It might not surprise you to hear that we see a lot of low back pain in our office, what might surprise you is that a vitamin deficiency might be contributing to the lower back pain that many people experience.  A recent study out of Canada looked at patients who had chronic back pain and found that there was a significant rate of vitamin D depletion in these patients.  When given Vitamin D supplementation patient showed improvement in reported pain levels.

Who is deficient is Vitamin D?

It is estimated that 60% of Americans are  deficient in vitamin D.  Why is this?  Vitamin D is obtained from two sources, the sun and food.  Because we are spending more and more time indoors, people are not getting exposed to the sun and therefore not getting vitamin D.   As far as food sources go, fish is one of the best sources of vitamin D and most Americans don’t consume fish on a regular basis.

Are you deficient?

Most people don’t know if they are vitamin D deficient.  You can obtain a blood test that will test your levels of vitamin D.  You can ask your doctor about this test next time you see them or your next physical.

What can you do?

If you suffer from chronic lower back pain you might considering increasing your vitamin D intake.  As we get closer to the winter it is going to be harder to get outside and more of our bodies will be covered preventing sun exposure.   Vitamin D can easily be obtain in food and supplement form.   For a list of foods with the highest levels of vitamin D click Vitamin D foods.  If you don’t find yourself eating many of the foods on the vitamin D list you can get vitamin D through supplementation.  Vitamin D3 has been found to be the most beneficial.  The Vitamin D3 that I recommend is from Metagenics and you can see it by clicking Metagenics vitamin D3.

Most of the studies done on vitamin and pain have looked at lower back pain, but it would stand to reason that if you have other pains such as neck, upper back and shoulder pain that vitamin D might also help.  There are numerous benefits from getting a healthy dose of vitamin D and very few risks if taken appropriately.

For more information of vitamin D you can view these other articles on our blog, You need more vitamin D and Vitamin D as an anti-inflammatory.

by Katie Culver

For a lot of you, you come in for your adjustment, and afterwards, I ask you to do a few minutes of balance work. Whether its performing exercises while balancing on the exercise ball, Bosu, balance disk, or even just standing on one of the balance boards, I’m sure you’ve wondered why. Rest assured… there is method to our madness.

Because life is lived, at times, in unstable positions (such as walking on icy surfaces in the winter, running on uneven ground, or dodging toys and other obstacles as you chase your kiddos around the house),working on balance boards helps you safely and quickly keep up with the demands of life. Working on balance boards improves the strength of the small  muscles of the foot and lower leg, improves reaction time, reduce the incidence of injury, increases your body’s awareness of where it is at in space, improves movement mechanics, and helps the body to work together as a whole!

One of the main reasons that we want to do balance work with our patients is to increase your proprioception (your body’s awareness of where it is at in space… ie knowing where your foot or arm is at without having to look down at it). After a spinal adjustment, when the body is in its corrected alignment, working on a balance board creates continuous neural stimulus that is perceived as information in the brain. It reinforces that correct alignment and encourages the body to remain in that position (which in turn would lead to more spread out adjustments).

Conclusive research has also been done with balance boards. In one study, it was found that simple balance exercises, as part of early treatment for injuries such as ankle sprains, increases the strength and stability of the joint and therefore decreases the chance for residual symptoms and sprains. Additional research has shown that exercising on these unstable surfaces significantly strengthens muscles when tested against stable equipment. For instance, in one particular study, untrained men approximately doubled abdominal muscle activity when a crunch was executed on an exercise ball versus a static bench.

So if you want a stronger and quicker body whose muscles all work together in unison, try doing exercises on unstable surfaces. Remember, though, to be safe and begin easy, with no weight, and progressively get more difficult, as exercises on these surfaces can be deceivingly difficult!

This patient came to see me recently complaining of chronic neck pain that had recently gotten to the point that she was unable to sleep and do her normal daily activities. After just a few treatments she started to notice improvement.  Currently she is back doing many of the activities that she thought she would have to decrease for the majority of her life.