_It has become clear that we need to prepare ourselves from getting cramps.  One cause of this is the change in electrolytes, sodium and potassium.  that gets sweated out.  One way of dealing with it is to drink electrolyte drinks like gatorade or poweraid.  These drinks, while brightly packaged are just sugar drinks with added salts and potasium.  They are convenient but expensive and usually contain high fructose corn syrup.  Another option is to make your own using common items from the grocery.  I have copied two recipes that I googled.  Try experimenting a little to get your best taste, and try using it during one of your workouts or practices.  It is always good to do so during practice as opposed to before a game.  Recovery from a two hour workout should include some food with protein within the first hour so try to bring something to eat after practice or games.  The donuts Tracy brought were good, but not necessarily the best item for you athletes.  The other cause of cramps is calcium.  Calcium is a mineral that is used in every muscular contraction.  As we use this mineral in an active workout, our Calcium level decreases and antagonistic muscles, the ones used to relax a muscle is unable to pull the muscle apart, which leads to the cramp.  Increasing the level of Calcium in your diet is important, especially to you growing ladies. 
Look to add Calcium with supplements, milk, Calcium fortified juice or other dietary means.  If you have questions, please feel free to ask. Continue to workout hard and hopefully a little prep helps. 

Most children become dehydrated because of diarrhea or vomiting caused by a viral infection. The way to help a dehydrated child is to give plenty of fluids while the child is ill. This is called fluid replacement.
The best fluid replacement for children younger than 2 years is Pedialyte, Rehydralyte, Pedialyte freezer pops, or any similar product designed to replace fluids, sugar, and electrolytes (dissolved minerals such as sodium, potassium, and chloride). You can buy these products at most large grocery and drug stores.

You can make your own oral rehydration fluid by following this recipe:

one-half teaspoon table salt
one-half teaspoon potassium chloride (Morton's Lite Salt)
one-half teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons sugar
dissolved in 1 liter (a little over a quart) of water

Children older than 2 years may be given flat soda (soft drinks that are opened and allowed to lose their fizz), Gatorade, or water-based soups.
Give a few sips every few minutes. 

What are Electrolytes? | Surge your Workout with a Homemade Electrolyte Drink
Nov 9th, 2009 by Enrico
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I’m sure you’ve heard of Electrolytes before. They are heavily advertised in popular sports drinks such as Gatorade or Powerade. Almost like a buzz-word, Electrolytes seem to be this magic energy that gives us that jolt of energy when we need it.
Electrolytes aren’t magic. They are the essential components that fuel your cells. They are the motor oil that keeps our engines running strong. Electrolytes benefit us in powerful ways such as:

1. Hydrating the body much faster than just water
2. Preventing muscle cramps
3. Providing lasting energy for exercise sessions

So, you want to take advantage of these electrolytes, but don’t have the money or the calories to spend on expensive, high-calorie sports drinks? I’ve done a little digging, and I’ve come up with a recipe for your own, homemade electrolyte drink.

Here’s the kicker – Instead of just rambling off ingredients, I did some research and identified what exactly each ingredient does for you and what makes it important.

Secret Homemade Electrolyte Recipe
1. The foundation of your drink. Natures best hydrating liquid: The fountain of life itself.
This is the main component of your drink: the electrolyte. Simple enough, this is what packs the punch. Baking soda alone will not react in the intended way until it is mixed with a solution, which in this case, is water.

This one is a bit tricky because the salt must contain Potassium. This mineral is another electrolyte that will boost your energy even further. Potassium naturally occurs in Sea salts, so it is an obvious choice.

However, many products at your local supermarket post on the label, “Sea Salt” when actually it is not. The ploy is that “it started as sea salt.” Fortunately, identifying Authentic Sea Salt is very simple.

The perfect way to top off your drink. Not only will this improve the flavor of the drink, but it will also provide your body with sucrose. Sucrose is also known as a “simple carbohydrate” or “simple sugar” as it metabolizes into energy in as little as 30 minutes. Think of this as the spark that lights the combustion engine.

If you think that your drink needs a little more personality, you can add flavoring. Don’t forget that this substitute sports drink is meant to reduce calories, so you get more bang for your calorie-spent buck. Some smart flavorings you could try are lemon juice, lime juice, or orange juice concentrate.

One Quart of Water
1/3 teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
One teaspoon of Sea Salt
10 teaspoons of table sugar
(Optional) Flavoring

Exercise is important for our health and is generally broken into two categories.  Endurance and strength training are vital for proper muscle fitness.  A friend who happens to be a patient of mine posted a link to a website called hundredpushups.com
This friend who happens to be over 60 is on the program to do 100 consecutive pushups, all from a challenge from his older sister.  I have looked over the website and its simplicity to increase strength using the basic pushup.  We have all done pushups or been exposed to it.  As a coach, I will often tell my athletes to do pushups.  With the goal of doing 100 consecutively in a 6 week program, the accomplishment is attainable by everyone.  Pushups work not only the chest and arms, but your abs and torso.  It can easily be done anywhere, does not need special equipment, no need to go to the gym and their program of working out 3 times per week takes about 10 minutes per day.  You will be doing close to 100 pushups in the beginning  to 150+ in the later weeks.  Can't do a good form regular pushup, do one that is modified (against the wall, stairs) and work your progression up.  Endurance training works the same with goal to finish a race or 50 mile bike ride.   Don't cheat, be honest with yourself and you will be rewarded.   I have started the challenge myself and invite all of you to do the same. 

Since we spend a great portion of our life sleeping, I am often asked  how to choose a mattress.  There are many new options for mattresses, Air, memory foam, combo foam are some of these choices.  While they are very viable, they can be very expensive and may not provide the best fit for you.  I generally recommend the tried and true spring mattress.  When thinking of mattresses, we need to have support and it needs to adapt to the contours of our body.  As a general rule, the more springs in your mattress, the better.  The reason is the springs provides the adaptability  to our different shapes.  Stiffness to a mattress is generally controlled by the gauge or thickness of the springs.  Like wires, the smaller the gauge, the thicker the steel used in the coil.  Since most companies use the same size gauge on their mattresses to allow it to adapt, I don't usually concern myself too much with that.  My bottom line rule is, get as many coils as you can afford.  In other words, if I had a choice of 700 coils in a queen size mattress or 800, I would buy the 800.  There is even one company (Duxiana) that puts up to 3000 coils into their mattress.  While this would definitely offer better contouring to the body, the cost is very high.  The springs need to intertwined by hand as I understand it.  My other recommendation is to go with the top of the line model with in a company, for instance Sealy Posturepedic.  Within the Posturepedic line, there are many bells and whistles, the extras that can add highly to the cost.  Having fancy pillow tops does little for the overall mattress but are expensive add ons. 

To complicate your sleeping choices, mattress companies will often put different names on a mattress depending on which store they are selling to.  Macys, Sleep Train may have the same mattress, only named differently which makes comparing them difficult. 

So there it is, I do not recommend any particular brand as all companies usually have different levels of mattresses and it is almost impossible to judge a mattress after lying on it in a showroom for 5 minutes.  Use  the springs numbers to help you compare. 

Pareben Free Skin Products: Recent studying and continuing ed. classes has led me to explore the effects of things we put into our bodies through our skin. Parebens in many forms are widely used as a preservative in lotions, sunscreens and soaps. They are estrogenic or hormone disrupting and have been linked to cause cancer. Begin reading the labels on most of the products we put on our skin and you will find parabens and other chemicals. Even many of our very expensive skin care products will have these chemicals in there.

The majority of sunscreens have these and other micronized chemicals that are readily absorbed into our blood stream via the skin. Look for sunblocks that contain titanium or zinc oxide.  These are larger molecules that are unable to cross through the skin into our blood stream.  When applied, these will leave a light white film on your skin.  That is what is blocking the UV rays. 

Many of the pain relieving gels out on the market also have parabens in them. Our office no longer stocks pain relieving gels that have unwanted chemicals in them. We have found pain relieving gels, lotions and sun blocks that are paraben free.  For more information, do internets search on parabens.

"People who receive regular chiropractic adjustments have immune system competency that is 200% greater than those who don't." One of the most important studies showing the positive effect chiropractic care can have on the immune system and general health was performed by Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York's Preventive Medicine Institute and professor of medicine at New York University. In his initial 3 year study of 107 individuals who had been under chiropractic care for 5 years or more, the chiropractic patients had a 200% greater immune competence than people who had not received chiropractic care.                            The Chiropractic Journal, August 1989.

While a personal choice, I have decided to not have flu shots with the belief that keeping the immune system strong with rest, exercise, proper nutrition and regular Chiropractic adjustments is a better choice than putting chemicals into my system. 

Stroke Rehabilitation and The Positive Effects of Chiropractic on the Response to the Central Nervous System and Motor Training Tasks

 

By

Mark Studin DC, FASBE (C), DAAPM, DAAMLP

 

Whithall, McCombe Waller, Silver, and Macko (2000) reported, "Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and the leading cause of adult disability. Annually, approximately 750,000 Americans suffer a stroke. Although incidence rates have remained constant over the last 3 decades, mortality has declined, leaving an increasing number of patients requiring rehabilitation. Approximately two thirds of stroke survivors have residual neurological deficits that persistently impair function. Specifically, dysfunction from upper extremity (UE) hemiparesis [weakness on one side of the body] impairs performance of many daily activities such as dressing, bathing, self-care, and writing, thus reducing functional independence. In fact, only 5% of adults regain full arm function after stroke, and 20% regain no functional use. Hence, alternative strategies are needed to reduce the long-term disability and functional impairment from UE hemiparesis [weakness on one side of the body]" (p. 2390).

According to Kleim and Jones (2008), neuroscientists (specialists who study how the brain and nervous systems work) are often asked about specific therapies that should be included in clinical treatment programs. They go on to report that the data points to brain cells possessing the ability to alter their structure and function in response to a variety of internal and external pressures and is called "neural plasticity." They go on to say that, "Neural plasticity is believed to be the basis for both learning in the intact brain and relearning in the damaged brain that occurs through physical rehabilitation. Neuroscience research has made significant advances in understanding experience-dependent neural plasticity, and these findings are beginning to be integrated with research on the degenerative and regenerative effects of brain damage" (Kleim & Jones, 2008, p. S225). When you any type of brain damage, the goal is to limit additional damage and help restore as much function as possible.

Whithall et al. (2000) reported that, " Traditionally, methods of stroke rehabilitation have been focused on the first 3 months after stroke and consist largely of passive (nonspecific) movement approaches or compensatory training of the nonparetic [non affected] arm.

This time window is consistent with natural history studies of stroke recovery that show a plateau after 3 months. Recently, both the paradigms for rehabilitation interventions and the time frame for possible UE motor recovery have been challenged. Experiments demonstrate that functional gains and possible neural plasticity can occur, via active practice, long after spontaneous recovery would be expected to end. For example, monkey models of chronic stroke demonstrate functional recovery as well as cortical reorganization after being forced to use their paretic limb. On the basis of this 'forced-use' paradigm, Taub, Wolf, and colleagues constrained the nonparetic [non affected] arm of patients with chronic stroke and forced the use of the paretic arm in task-specific activities in an intensive 2-week protocol" (p. 2390).

The goal of rehabilitation is to create new pathways for the brain to express itself in the form of movement and function to enable the stroke victim to regain as much function as possible. This allows the individual to live as normal a life as he/she can without care and support from aides, devices and specialists, rendering a level of physical and resultant emotional independence.

Taylor and Murphy reported in 2010 that when motor activity is followed by a chiropractic spinal manipulation/adjustment, it altered the way in which the central nervous system responded to motor training tasks. In both the patient with and without recurring neck pain, it positively affected the process of use-dependant neural plastic changes. The research went on to report that spinal manipulation/adjusting alone leads to improved function. However, spinal manipulation/adjusting in combination with motor training tasks "...not only results in altered sensorimotor integration but also alters the way the CNS responds to a functional task..." (Taylor & Murphy, 2010, p. 268). Taylor goes on to report, "The results of this study suggests that this is possible, as an improved ability to filter somatosensory information in sensorimotor integration circuits was observed after the same 20-minute motor training task, when this was preceded with spinal manipulation of the subjects' dysfunctional cervical joints. This finding was similar to what has been previously observed after spinal manipulation alone and indicates that spinal manipulation improves gating or filtering of sensory information, an ability the CNS retains even after the motor training intervention" (Taylor & Murphy, 2010, p. 269). While no one suggests that manipulation/adjusting should replace motor training or skill acquisition, the results indicate that manipulation should significantly improve the outcomes of rehabilitation with stroke victims.

References:

1. Whithall, J., McCombe Waller, S., Silver, K. H. C., & Macko, R. F. (2000). Repetitive bilateral arm training with rhythmic auditory cueing improves motor function in chronic hemiparetic stroke. Stroke, 31 (10), 2390-2395.

2. Kleim, J. A., & Jones, T. A. (2008) Principles of experience-dependant neural plasticity: Implications for rehabilitation after brain damage, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51(Suppl. Neuroplasticity),S225-S239.

3. Haavik Taylor, H., & Murphy, B. (2010). The effects of spinal manipulation on central integration of dual somatosensory input observed after motor training: A crossover study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 33(4), 261-272.