Are You Suffering From Plantar Fasciitis?

What is the plantar fascia?

The plantar fascia is a connective tissue band (large flat ligament) that attaches to the bottom of the heel and extends forward towards the toes. It is an anchor point for the muscles of the bottom of the feet. Stability and balance of the foot and ankle depend on the plantar fascia to be strong, yet flexible and acts as a counterbalance to the strong muscles of the calf that attach to the heel with the Achilles tendon.

Causes of plantar fasciitis:

The plantar fascia becomes inflamed and makes walking painful when the tissue becomes injured from strain or direct trauma such as landing on the feet from height. Besides trauma, plantar fascial problems may arise simply from the calf muscle being too tight. Because the muscles of the calf are so strong, if they become overly tight they pull up on the heel, which in turn tugs on the plantar fascia and causes strain.

Symptoms of plantar fasciitis are:

• Heel pain on walking, particularly when first rising from bed or after sitting for long periods
• Burning, aching on bottom of the foot 
• Painful sensation like a pebble in your shoe under the ball of the second toe

 

Plantar fasciitis treatment:

Treatment of plantar foot pain involves relieving inflammation, stretching the plantar ligament, and loosening of the calf muscle. This is a process that could take from a few visits to a few months depending on how long the condition has existed and the severity of the inflammation. Therapy modalities may include:

• Heat packs
• Custom made orthotics
• Electrical stimulation
• Cold laser therapy
• Ice therapy
• Stretching exercises
• Foot and ankle joint manipulation

  
Hear From  a Patient:
 "I had sharp throbbing pain on the right foot's arch. I took ibuprofen and foot massage...for about seven years on & off. When the pain was severe I wasn't able to play with my son or go to work. Dr. Ryan Mairs' chiropractic has helped. I am now able to return to my regular routine." 
     ~ Y.D. from Waseca ... recent testimony on how plantar fasciitis pain can be resolved with chiropractic!!

Lost in the World of Drugs

I recently received some statistics from a study by Mayo clinic reporting that 70% of Americans are on at least one prescription medication.  They went on to say that 50% are on at least 2 drugs and further more, 20% are on five or more medications.  This should be a shocking statistic but unfortunately it is not all that surprising to me.  It is a rare new patient that I do a consultation with that is not on at least one drug and many find it easier to just hand me a sheet of paper with all their medications on it.

These numbers speak to my heart and remind me of a patient that I had a few years back.  This patient's chief complaint was chronic pain and fatigue.  She was only 27 years old but she had spent most of those years struggling with pain and the depression that often goes along with chronic disease.  During our initial consultation, she handed me a sheet of paper, hand-written with the names of about twenty medications on it.  She reported that these were the drugs that she had been prescribed. 

To many times the response to chronic pain is to attempt to cover up the symptoms with drugs.  When that doesn't work more drugs are given or you are told that it is all in your head.  There is a cause to the pain that you are feeling.  The answer lies within your individual biochemistry and physiology.  Don't give up, keep seeking the answers.  Find a holistic, functional medicine doctor willing to search for the true cause, so that you can restore your health, naturally.

The Inflammatory Side of Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is very complex in presentation and in causes, but one study demonstrates that there is a link between fibromyalgia and the inflammatory process.

Lucas et al. found that hormones and other biological markers associated with inflammation were found to be present where they normally were not, or higher than normal in the cerebro-spinal fluid, blood and skin of fibromyalgia sufferers.  They do not say that fibromyalgia is an inflammatory disorder, but that inflammation plays a critical role in its onset and progression.

So what does that mean to patients with fibromyalgia?  It means that keeping your body's pro- and anti-inflammatory processes balanced, may help limit flare-ups and prevent some of the fibromyalgia related inflammatory disorders, such as migraines, cystitis and irritable bowel syndrome.   

A huge part of this is proper nutrition, supplementation and exercise.  If you suffer with fibromyalgia and have not found someone to help guide you through this process, find a functional medicine provider that can find out what your specific needs are and start the journey to restoring your health.

Thiamine and Fibromyalgia

A quick search of fibromyalgia support websites reveals that for the great majority of sufferers there is no quick and easy fix.  There has been a plethora of treatments both medical and natural, some offering help and other a waste of time and money.  In reality, as with most chronic conditions, there are many causes for the symptoms collectively known as fibromyalgia and therefor many ways to correct those underlying causes.

For example, in an article put out by the British Medical Journal in May 2013, three women suffering with fibromyalgia symptoms were all found to be deficient in the B-Vitamin, Thiamine.  When they supplemented with doses of Thiamine ranging from 600-1800 mg per day they were all found to have a reduction in fatigue and pain levels.  You can see the percent of reduction for each patient below:

• Patient 1:  71.3% reduction in fatigue; 80% reduction in pain.
  
• Patient 2:  37% reduction in fatigue; 50% reduction in pain.
  
• Patient 3:  60.7% reduction in fatigue; 60% reduction in pain

 Now this was a very small sample size and more studies are definitely needed to support these results, but the results are very promising. 

*Note that it is not recommended to take high doses of Thiamine or any vitamin without knowing what your levels are.  Side effects like insomnia and rapid heart rate can be associated with high thiamine doses.  Thiamine need is one of the many vitamins that we can test for to determine your specific need.  If you are one of the millions of Americans that suffers from fibromyalgia, contact us to start on the road to Restore your Health.

Are Your Hormones Causing Your Hair Loss?

Thinning hair and hair loss can be a major concern for men and women alike.  It can affect confidence and self-image.  One very common but often ignored cause can be the balance of your body's hormones.

When your hormones are in their optimal balance and you have proper nutrition healthy hair growth is promoted.  Women tend to be more susceptible to hormonal imbalances than men due to the many different stages that their bodies go through such as the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and menopause.

As you can see from the picture, the pituitary gland controls all of the other hormone producing parts of your body, including the thyroid, the adrenal glands, and sex hormone producers.  This is important to know because each of these areas can influence the quality of your hair.

Both over-active and under-active thyroid can lead to hair loss.  Hyperthyroidism is often also associated with weight loss, increased anxiety, sweating, sensitivity to heat, and difficulty sleeping.  Hypothyroidism symptoms include fatigue, sensitivity to cold, dry skin, depression, and puffiness around the face. 

It has long been known that stress can lead to hair loss.  If the adrenal glands are overworked, due to excessive stress, the increase in cortisol can lead to hair loss, but also increased facial hair in women.  The parathyroid hormones are associated with your ability to manage stress and can lead to thinning hair, muscle cramps and alterations in skin pigmentation.  

Testosterone is often associated with balding in men, so it stands to reason that if a woman's balance between estrogen/progesterone and testosterone is off it could lead to similar symptoms.  One common such cause for this imbalance is use of birth control pills.

For further investigation of what your cause might be do not hesitate to contact us.

Beware of This "Healthy" Protein Source

This post is a warning especially for the guys out there.  In recent years well placed advertising and poor understanding of hormones has taught many that soy is a healthy choice, if not a superfood.  In reality it is leading to a feminizing of males.

In 2009 Men's Health told the story of a retired U.S. Army officer, James Price, who started developing unusual symptoms.  Always in good health and active, Price started to develop painful lumps under each nipple, loosing hair from his beard, arms, chest and legs, and other symptoms associated with an imbalance in hormones.  When tested he was found to have blood levels of estrogen (the primary female sex hormone) eight times higher than normal.  In fact they were even higher than levels found in healthy women.

The mystery though was "Where was the estrogen coming from?"  He was tested for estrogen producing tumors and found to be in the clear.  The fourth doctor that Price worked with finally started asking the right questions and dug into his diet and lifestyle.  What was discovered is that in an effort live healthy Price was consuming about 3 quarts of soy milk a day. 

"Why is this a problem, I thought soy was the new health food?" you might be saying.  The problem with soy products is that they contain phytoestrogens, which are compounds that structurally look like the female sex hormone estrogen, and can mimic the effects of estrogen.  So in men, soy has the effect of increasing estrogen levels and feminizing men.  No women are not immune to negative effects of too much soy, but I will have to address that later.

Action steps:
Avoid soy based product (weight lifters check your protein source)
If you suspect a hormone imbalance, get tested at our clinic or another functional medicine clinic

To check out the article from Men's Health follow this link:
http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/soys-negative-effects

The Most Dangerous Food Additive?

Do you use “sugar-free” products thinking that they will help you lose weight or in an effort to eat healthier?  If so, you may be surprised to find out that you are using one of the most dangerous food additives ever invented. 

Aspartame is a chemical that is 180 times more sweet than sugar, unfortunately it is when Aspartame starts to be digested in your body that the problem starts.  First, one of the chemicals that it is made of, Aspartic acid, is broken into two amino acids, aspartate and glutamate.  Aspartate and glutamate act as neurotransmitters in our brain, assisting in the transmission of information from one neuron to the next.  Unfortunately when we have too high a concentration of these amino acids they cause excessive calcium to go into the neurons.  This excessive calcium leads the neuron to die.  So aspartame literally kills brain cells.

Of adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA, Aspartame accounts for 75%.  Some of the symptoms associated with aspartame reactions: headache, nausea, depression, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety attacks, joint pain, heart palpitation, vision problems and ironically enough WEIGHT GAIN.  Many of these symptoms are a direct result of the damage done to the brain cells. 

Another component of Aspartame, phenylalanine, can build up in the brain and cause a decrease in serotonin levels.  Decreased serotonin is associated with emotional disorders like depression.   This can be especially dangerous for infants and unborn children due to the rapid development of their brains.  Some studies have even suggested that an increase in phenylalanine can cause schizophrenia and increase the likelihood of seizures.

The third of the dangerous components in Aspartame is methanol, or wood alcohol.  Methanol is broken down into formaldehyde and formic acid.  Formaldehyde is a deadly neurotoxin and carcinogen, responsible for damage to the retina of the eye and birth defects.  The toxic effects of methanol are greatly increased when it is heated above 86 degrees, this happens with improper storage or in the cooking process, think sugar-free gelatin. 

The EPA recommends limiting consumption of methanol to 7.8 mg/day.  One liter of an aspartame-sweetened beverage contains approximately 56mg of methanol.  Methanol poisoning can lead to headaches, weakness, memory loss, pain into the arms and legs and vision loss.  Many of these symptoms are similar to the symptoms that come from the damage done in multiple sclerosis.