Sunday, August 29, 2010

Is cracking your knuckle bad for you?

You may be cracking your knuckle or heard somebody doing it, and wonder if it is good or bad for you. First of all, contrary to the belief, cracking your knuckle will not cause arthitis. No study found any link between cracking the knuckle and athritis. There is some study  however, that showed in the long term, swelling of the joint and decrese strenght of the hand.

The popping noise you hear when you crack your knuckle, is from a negative pressure, within the joint. It is a process called, cavitation. The noise is created, when there is a bursting of bubble of gas, from the separation of the synovial fluid that coat the joint. It take approximately 20 min. for the gas to regenerate in the joint. That is why, if you try to recrack you knuckle right away, you will not hear any sound.

So, basically, cracking your knuckle, will not cause arthritis or any major damage to the joint, with the exception of, minor ligament damage and loosening, swelling of the joint, and possible decrease strenght of the hand in the long run.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

When should I put ice or heat?

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That is a question that I am often ask. Should I put ice or heat, and it seems that everybody has is own theory on the subject.

Let's start with ice. Ice is used to decrease swelling and pain after an injury. It is one of the easiest and cheapest way for pain relief. Ice is used for acute injury(sudden onset of symptom) for the first 48-72 hours after the onset of pain. You could apply it even longer than that if there is still swelling on the site of the injury. Ice is also used after the activity, for chronic recurrent overuse injury. Never put ice before doing an activity. For ice bag, you can use crushed ice in a ziploc bag, or the gel ice pack, or even a bag of frozen peas. Always wrap the ice bag with a wet towel, and apply it to the injured body part, for 10-15min., no more than that. Wait at least an hour and you can put ice again. You should put it, at least 4 time a day, to be effective.

Heat is applied for chronic injury that has no inflammation. We usually put heat on sore, stiff muscle pain, to relax the tight muscle. You can use a heating pad, or the gel pack that goes in the micro-wave, for 15 min, again wrapping the heat source with a damp towel. Never use heat when there is inflammation. In doubt, put ice, since you will never worsened your condition with it. But if you put heat on an inflame joint, even if it feels good will doing it, in an hour or so, you will be worse. So here is a quick recap:     

Ice:  Acute
        Recurrent chronic overuse injury
        Decrease swelling and pain
        10-15min.
        At least 4 time a day
        After the activity,  never before
        Never directly on the skin

Heat: Chronic injury with no inflammation
         Sore, stiff muscle pain
         To relax tight muscle
         15 min.
         Never put heat after an exercise
         Never directly on the skin

Monday, August 23, 2010

Advice for food safety

Food intoxication is caused by, micro-organism in the food that we eat. The CDC estimate that in the US, there is 76 millions cases annually, and of those cases, 325000 were hospitalized and  5200 death occured. There is easy way to avoid contamination from the food, and here is some tip on how to handle the food.
  • Never eat a can that is swollen, have a funny smell, is moldy or have an off color look.
  • Refrigerate food as fast as possible, since bacteria, grows very quickly. Leave a small opening for the steam to escape. When it is cold, you can close the lid.
  • Don't place cooked food, on the surface where there is fresh food.
  • Wash your can opener after each us.
  • Throw away, nuts, seeds or grain that have mold on it. They may contain a carcinogen called aflatoxin
  • When making poultry salad, wait until the meat is fully cooled, before adding the mayonnaise or salad dressing.
  • Wash your hand after handling raw meat, especially chicken.
  • Cook ground beef well done and ask for a well done hamburger in a restaurant.
  • Storing peanut butter in the fridge, will keep the fat from becoming rancid.
  • Leftovers that have remained in the fridge more than 36 hours should be recooked.
  • If you  have any doubt, don't eat it.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Cross-reaction allergy

Cross-reaction allergy is define as, the same antibody, reacting to a non-identical antigen, but of close appearances.

So here is a list of the most common, cross-allergy reported:

  • Peanuts: soy bean, green bean, peas
  • Pollen: hazelnut, green apple, peach, almonds
  • Cow's milk: Goat milk
  • Wheat: Rye
  • Birch: Apple , carrot, cherries, pear, peach , plum, fennel, walnut, potato wheat
  • Grass: Melon, tomato,watermelon, orange, wheat
  • Pine: Pine nut
  • Latex: Banana, avocado, kiwis, plums, peach, cherries, apricot, nectarine, figs, papaya
  • Shrimp allergy: Lobster, crab
  • Cantaloupe: Watermelon, guava, avocado, pumpkin, cucumber, squash
  • Salmon: Swordfish, sole
  • Peach : Apple, plums, cherries, pear
  • Ragweed: Banana, melons, zucchini, cucumber, chamomile, honey, ecchinacea
  • Gluten: Dairy, nightshade, peanuts, soy

For pollen allergy, you will get oral allergy symptom, when you eat the food. Cooking the fruit or vegetable, will usually, breakdown the allergic protein, and you will not get any reaction from that food.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Golf most common injury and how to prevent it

Golf is a very popular sport around the world, and people from any ages can play this sport. But like any other sport, there is certain type of injury related to practising golf. So, here is a short summary of the most common injury that occur in golf.

BACK : Low back pain is a common complaint from golfer. There is an increase  weight load on the lombo-sacral area during the swing. The torque in the swing put a lot of pressure on the disc, the vertebra and the muscle of the area. To avoid getting low back pain, it is important to learn a good swing technique. Certain study shows that the amateur put more weight on his low back when he swing compare to the pro.

HAND : The tendon of the hands, can get inflamed from a to tight grip and cause tenosynovitis, or DeQuervain's disease. You can also get inflammation of the deep muscle of the forearm. Very rarely, we see fracture of the hamate, a bone at the base of the pinky finger.

ELBOW : Golfer  elbow also known as medial epicondylits, and Tennis elbow, lateral epicondylitis, are also two condition encounter frequently in golf. Decrease grip strenght, and more flexible club shaft will prevent those injuries.

SHOULDER : The shoulder is not injured as much as the other part, but we still encounter injuries involving the acromio-clavicular joint of the shoulder. We also find rotators cuff tear especially on older people due to the wear and tear of the tendon.

Here is a list of easy advice to avoid those condition:
  1. Arrive early, before your tee time
  2. Warm up, and than stretch, Swinging first at low speed and with short iron.
  3. Stretch after the game also.
  4. Make sure your club and grip are well adjusted to your shape.
  5. Take golf lesson and learn the good technique.
  6. Get in shape.
I recommend the book  Stretching, by Bob Anderson. In that book, there is a stretching illustrated routine for every sport, golf included.¸

If you encounter tennis or golf elbow, here is the link, to an article I wrote about easy exercise to treat tennis elbow.
Tennis elbow new treatment

Monday, August 16, 2010

10 Worst US town to live for fall allergy

If you suffer from fall allergy (ragweed and mold allergy), you may think twice before moving to one of this city. Ragweed allergy run, usually from late summer to the first frost. The symptom include runny nose, itchy eyes, and rhinitis.

The 2009 list, is presented by The Asthma and Allergy Fondation of America (AAFA), and is base on pollen count, the use of allergy medecine in the area, and the number of board certified allergist per patient.
  1. McAllen, Texas
  2. Wichita, Kansas
  3. Louiseville, Ky.
  4. Oklahoma city, Ok.
  5. Jackson, Miss.
  6. Dayton, Ohio
  7. Augusta, Ga
  8. Tulsa, Ok.
  9. Knoxville, Tenn.
  10. Little Rock, Ark.
50 million Americans suffer from all type of allergy, wich is 1out of 5 American. The cost of allergy in the USA, is estimated to $7 billion.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Tennis elbow new treatment

If you suffer from tennis elbow, there  may be hope for you. Tennis elbow, also known as, lateral epicondylitis, is an inflammation of the tendon of the elbow (epicondyle), due to an overuse injury.

According to a study that was held at the Lennox Hill hospital in New York and presented at the American orthopedic sport medicine meeting in Colorado, patient who use a rubber bar to do simple exercise, had a significantly improvement of there symptom, as well as there strenght.

Timothy Talyer and his team, discover that  76% compare to 12 % of the patient , doing eccentric exercise of the wrist extensors (exercise that lengthened the muscle), showed  improvement. The result for the strenght are one the same range.

The patient did there exercise using, a simple rubber bar called, Flex Bar, from Thera-band.

The usual treatment, for tennis elbow, is exercise, chiropractic, physiotherapy, and cortisone. The treatment is usually long, and costly.

The Flex bar, offer a good alternative treatment  at very low cost.

http://info.thera-bandacademy.com/flexbarelbow

Friday, August 13, 2010

Eat, pray, love and meditation




Today, is the theater release of the movie, Eat, pray and love. This movie is base on the bestseller hit book of the same name, written by Elizabeth Gilbert.  She write her own memoir, about  a woman  journey, of search and self-discovery. It's the story of a woman who decide to leave everything and go travel for a year,  to take care of her own happiness. She went to Italy to find her sense of taste, in India, to learn meditation and to find the sacred in herself, and she went to Bali to find beauty and love. Through her path, you will find yourself thinking about your own life.

This bring me to today topic, meditation. You may wonder why I talk about meditation in a health blog? Well, meditation, has remarkable effect on the body and mind and it  is a great technique to decrease stress, and to improve your health. The medical profession are starting to do research on the subject. In one study, they find out that student that meditate had better grade, than the control group. The also study Buddhist monk, and find out that during meditation they could increase the activity of certain brain wave. In an another study by the Emerit university, they discover that, people who practice the compassion meditation, react better to stress link depression. So, what is meditation?

Meditation is putting our attention on the present moment. Being still and in silence inside, but in full conciousness and full awarness. Not being in the past or worrying about the futur. Meditation,  increse your health, your joy, your peace and your creativity. The question I am often ask is: How do you meditate?
First of all, you can meditate everywhere, just find a quiet space, sitting or lying down, and close your eye. Start breathing and put your attention on your breathing, and just be. If tought comme, just let it go. This will need practice. Start by 10-15 min. You may get bored, emotion may arise, that is ok, just notice it and let it go. Everything that happen during meditation is ok. I read a study lately, that showed effect on the concentration, after just 5-10 min of meditation. So time is no excuse, better litlle than nothing. You can put light music , focus your attention on a candle or any other object. You can also buy cd of guided meditation, or find some on You tube. You could join meditation group in your area. You can also meditate will walking by yourself, just contemplating the nature around you and being fully aware. Internet  have many article on the subject. But it is simple just be, and you will see, it does feel good being in the present moment.

One book that I usually recommend, when somebody start meditating is Wherever you go, there you are, from Jon Kabat-Zinn. This is a small book, easy to understand and full of exercise.

Just try meditation and like any sport you will get better with practice, and will gain many benefit in your life, on the long term.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Laughing to health

First of all, I would like to welcome everyone to this new blog. My blog will cover fun medical fact, as well as trick, and exercise that you can use in your everyday life. I want this blog to be educational, and practical . But I also want you to share your health concern, and be able to answer it. I will cover topic as broad as nutrition, medecine, chiropractic, accupunture, natural remedy, diet, exercise, massotherapy, stress, meditation...

Since it's my first post,  I will start on the light side of thing. Let's talk about laughing. There as been many study over the year, talking about the benefit of laughter. Among the benefit that was noted, we have, prevention of heart disease, decrease stress, and the hormons related with stress, boost immunity, relax muscle, decrease pain, and even weight loss . According to a study, presented by American scientific at the 14th European congress on obesity, laughing  15 minutes a day, increase the heart rate by 15-20%, that translate to an average of, 10-40 calorie loss a day, and 4 pounds after a year!!! Let's not forget also all the effect on the mood, for ourself, but also on our relationship, with our family, friend and co-worker.

So the exercice for today is: LAUGH, LAUGH, LAUGH,  at least 15 minutes, and this should make you feel better, and if not, well keep laughing, and at least, you will be 4 pound thinner in 365 days!!