What is Lower Crossed Syndrome?

Just like in upper crossed syndrome, lower crossed syndrome is a muscular abnormalities of the body brought on by one’s posture.  Common patterns of lower crossed syndrome include tight lower back muscles, potentially with lower back pain.  The individual might also have sore knees due to tight leg adductor muscles (muscles that move your legs towards the center of your body.

Lower crossed syndrome can develop from someone who sits for long periods of time, leaning in a slightly flexed position.  This causes the lower back muscles or erector spinae to continually contract to hold the body’s weight upright while the constantly flexed position shortens the muscle length of the iliopsoas and rectus femoris muscles.  Through continued concentric contraction or in a shortened position, the muscles adapt and shorten in length leading to muscle tightness.

However, since the body acts like a series of pulleys and levers, when one muscle gets shortened, it usually means that another muscle gets lengthened.  This phenomenon is known as reciprocal inhibition.  How it works is that when a muscle is contracting, the muscle opposite of its function, or antagonist muscle, is turned off so that they aren’t both contracting at once.  Your brain can of course override this, but the purpose of reciprocal inhibition is to make the body more efficient and to avoid injury.  While inhibited though, the antagonist muscle is not only prevented from contracting, but in many cases is actually stretched or lengthened.  If you think of your quads (front thigh muscles) versus your hamstrings (back thigh muscles), if you flex one, you’ll usually feel the other stretch when you maximally stretch (I really feel this if I’m sitting down).  In the end, the shortened tight muscles cause the stretching and lengthening of their antagonist muscles.  This ultimately leads to the weakening of those muscles.

Due to the tightened and lengthened muscles, one with lower crossed syndrome will typically present with anterior pelvic tilt.  This could look like someone is hunching over forward since their feet are more than likely planted on the ground.  They might also have an increased lumbar lordotic curve, or increased lower back arch, which contributes to the anterior pelvic tilt.  Both of these conditions help to further enforce the lower crossed syndrome, resulting in one of the many reasons for lower back pain.

Muscles commonly tight or shortened in lower crossed syndrome include:

• Iliopsoas
• Rectus femoris
• Erector spinae
• Piriformis
• Tensor fascia latae (TFL)
• Leg adductors

The weakened or lengthened muscles include:

• Abdominal group
• Gluteal group

How to treat lower crossed syndrome
What is upper crossed syndrome?

What is Upper Crossed Syndrome?

Upper crossed syndrome, also known as “student syndrome” or “corporate syndrome”, is a pattern of tight and weak muscles the body develops based off of one’s postural tendencies just like lower crossed syndrome.  The most common trait for someone with upper crossed syndrome is tight upper traps (a muscle in between the edge of your shoulder and your neck) and sometimes right at the back posterior base of your skull.  This is a very common occurrence in today’s population.  In fact, there is a good chance that even YOU have it!

The people this effects the most are those that sit all day, usually in front of a computer or at a desk.  This is why it’s called student or corporate syndrome!  Due to poor ergonomics, most people in these situations either find themselves leaning over a desk to read, or hunched at a computer typing all day.  If you don’t believe me, stroll down  your work aisle or school library and take a look.  In order to maintain this unnatural position, the body has to continually contract certain muscles.  If you think about a muscle’s length when it is (concentrically) contracting, it gets shorter.  If you hold that contracted position for long enough, the muscle will actually remain shorter, resulting in tight muscles. 

This isn’t all though…think about the other muscles that you are NOT using in holding these positions.  The musculature of the human body is an amazing example of balance.  When one muscle is working, the opposite muscle is generally not.  This is called reciprocal inhibition.  In many cases, the opposite muscle is actually stretching.  Think about your biceps for example.  If you are lifting something really heavy such as a dumb bell for example, your biceps has to contract to lift it.  Your triceps, the antagonist or opposite muscle, does not work when lifting the dumb bell and you may actually feel it getting stretched at the very end of your biceps curl.  With the continual stretching and overall lack of use, the muscles opposite to the ones doing all of the work will eventually stretch out and get weak.  This can lead to a whole new swing of body aches and make it harder to attain proper posture.

This is why people with upper crossed syndrome have tight shoulders and base skull muscles.  Given the tightness of these muscles, these people will also tend to have anterior head carriage, also known as forward head carriage, a position where the center of their head is far more in front of their body then the center of their body.  The muscles most likely to be tight on a person with upper crossed syndrome include:

• Upper trapezius
• Sub occipital
• Deep neck extensors
• Pectoralis major
• Levator scapuli

The muscles that tend to be weak or lengthened include:

• Rhomboids
• Middle and lower trapezius
• Deep neck flexors

How to treat upper crossed syndrome
What is lower crossed syndrome?

The Chiropractic Diagnosis

A couple nights ago, my sister called me asking for pain advice.  Her friend was in extreme pain in her shoulder area and just underneath her skull.  The pain was described as an “achy” feeling that occured from about 12 – 9 PM and has been going on for some time now.  She was also experiencing headaches and had sought medical care for an opinion.  I pressed on and found out that there was no trauma, that she worked long hours in front of a computer, heat made the pain subside and that the shoulder pain was muscle aches, which I later identified as the upper trap and suboccipital muscles.

Eureka!  This was a textbook case of upper crossed syndrome, also known as “student syndrome” or “corporate syndrome.”  My sister went on to say that the doctor her friend was seeing had no idea what was going on.  Due to the precaution of the headache, she was scheduled for a CT scan the following week!

While it is possible that there could be something far more dangerous going on here, I found it hard to believe that my sister’s friend hadn’t heard of the syndrome from her doctor.  Upper crossed syndrome is extremely prominent in the US, especially for those that have desk jobs or are students, infact there is a good chance that you have it!  It didn’t sound that the doctor considered upper crossed syndrome though so it was scary that he was so quick to jump to a CT scan, a type of x-ray that exposes patients to a decent amount of radiation, in which if it was indeed upper crossed syndrome, nothing wrong would be seen.

As a chiropractic student, we are thoroughly educated in musculoskeletal problems and diagnosis.  While musculoskeletal disorders will probably not be my primary focus in my practice, low back pain is the second most common reason for someone to seek a doctor or go to the hospital, making it very important to know.  With this in mind, I know that there will be many people I can help once in practice and am very proud to be a future chiropractor!

Other conditions chiropractors are great at treating (just to name a few) include:

• pain reduction
• nutrition
• balance
• weight loss
• blood pressure control
• strength building
• TMJ (jaw joint) disorders
• increasing immunity
• memory
• nerve problems
• tight muscles

What’s the Most Common Cause of Bankruptcy?

In an amazing article by the NCHC (National Coalition of Health Care), it was reported that “50% of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses.”  In another report, a Harvard study found that this number actually attributed 62.1% of bankruptcies to health care costs.  This is a startling amount when there is so much bad news about the economy, layoffs, and foreclosures.  Sadly, but the time you finish reading this post, approximately 4 people will have filed for bankruptcy due to a serious health problem assuming you took 2 minutes to read this (every 30 seconds)!

It is no secret that the US spends more on health care than any other country in the world.  Many people might not know though that the average lifespan of Americans (a common indicator of a country’s health) is no where near the top, but #24 according to the World Health Organization (WHO)at about 70 years old.  Ironically, the NCHC mentions that increased spending in healthcare ultimately leads to longer life spans of its people.  When the WHO analyzed a country’s health based off of the amount each country spent versus the actual health of the country, the US ranked even lower at #37!

There is no question that based off of the numbers, something just is not right with our healthcare system.  President Obama was recently quoted at this year’s AMA annual meeting that “It (our healthcare system) is a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care.”  There is not the fault of doctors though who are ruled by health insurance companies.  Sadly, of all of the health related bankruptcies found in the Harvard study, 78% of them already had insurance!  They were taken down by the extra costs including co-pays, deductibles, and uncovered services. 

As President Obama moves forward with national health care reform, we will see if our privatized health care system transits itself to a government operated one.  Maybe it will even be a hybrid of it.  Hopefully whatever the outcome is, chiropractic and acupuncture will be included in the reform.  Both modalities have been shown that patients who get regular care by chiropractors or Chinese and oriental medicine doctors, spend less time in hospitals, take less medicine, and require fewer surgeries.  The overall health cost for these individuals is also lower as well, even when not covered by health insurance.  Ultimately this could translate to better health physically, mentally, and financially.

More interesting health care cost facts from the NCHC include:

• In 2008, health care spending in the United States reached $2.4 trillion, and was projected to reach $3.1 trillion in 2012.1 Health care spending is projected to reach $4.3 trillion by 2016.
• Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.
• In 2008, the United States will spend 17 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care. It is projected that the percentage will reach 20 percent by 2017.
• Although nearly 46 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.
• Health care spending accounted for 10.9 percent of the GDP in Switzerland, 10.7 percent in Germany, 9.7 percent in Canada and 9.5 percent in France, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
• Premiums for employer-based health insurance rose by 5.0 percent in 2008. In 2007, small employers saw their premiums, on average, increase 5.5 percent. Firms with less than 24 workers, experienced an increase of 6.8 percent.
• The annual premium that a health insurer charges an employer for a health plan covering a family of four averaged $12,700 in 2008. Workers contributed nearly $3,400, or 12 percent more than they did in 2007. The annual premiums for family coverage significantly eclipsed the gross earnings for a full-time, minimum-wage worker ($10,712).
• Workers are now paying $1,600 more in premiums annually for family coverage than they did in 1999.
• Since 1999, employment-based health insurance premiums have increased 120 percent, compared to cumulative inflation of 44 percent and cumulative wage growth of 29 percent during the same period.
• Health insurance expenses are the fastest growing cost component for employers. Unless something changes dramatically, health insurance costs will overtake profits by the end of 2008.
• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in the United States have been rising four times faster on average than workers’ earnings since 1999.
• The average employee contribution to company-provided health insurance has increased more than 120 percent since 2000. Average out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments for medications, and co-insurance for physician and hospital visits rose 115 percent during the same period.
• The percentage of Americans under age 65 whose family-level, out-of-pocket spending for health care, including health insurance, that exceeds $2,000 a year, rose from 37.3 percent in 1996 to 43.1 percent in 2003 – a 16 percent increase.
• National surveys show that the primary reason people are uninsured is the high cost of health insurance coverage.
• Economists have found that rising health care costs correlate to drops in health insurance coverage.
• A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that the average out-of-pocket medical debt for those who filed for bankruptcy was $12,000. The study noted that 68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance. In addition, the study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses. Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.
• A new survey shows that more than 25 percent said that housing problems resulted from medical debt, including the inability to make rent or mortgage payments and the development of bad credit ratings.
• About 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs.
• A survey of Iowa consumers found that in order to cope with rising health insurance costs, 86 percent said they had cut back on how much they could save, and 44 percent said that they have cut back on food and heating expenses.
• Retiring elderly couples will need $250,000 in savings just to pay for the most basic medical coverage. Many experts believe that this figure is conservative and that $300,000 may be a more realistic number.
• According to a recent report, the United States has $480 billion in excess spending each year in comparison to Western European nations that have universal health insurance coverage. The costs are mainly associated with excess administrative costs and poorer quality of care.
• The United States spends six times more per capita on the administration of the health care system than its peer Western European nations.

Book Review: The Nine Inch “Diet” by Alex Bogusky

Alex Bogusky writes what he says is NOT a diet book called “The Nine Inch ‘Diet’: Exposing the Big Conspiracy of America.”  It’s an easy to read, but very hilarious and interesting explanation as to America’s waist problem.  The message is simple: EAT SMALLER PORTIONS (specifically, make sure it fits on a 9 inch plate). 

For almost 40 years, America’s portions have increasingly gotten bigger and bigger (while the rest of the world does not), yet we think this is “normal.”  In the 60′s, the average plate size was 9 inches, yet now it’s 12.  With bigger plates we end up eating more due to our “clean the plate” mantra that our parents passed down to us, meaning we consume a good 33% more calories.  Looking at the data, obese Americans are up about 33% from the 60s.  Coincidence???

>You could easily just stop here and get the whole gist of the book, but Alex’s writing is so compelling it makes you want to learn why we want bigger sizes and why we can’t stop.  But I don’t want to keep rambling and give it all away.  Pick it up and try it, it won’t take too long to read.  Heck, you could top this book off in an hour if you have the time to hang out at Borders.  It won’t be an hour wasted, I guarantee it.

Students Pledge a Record $102K for F4CP, Standard Process Matches Amount

Despite the sagging economy, chiropractic students across the nation have donated a record $102,000 to the efforts of The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP). Standard Process, an organic nutrition supplement company matched the donated amount to bring the total over $204,000! This money will be used to provide positive PR for the chiropractic profession, which includes ads in Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and allows for obtaining chiropractic ambassadors such as soon to be Hall of Famer Jerry Rice.

As a current contributor, I find it amazing that students have mobilized to contribute to such a great foundation. At the target donation rate of $10/month, that’s about 850 students that have pledged towards the cause. Not too shabby for a predominantly income-less group!

If you would like to make a pledge or simply want more information about F4CP, click here.

Book Review: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

There are many personal development books out there today, but ultimately they all have been spawned off of this book.  This book lays the foundation for many of the top searched topics even to this day such as “The Law of Attraction”, think tanks, positive thinking, and confidence boosters.  There is even a section on how to get a job and ace an interview.  Needless to say, even if getting near the 100 year mark, this book is highly relevant.

In the early 1900s, Napoleon Hill, the author of this book, was tasked by steel mogul Andrew Carnegie to interview all of the most successful people in the world to see if there was any commonality to their success. Some of these people were none other than Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, JP Morgan, Alexander Graham Bell, Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, and of course Andrew Carnegie just to name a few. Over 500 different men and women were interviewed and what came out of those interviews became this book.

I feel that even though every other personal development book has roots in this book somewhere, there was ironically something fresh that I got from it that I didn’t get from the others, even when they might have been saying the same things! One of the most captivating messages is that in the very beginning of the book, Napoleon mentions that the secret to finding riches is in every chapter, but he will not say what it is.  It makes me wonder if this is how the movie “The Secret” came up with its title as I believe those 2 secrets are one and the same.

I HIGHLY recommend this book for everyone.  I loved it so much that upon finishing it, I immediately bought 5 copies to distribute amongst my friends and family (the Deluxe Edition makes it a great gift).  It’s not just about getting rich, but more about how to get the most out of your life, financially, emotionally, and physically.  There were many examples that related back to health and wellness that I found interesting and could definitely relate to.  Try it for yourself, I’m sure that you will definitely pick something out of it not matter how well read, rich, or successful you are.

*Side note: given the popularity (and age) of this book, there are many different versions to the text.  Make sure that you find the original text if at all possible.  After reading reviews of the other versions, publishers try to change the text to keep current with the time, but the message can be lost in the translation.  Read the original first, then if you like, move on to a newer version.  If you would like a recommendation as to what to read after reading the original, click here.

Book Review: Natural Cures “They” don’t want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau

I have heard a lot about this book let alone seen it on the New York Times best sellers rack many a times, so I was excited to finally sit down and listen (via the audio version) to this book.  What I got was not what I expected…the title of this book is “Natural Cures ‘They’ don’t want You to Know About” but instead of finding natural cures, what I got was the ranting and ravings of a frustrated consumer who is trying to “blow the whistle” on our current health system.

Kevin Trudeau writes very passionatly about what I can only call conspiracy theories against the American public with regards to health and wellness.  He argues that many of us are brainwashed to avoid true health as it does not benefit the pocketbooks of many corporations, mainly the pharmaceutical companies.  The “they” that he refers to in his title are directed towards a great variety of entities including the aforementioned phara companies, the government, food manufacturers, and non profit agencies just to name a few.

This book is not all bad though.  Being a student of health via chiropractic and acupuncture, it was refreshing to hear about the Wilk vs the AMA trial, a pivotal case in chiropractic history, as well as the Chinese herb ma huang, also known as ephedra as a natural cure.  These bits of real info seem far and between though as Kevin constantly claims there is a cure for this and then a cure for that, but RARELY ever says what the actual cure is!  I must admit that some of the conspiracy theories are interesting, made sense, and are believable, but after the 3rd example, they all seemed to have the same outcomes with just different players.  After a while, it was hard to tell if Kevin was exaggerating, twisting the truth, or maybe just making some of his data up.

In the end, I couldn’t get myself past the halfway mark.

An interesting thing to note about the audio book is that Kevin Trudeau is the actual narrator of his own book.  This was a negative for me as I couldn’t handle his whinning and complaining past disc 3.  The recording sounded very unprofessional with many speaking hiccups, however Kevin did mention that he was to include additional data that was not written in his book.  As to what data that was, he never said and I did not compare with the actual book to find out.

Book Review: You: on a Diet by Drs Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen

Drs Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen have written several “You” books, all of which are easy reading, hilarious, and widely popular. Expect nothing different from their You: On a Diet book as they go on to explain the physiology of the gut and how it relates to dieting and gaining/losing weight.

If you’re new to the You books, don’t let the physiology scare you. The authors have made everything very understandable and throw in many pop culture references that will have you laughing in your seat. You probably will remember what you read weeks later too, unlike if you sat down to read a college physiology text book.

Topics covered in the book include how to balance out your eating habits to support losing weight (if that’s what you’re trying to do) as well as the dangers of having too much weight or fat in your body. Hormones are explained, certain foods are suggested or warned against, and specific, but easy to implement strategies are supplied that anyone can take advantage of!

Whether you’re looking for a good read, want to learn something, or am looking to drop a few inches, this is definitely a good book to read.

Book Review: The Edge Effect by Dr. Eric Braverman

When I picked up this book at my school’s library, I thought I was going to read on how I could give myself an edge in the terms of a sharper memory or quick recall for all of those anatomical terms I had been learning. While I got that, it definitely was not what I was expecting.

The Edge Effect by Dr. Eric Braverman is his method of finding health and wellness by capitalizing on the strengths of the dominant features of your brain. I’m sure you recognize that most of your friends and family all different personalities from you and each other. One of the reasons for this is that there is a dominant neurotransmitter in our brains which can be produce common traits in us all. For example:

• Dopamine dominant individuals tend to be Type A personalities, good with numbers, and might not be so good at expressing their emotions
• Acetylcholine dominant individuals tend to be quick thinkers, creative, and impulsive
• GABA dominant individuals tend to be never be stressed, even in times of chaos, sometimes organized
• Serotonin dominant individuals tend to be playful, maybe even party animals, and have trouble with commitment

After an introduction to the neurotransmitters, you take a personality test which takes at least an hour.  After the book explains what your results mean and how you can truly make the most of yourself given how your brain functions.

I found this to be an interesting book and had fun chatting about it with my friends, all of which had different dominant neurotransmitters!  Dr. Braverman actually has a practice that he bases this book off of and mentions that he has had positive results with mental disorders that today’s medicine is having a hard time maintaining, let alone treating, such as Alzheimer’s disease and strokes.  I’m not sure if I believe everything I read, such as people can’t change their neurotransmitter once it’s determined, or it is unlikely to have two dominant ones (my test came out as a tie…).  I think sometimes we do change our personalities such as the Meyer’s Brigg’s test, but hey, I’m not a brain doctor.

Next Page »