"Health Beat"

Baby Pandas: Not Orthopedic. Atlanta Zoo/AP Photo

Orthopedic pillows are a hot item in the health care and bedding fields right now. It seems you can’t shop for a plain old pillow without being bombarded by high-tech pillows such as memory foam pillows, water pillows, gel pillows—or decidedly low-tech pillows, such as rice or buckwheat pillows. All of them make claims to be the best, most comfortable, and most beneficial for your health, your back, your neck, your posture. And they throw that term at you: Orthopedic.

What the heck does that mean, anyway?

Orthopedics is the medical study of the musculoskeletal system. Everything from neck to foot is studied, and practitioners in the field are involved in sports medicine, joint replacement, arthritis treatment, and any just about any kind of bone surgery you can think of.

As medical research and technology have fused together to improve health care, so products for use in the home have become more and more available. And who doesn’t like the thought of being able to get healthier while snoozing?

Body Pillow: Orthopedic. Snoozer Junior Children Body Pillow available at painreliever.com

So, an orthopedic pillow is a pillow designed, through shaping and materials, to support the sleeper’s body in a position that is most beneficial to the muscles and skeleton. Without support of one’s limbs, the natural line of the spine can be distorted during sleep, putting stress on muscles and ligaments.

Orthopedic pillows include, but are not limited to:

The body pillow, the cervical pillow, the neck pillow, the lumbar or back pillow, and the knee or leg spacer pillow. Each of these types of pillows is specially designed to support or cradle that particular body part. All of them, technically, can be designated as orthopedic. It’s up to you to narrow down that definition and learn which pillow is best for you. If you’re a side sleeper, the body pillow or the leg spacer pillow may be best. If you prefer to sleep on your back, you should look into the cervical pillow or the knee pillow—or perhaps both at the same time.

An orthopedic pillow doesn’t mean a pillow that’s only one design. An orthopedic pillow is simply a pillow that’s been fashioned to meet the needs of the human skeleton. And just like human bones, the orthopedic pillow comes in many shapes.

Sissel Orthopedic Neck Pillow, available at painreliever.com

For these and many other dreamy pillows designed to help you achieve a good night’s rest, please visit painreliever.com.

Elephant working her proprioceptors.

Proprio–what?

Say it with me now.  Pro Pree Oh Sep Shun.

Proprioception is a concept that will help you prevent sprained ankles, twisted knees, and strained backs.  Whether you’re an athlete, working on your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, or just walking the dog, proprioception is important to all of us trying to balance our way through the day.

Proprioceptors are the sensors in muscles that assist in balance, and inform your brain about body position and movement.  When your proprioceptors are working right, you can maneuver through a grassy field without loss of balance.  You can transfer from your sofa to your wheelchair.  You can sit up in bed and turn on the light.  Trouble is, balance is one of those things that if you don’t use it, you lose it.  But can you get it back?

Proprioception training is an important part of sports injury rehabilitation, but it’s not just for athletes.  It’s not even just for gym warriors.  If you lift weights, do farm work, or simply wish to challenge your body, you can train your proprioceptors to function at a higher level.  When you train your proprioceptors, you increase their ability to detect movement changes and so prevent spills, falls, or other accidents.

How to train your proprioceptors?   Yoga is a good starting

Rectangular Yoga Bolster from Bean Products

point.  Beginning yoga helps to build general

awareness of your body, its location, its alignment.  Simple weightlifting, whether in a standing or seated position is valuable as well–even if it’s only a 5-pound weight.  You can work with a partner as well, who can help with lifting and lowering–or even catching–a medicine ball.

If you’re looking for something slightly more high tech and more challenging, you might try a balance board.  It’s true that balance boards are used by skateboarders, surfers, snowboarders, and other athletes–but physical therapists use them in treatment of sports injuries, for stimulation of neural networks, and for child development.  People also use ‘em because they’re fun.

The Chango R4 Model Balance Board

So while cardiovascular fitness and bone density are very important factors in one’s health, please don’t ignore good old balance.  It’s something so many of us take for granted, yet use in so many different ways–until the day it leaves us.

For these and other fitness products, please visit Painreliever.com.

Is this the future of metal fashion? Universal Cervical Collar from Core Products

I suppose I should be gratified that the music I loved in my salad days (and am still partial to) has just now been branded as bad for your health.  This means I’m rebellious and cool, right?

(From the ten-year-old: “Sure, Mom.”)

I’m referring to the study that appeared in the British Medical Journal last month.  Entitled “Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass,” this study conducted by researchers at the University of New South Wales concluded that if AC/DC plays Moon River and neck braces are available at the concession stand, then we headbangers won’t have to worry about mild traumatic neck and brain injury incurred from headbanging.

The study reads like a piece from The Onion:

Though exposure to head banging is enormous, opportunities are present to control this risk—for example, encouraging bands such as AC/DC to play songs like “Moon River” as a substitute for “Highway to Hell”; public awareness campaigns with influential and youth focused musicians, such as Sir Cliff Richard; labelling of music packaging with anti-head banging warnings, like the strategies used with cigarettes; training; and personal protective equipment.¹

Um.

The study goes on to lay out models of axes of rotation, range of motion, and beats per minute.  It’s complete with an impressive array of tables.  I guess that despite their suggestion of substituting Enya for Anthrax, these fellows are serious.

In all fairness, I can see how headbanging could be dangerous.  We’re talking repetitive, violent, swift movements involving that incredibly delicate and crucial of human structures, the spine.  Headaches and dizziness have often been reported after headbanging.  Sometimes the repercussions are similar to whiplash; other suspicions are more ominous and involve the brain, such as findings of subdural hematoma and stroke.  I personally have been more concerned about muscle strain–after Megadeth and Alice in Chains concerts, my shoulders and neck muscles were stiff and sore to the point of immobility.

To those of you who can’t resist headbanging, or who know someone who, like Batman, can’t turn his head,  I would never recommend wearing a neck brace to a concert.  After the concert?  Yes.  Wearing a neck brace for a few days afterward may help. It’ll remind the wearer to take it easy on his or her neck, which will speed healing.  With muscle aches, heat therapy or massage therapy might be indicated.  If symptoms including pain and aching don’t resolve after a day or so, an appointment to the chiropractor or the doctor might be a good idea.

By all means, take good care of yourself when you rock out.  Headbanging can hurt.  But hearing the theme from A Summer Place come out of Angus Young’s stack of Marshalls would hurt even worse.

-Marguerite

1. Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass: A study done by Declan Patton and Andrew McIntosh @ www.bmj.com

From ITS Tutorial School, Electricity Tutorial-- Physics resources for IGCSE or GCSE students. Developed by Conor Sheedy.

Hi, Marguerite here.

Just wanted to let my faithful readers know that Painreliever.com has gotten in a new line of magnetic products.  They’re from Dr. Bakst Magnetics, and include magnetic bracelets, magnetic insoles, a magnetic mattress pad, a magnetic wrist brace, and more.

I have to confess, I’m a little skeptical about magnetic therapy.  But I also know that a great deal of people, for a very long time, have sworn by it.

I can understand why they would–after all, most physicists and biologists say that humans and animals are run on electric signals humming through our bodies.  Electricity carries messages between cells.  One of those messages would be pain, right?  We all know that magnets and electricity are interdependent.  In fact, moving magnets can produce an electrical current.  And changes in electrical currents can produce a magnetic effect.  So perhaps magnetic therapy might work by interrupting the electrical signal of pain–or the symptom that is causing the pain.

Some advocates of magnetic therapy claim that therapeutic magnets have an effect on red blood cells.  On the surface, this claim is logical as we all know that red blood cells contain iron–and iron reacts to magnets, right?

Yes, but–

From www.topnews.in

The iron in your body is found in chemical compositions that are not ferromagnetic.  Iron is ferromagnetic in bulk quantities–and when I say bulk quantities, I mean compared to what is found inside a red blood cell, which is 8 millionths of a meter in diameter.  You would need over a thousand red blood cells to make a line one centimeter long.  And even then, if you held a magnet over these blood cells, nothing would happen.

However, there is research being conducted that have made skeptics cautious about sweeping dismissals of magnetic therapy.  Studies involving the effect of magnet therapy on fibromyalgia, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, depression, and wound healing have turned up results that say more research is needed.

So, I’m not going to say no to magnetics.  I wouldn’t recommend magnetic therapy as a replacement for more conventional treatments.    But my jury is still out on the subject as a whole.  I know scientists are still discovering wonderful things about the world and about our bodies.

For other information, have a look at these articles on the net:

Magnetic Therapy: Plausible Attraction?

Magnet Therapy Shows Promise for Severe Depression

Magnetic mattress pad use in patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized double-blind pilot study