain as much color as possible, i.e. steaming, stir frying (with olive or canola oil).

In the end the science continues to validate what people have instinctively known since Greek times:  how you live you life, your lifestyle, directly determines your health and the quality of your life.  In the last 80 years, with the advances in medicine and pharmacology, we have been sidetracked.  We have looked outward, hoping to find a pill or a potion that will somehow give us health.  The reasons for this we’ll save for another post.  But understand this (this is the key to wellness), your body is smart.  It evolved for millions of years without cholesterol medications, or any other medications.  You have all the tools necessary for health and wellness already in you.  You just have to do the thing necessary to allow your body to use the tools.  You simple have to flip the switch, live a wellness livestyle, and you’ll have the health that you want and need.

As we know heart disease is the number 1 cause of death in this country at over 450,000 people in 2008 accounting for $448.5 billion spent.  Since the eighties we have been taught that the primary cause of heart disease is high cholesterol levels causing plaque in the arteries.  Because of this belief, statin drugs have become the highest selling drugs in history, of which Lipitor is the most popular.  Today, though, we are starting to see a shift in this thinking as more and more people are coming to the realization that while the high cholesterol=heart disease connection is great marketing for the drug companies, we continue to see staggering levels of heart disease even as millions of people take these medications. 

If high cholesterol was the cause of heart disease and millions of people are on medications to lower it, shouldn’t we see less and less levels of heart disease? 

Why do we see countries with high average cholesterol levels have comparatively low rates of heart disease?

The good news is more and more attention is starting to be placed on what I believe is the real cause of heart disease (and many other chronic diseases including cancer and diabetes): a pro-inflammatory state in the body as the result of a pro-inflammatory lifestyle.  MSNBC recently had an article outlining a new $20 million study sponsered by the Federal government that is going to take a look at Fish Oil and Vitamin D supplementation and their effect on heart disease rates.  I suspect that this study will show a decrease in those populations supplementing with Fish Oil and Vitamin D as these supplements have anti-inflammatory properties which help to offset the damage done by the typical American lifestyle.

Let’s take a look at what we mean by a pro-inflammatory state in the body.  We cause a pro-inflammatory state in two ways:  our body’s stress response and food we eat.  First we’ll talk about the stress response.  The autonomic nervous system is the part of your nervous system that controls sub-conscious, visceral function.  It can be divided into two parts, the parasympathetic and sympathetic.  You may have heard the sympathetic nervous system called the “flight or fight response.”  Basically what happens is this:  when we are stressed, whether by a tiger jumping out at us, by a fight with our spouse, or any other negative stimulus, the sympathetic nervous system sends signals to organs and glands causing an increase in catabolic activites (heart rate, blood pressure) and a decrease in anabolic activities (sex glands, digestion, growth, cellular immunity).  The sympathetic nervous system also stimulates the adrenal glands to release catecholamines (adrenaline, epinephrine, etc) and cortisol.  These hormones cause a cascade of actions that, in a short-term stress situation are necessary, but if allowed to continue unchecked can have devastating effects.   Some (but not all) of these effects include:

• increased blood glucose levels and increased insulin resistance
• increase blood lipid and cholesterol levels (LDL up, HDL down)
• increase in body adipose (fat) tissue
• increased clotting factors
• increased vasoconstriction
• increased feelings of stress, fear, anxiety
• and much more.

The chronic accumulation of these effects is the pro-inflammatory state, leading to what is termed high Allostatic Load.  A high allostatic load causes your body to not be able to adapt to stress properly, leading to chronic disease.

The other way we cause a pro-inflammatory state is by the food we eat.  Dr. David Seaman writes extensively on how certain foods we eat are converted into inflammatory products in the body.  His book, Clinical Nutrition for Pain, Inflammation, and Tissue Healing, is a great resource for exactly how this happens.  To summarize, we need to stay away from grains, white sugar, white flour, and especially corn products.  These foods are converted into pro-inflammatory products in the body (we need these products to heal properly, the problem is that most of us have way too much).  One example of how this happens is with Omega-6 fatty acids.  Omega-6 fatty acids are ingested and then converted in the body to pro-inflammatory products.  This conversion is increased in the presense of trans fat and insulin (whose levels are raised due to the Stress Response).  We ingest Omega-6 fatty acids when we eat corn and corn derived products, which is present in almost every processed food we eat as well as most of our meat (beef, chicken, and pork).  A great book on our food supply and its components is “The Omnivores Delimma” by Michael Pollen.

How does a pro-inflammatory state lead to heart disease? The pro-inflammatory state causes the perfect storm when it comes to heart disease.  All of the effects, and then some, that we listed above contribute to damage to our vessel walls.  In a nutshell this is what happens:  the chronic inflammatory products (including free radicals) that are rushing through the blood vessels cause the walls of those vessels to become weak.  The body rushes to fix them using clotting factors.  Fat also becomes trapped in the walls.  Over time this happens enough that the vessels eventually become clogged, leading to a heart attack.

Looking at this process you may ask:  If my vessels walls are becoming clogged with fat (cholesterol) doesn’t it make sense to lower my cholesterols levels?  Furthermore, don’t studies show a correlation between cholesterol levels and heart disease rates? The answer to the first questions is no.  The level of cholesterol in your blood doesn’t matter, the level of damage caused by inflammation does.  You can have high levels of cholesterol in your blood, but if your vessels walls are not being damaged then you will not develop plaque in the arteries.  This is the reason countries like France, despite having high average cholesterol levels, have comparatively low rates of heart disease.  Conversely, lower levels of cholesterol due no good if the vessels wall are damaged due to inflammation.  This goes back to the question we posed in the beginning:  why is our rate of heart disease so high if so many people are taking cholesterol meds?  The answer:  because the cholesterol level doesn’t matter! It’s a fancy number, but unless you’re making lifestyle change to prevent a pro-inflammatory body state you’re still going to be at risk.

The answer to second question,”don’t studies show a correlation between cholesterol levels and heart disease rates?”, is actually true.  The reason is simple, one of the effects of chronically high catecholamine and cortisol levels is an increase in the body’s production of LDL (and decrease in HDL).  Furthermore, people who live a pro-inflammatory lifestyle consume high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, cholesterol, and trans-fat.  In the end though, as we outlined, the problem is not the high cholesterol damaging the blood vessels, it’s the chronically high levels of inflammatory products circulating as a result of lifestyle.

As you can see, heart disease is a completely preventable disease caused by your lifestyle.  You don’t have to be enslaved by a number.  In our next post we’ll talk about what you can do to prevent heart disease in yourself and your loved ones. 

The 3 dimensions of Health

Natalie, a local Wellness Coach, passed this article from the Huffington Post, “Is it an Eating Disorder, Or a Relationship Disorder?”, on to us.  Written by one of her mentors, it does a great job of emphasizing the relationship between the biochemical and psychological dimensions of health. 

Remember you must have balance in all three dimensions (physical, biochemical, and psychological), I don’t care if you have 3% body fat and work out 7 days per week, if you aren’t happy, if you don’t surround yourself with good, supportive people, if you don’t have constructive ways to manage limit and manage your emotional stresses, you will not be well!  There’s a reason that above our door it says, “Be Fit, Eat Right, Think Well” ….because it’s true!

Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?

This article pretty much sums it up.  Many of you are working on deadbugs, birddogs, etc. core strengthening  exercises.  Stuart McGill, the expert quoted in the article, developed these exercises (and I stole them).  The most important thing to take away is this:  ab work is not core work, in fact improperly done ab work will hurt your back.

Please talk to us about your ab routine and if it is appropriate for your body!

Join us for The Wellness Revolution!

Wednesday, July 8th, 6:00 p.m.

Learn:

• How to empower yourself to make healthy nutritional choices (i.e. Gatorade sucks!)

• How to revolutionize your workouts!

• About the need to rise up against cholesterol medications and consume healthy fats!

• Why kids and pregnant women need chiropractic too

• + much more!

…and don’t miss the grand unveiling of our new Wellness Boot-Camp!


Join us for appetizers and dinner for the whole family!   Kids can join the revolution too!  We’ll have games for kids of all ages!  Don’t miss out

July 8, 2009
6:00 P.M.
La Finca Restaurant
3361 N. Elston

Seats are complimentary, but limited.  Please call us at 773-583-4325 to RSVP. Our only request is that you bring a friend that we haven’t met before and who needs to join the Revolution!

The second podcast in our “Seven Health Secrets” series. Dr. McKinley discusses problems behind medicine’s current view on “preventative” procedures.

Enjoy!

The Wall Street Journal Health Blog today posted a couple of articles (here and here) on the costs and the effectiveness of preventative medicine in the US and Germany.  The articles outline that despite their high costs, preventative medicine programs do not actually help to prevent any disease such as colon or breast cancer.  In fact the article on Germany, based on research by the German magazine Der Spiegel, claims that the only people who benefit from the screenings are the doctors who are paid fees to perform the test.  For example, there are no randomized trials (the gold standard for medicine) demonstrating benefits for patients who under go regular colonoscopies.  In the US researchers looked at a prevention program performed with 200, 000 Medicare participants.  They found that it didn’t improve patient’s health and it didn’t result in fewer doctor and hospital visits and therefore less cost. 

For anyone who came to our dinner event last March these articles shouldn’t come as a suprise.  Preventative medicine is a misnomer.  It doesn’t actually prevent anything.  You could have a colonoscopy every single day for a year, but doing so would not lower your chances of getting colon cancer.  Preventative medicine is really early detection and screening.  It simply tells you if you already have the problem (this is an important role but it clouds the issue in peoples minds).  True preventative medicine is all about the lifestyle choices you make.  Each one of us has the keys to determine if we develop or don’t develop any of these chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.  We should be (and do in our office) advocating lifestyle intervention; that is the key to making America (and Germany) healthy, and in the process saving billions of dollars, not costly screening tests.