"Health Beat"

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

Over the past few days, I’ve been learning more and more about carpal tunnel syndrome.

Apparently, it’s a little more controversial than I had realized.

Illustration of the carpal tunnel. Provided by: Leslie Laurien, M.S.M.I., from Medem: Medical Library

The carpal tunnel is a tiny stiff passageway between ligaments and bones that runs from the underside of the wrist to the hand.  Through it runs the median nerve.  The median nerve is a large nerve that runs all the way down the arm to the hand.

In the hand, it communicates with the thumb and the first three fingers.  When the ligaments or tendons that pass through this little corridor become irritated or injured in some way, they may become swollen.  Therefore they take up more space in the carpel tunnel, which leaves less room for the median nerve.  And then you have carpal tunnel syndrome.

Carpal tunnel syndrome, I learned, has quite a few symptoms, not only pain.  Tingling.  Numbness.  Inability to grip strongly.

This is often exacerbated by sleep, as folks can sleep with their wrists bent in a variety of directions (seems even in sleep we don’t know what to do with our hands).  In some instances, sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome wake up repeatedly in the night due to pain or extreme discomfort.  And then of course the misery level increases due to being low on sleep!

The reason why I mention ‘controversy’ is that I had always thought it was a given that prolonged activities such as typing or computer use would contribute to or cause carpal tunnel syndrome.  Now that I’m reading up on it, I’m surprised to see that the jury is still out on this as a cause.

Certain other work-related activities are acknowledged to be the culprit–assembly line work, cleaning, manufacturing, sewing, meat packing, fish processing, forestry work (can you imagine what repetitive chainsaw use might due to those tendons?).  This is certainly a far cry from the image most of us may have of carpal tunnel sufferers, that of the person sitting at the computer keyboard for hours on end.   Women are much more likely to suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome: it’s thought because the carpal tunnel is smaller in women than in men.

So a woman who works a blue-collar job is more likely to suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome.  And  workers with carpal tunnel syndrome have to deal with losses in time and pay.   To be brutally honest–and no, it’s not fair–a blue-collar woman is probably least likely to be able to afford such losses.

On a brighter note, testing for carpal tunnel syndrome is more precise than it was in the 1990s, when CPT came onto the scene in a big way.  In 2002, OSHA started doing research and putting together a wide-ranging plan to put the lean on factories regarding ergonomic guidelines, education, and improvements in worker comfort.  Physical therapy and sports medicine companies have developed products to help prevent and aid in treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome.  These products are easier to find, research, and get insurance reimbursement for then they were a decade ago.

Smart Glove PM by Imak

Posted in Injuries, Uncategorized, Work | 8 Comments »