Baby Carrots may not be as innocent as they look...

The small cocktail (baby) carrots you buy in small plastic bags are made using the larger crooked or deformed carrots which are put through a machine that cuts and shapes them into cocktail carrots. Most people probably know this already...What you don't know is how the baby carrots are treated so they do not decompose.

Once the carrots are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots they are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine in order to preserve them (this is the same type of chlorine used in a pool, yet a different concentration). Once the skin of the baby carrot is ground down, it has lost its natural protective covering, thus it needs to be treated in order to keep it from withering in the store.

You will notice that once you keep these carrots in your refigerator for a few days, a white covering will form on the carrotis...this is the chlorine resurfacing. Natural plant enzymes will cause the chlorine to be pushed to the surface, often giving them a greasy texture. At what cost do we put our health at risk to have esthetically pleasing vegetables which are essentially plastic-ized?

Chlorine is a very well known carcinogen (cancer causing agent)...Protect your friends and family by passing this information along or encouraging them to signup for our E-Health Newsletter!

As always, We've Got Your Back!

~Dr. Ryan Fox, Dr. Christian Werness

Please pass this information along if you found it useful. The best way to learn something is to teach or share it with someone else!

Chiropractic and Reducing Stress

We certainly live in stressful times. It's not easy to assess whether our era is the most stressful, but we do have plenty of daily stress. The job, the home, the kids, the relatives, and the economy - all these stresses add up and yet we wonder why we have so many aches and pains.

So many ailments are stress-related. Americans are notoriously overweight. Overeating is a stress-coping mechanism.1 Headaches and backaches are often associated with increased stress. There's a strong correlation between high blood pressure and stress, ulcers and stress, and even cancer and stress. What can we do? The external stresses in our lives aren't going away. Our activity-filled lives are busy and complex - there's always going to be stress. The key is to help avoid or ease the physical effects of stress. Interestingly, chiropractic treatment can be of great assistance in reducing the effects of stress on the body.

In general, stress causes muscles to tighten. This is an unconscious reaction. Tight muscles cause a cascade of further muscle tightening, shortening of muscles and ligaments, and a resulting decrease of mobility in joints, particularly shoulder joints, hip joints, and joints of the spine.2,3

This overall mechanical effect of stress has a number of additional consequences. All the extra unconscious muscle activity wastes precious nutritional resources and uses up energy needed for critical body functions. Lactic acid accumulates, irritating nerve endings and further increasing muscular tightness. And, importantly, the losses in spinal joint mobility lead directly to increased levels of pain. This, of course, leads to more stress.

This vicious circle of stress, muscular tightness, and pain can be relieved and reduced by chiropractic treatment.4 Chiropractic therapy is specially designed to improve joint mobility of the spine and pelvis. This gentle, effective treatment gradually restores maximal spinal motion. Muscle tightness is alleviated, metabolic processes begin to return to normal, and nutrients become more available to help maintain healthy functioning. Levels of pain are reduced, and we become better able to withstand the physical effects of stress.

Your chiropractor will explain the many benefits of treatment, and will provide instruction in stretching techniques and specific exercises that help maintain the positive results of therapy.

There will always be stress. We can learn how to reduce the physical effects of stress, and become stronger, healthier, and happier in the process.

Take a Break!
Pop quiz - how long have you

been sitting in that chair?

Half-an-hour? An hour?

Two hours? More?!!!

Or, basically, how long have

you been working at the same

task without taking a break?

Most likely, the answer is "too long"!

Everybody's in the same boat. There's

so much to do and so little time. That

may not be the real reality, but it

certainly is our experience.

We drive ahead, force ourselves to

keep going, and forget to

"stop and smell the roses". But

"smelling the roses" is critical to our

health and well-being. Taking a break,

relaxing for just five minutes every

hour, makes all the difference.

1Marchesini G, et al: Psychiatric distress and health-related quality of life in obesity. Diabetes Nutr Metab 16(3):145-154, 2003 2Weickgenant AL, et al: Coping activities in chronic low back pain: relationship with depression. Pain 53(1):95-103, 1993 3Burns JW: Arousal of negative emotions and symptom-specific reactivity in chronic low back pain patients. Emotion 6(2):309-319, 2006 4Hurwitz EL, et al. A randomized trial of chiropractic and medical care for patients with low back pain. Spine 31(6):611-621, 2006

Plantar Fascitis Commonly Caused by Long Term Foot Imbalance and Pronation

The first step out of bed in the morning can be a painful one, particularly if you have plantar fascitis.

Plantar means 'bottom of the foot', Fasciae means the 'connective tissue', and (Fasc) "itis" tells us that the tissue is inflammed ("-itis"). That's where Plantar Fascitis is derived.

Common foot imbalances, included dropped or fallen arches contribute greatly to the development of plantar fascitis due to long-term strain that is created in the muscle and surrounding tissues. Not only does your body need to send minerals, vitamins, proteins and other factors to the tissue to allow it to repair, the tissue also needs to be able to flush itself out. In other words, you need materials to repair the inflammed tissue, meanwhile get rid of toxic by-products created by normal muscle and connective tissue metabolism.

This essentially opens a can of worms when it comes to treating plantar fascitis because it allows us to recognize that their are structural components (muscles, joints, tendons, tissues, etc.) as well as chemical components (b-vitamins, hormones, antioxidants, omega 3 and 6 fats, etc.) that need to be addressed to completely correct a case of plantar fascitis.

The best first approach is to seek the consult of an Applied Kinesiologist. This type of doctor, usually trained in Chiropractic, has the ability to evaluate the structural as well as the chemical factors preventing your healing.

In many instances, a properly fitted CUSTOM orthotic will help to maintain any imbalances of the foot after the foot has been evaluated and treated. This process doesn't occur overnight, but it typically relieves pain and discomfort within a short period of time, meanwhile allowing the muscles and tendons a chance to recover from their previously strained state.

The occurrence of plantar fascitis commonly affects women more than men. The reasons can be multiple, but the underlying difference probably lies in the sensitivity of the female hormone system, diet, nutrition, and susceptibility to stress.

Common signs of a foot imbalance include foot, ankle, knee, hip, and low back pain. The development of a bunion on the Great Toe is also a clear sign of a foot imbalance, generally due to a fallen meta-tarsal arch or fallen medial longitudinal arch of the foot. Once a bunion has formed, an orthotic is unlikely to correct it, but it will certainly keep the bunion from getting significantly worse.

Adherence to a semi-strict nutrition program and eating style provides a lot of relief to fatigued muscles and other joints that are not repairing or healing well. See my list of food ingredients to avoid to get yourself pointed in the right direction to eating better. It is also reccommendation to follow the Standard Process 21 Day Purification Cleanse as a method of initiating a change in diet. This process helps curb cravings and other poor food habits, meanwhile allowing you to eat all you want, lose weight, and gently cleanse the bowels, liver, gallbladder, and other organs of detoxification.

In order to provide fast relief of Plantar Fascitis, a combination of chiropractic techniques have been developed in our office, including chiropractic manipulation, myofascial release, reflexology, and acupuncture. A combination of one or all of these techniques usually offers significant relief of pain in the plantar (bottom) surface of the foot. These results will often be permanent if the proper lifestyle modifications can be made. Please call our office to speak with our physician about your individual needs.

Using Heart Rate to Set a Tempo for your 5K

Most discoveries are made by accident or serendipity. Is this really left to chance? I don't think so. When you search for something, you'll find it.

I would like to share my exercise experience so that other aspiring runners can benefit from my expertise as a doctor, chemistry & human biology major, and an athlete. If we use 25 years old as our prime, I'm a bit past that...but my knowledge and running results will prove to be useful evidence that our bodies don't wear out as we get older, we just keep re-hashing bad habits that cause our health to decline.

Heart rate training has been the most useful tool to gauge my body's ability to improve cardiovascularly...and avoid injury. What's that worth?! -Quite a bit, when a person realizes that exercise injuries are what curb out desires to stay fit.

By using your heart rate to gauge your exercise, your biochemistry can work WITH your body rather than AGAINST it. Applying these principles can and will accelerate your 5K times as shown by my personal results in this post. I live to serve as an example to others.

As a general rule, if you exercise by keeping your heart at a lower rate, you will soon be able to progress and speed up without causing your body to exert any more energy than needed.

For example, say you run a particular route near your house because it's your favorite. Keep track of your time. Purchase a heart rate monitor off of ebay. I got mine from EDiscount Bike on Ebay for around $40. This is a great deal. The brand is Sports Instruments, and mine was called the ECG model. It's perfect, and looks good compared to the expensive name brand ones that look like something from Star Trek.

Start off slowly. Most people's tendency is to run hard and leave themselves ragged at the end. Stop right now, the NO PAIN NO GAIN days are over, we're going to start exercising sensibly here...

Keep your heart rate at about 135-145. In this HR zone your body will have the ability to burn more fat rather than sugar for energy. What's the difference? you get about 9 times as much energy burning fat for energy in this HR zone that you do from sugar in a higher HR zone. I won't go into the biochemistry here...it's very simple math though (1 glucose=36 units of energy when burning fat compared to 1 glucose=4 units of energy burning sugar) The difference is the presence of oxygen to your muscles, so keep that heart rate lower.

At first this method will drive you nuts because you may have to walk certain portions of your run or slow down so much that you feel like "the tortoise". Keep at it, pretty soon you'l be able to complete the entire run without stopping. Hills and other terrain will eventually be a breeze too. Remember to keep track of your time, yet keep the heart rate the same. Take a quick look at my times below to see how it works...

for the chemistry and biology dorks out there...and interested athletes, doctors, etc, the chemistry is simple...When your heart rate is much above 150 you go into a CATABOLIC reaction, meaning that your body's tissues are not able to repair as quick as they are tearing down. Proteins are being eaten out of muscle, muscle fibers will begin to tear before long, and oxygen certainly isn't being used very well or circulated to your tissues...this is called Anaerobic activity and is burning sugar without the presence of oxygen. This is why sprinters never become distance runners, they can't handle it. They also aren't treating their heart in a friendly manner. This type of metabolism is detrimental to your health for long periods of time, yet is a much needed part of the body's stress response and Adrenal "Flight or Fight" Response.

The alternative is working-out and exercising in an Aerobic state (or as close to it as possible). This means that your body is still able to exercise, yet meanwhile make oxygen available to muscles, cells, tissues, etc. Your body likes oxygen, don't you? In the presence of oxygen, you can burn sugar from fat and make 36 ATP for each glucose you burn, while you only get 4ATP when burning glucose without oxygen.

Still not convinced?!

When I'm finishing my last 400 yards of a 5K or 10K, I'm sprinting. Nobody else I've run against has passed me at the finish. I'm not anywhere near to winning the races I run, but nobody has the energy left to beat me at the end because their gas tank is on empty.

If you grasp these principles, you'll do great. I wish someone had told me this when I played soccer in high school and college, it would have made a real difference.

Reviewing the times and date below, you can see that a break from conditioning tends to place me back where I started, yet it takes a short amount of time to get back to my previous exercise goals once I would begin exercising again and using the monitor. Notice that on 10-23-07 my 5K time was 32.01 and just 2 weeks later it was 26.45. That's a 5 minute 16 second difference, in just 2 weeks. AT the SAME Heart Rate! "Hello, McFly."

Be Well. Get Adjusted. Seek Chiropractic.

Running Times:

Heart Rate Zone- 145-155 Beats Per Minute

Note:(time in BOLD are race times, other 5K times are conditioning runs using the Heart Rate Monitor) All of the runs are done at a heart rate of 145-155. All race-day runs are not monitored, yet you can clearly see that they improve.

04-20-06 5K 33.33
04-23-06 5K 31.28
04-26-06 5K 30.19
05-01-06 5K 29.14
05-03-06 5K 28.23
05-04-06 5K 28.51
05-06-06 10K 43.55 Rocky Coast 10K-Boothbay, Maine
05-10-06 5K 27.58
05-12-06 5K 27.27

01-09-07 5K 32.56
01-12-07 5K 28.31

09-30-07 5K 21.31 Second Empire 5K Race
10-21-07 5K 21.07 St Augustine's 5K Race
10-23-07 5K 32.01
10-25-07 5K 28.59
10-27-07 5K Hooker Memorial 5K Race
10-28-07 5K 19.47 CASA 5K Race
11-06-07 5K 27.47
11-07-07 5K 26.45
11-10-07 5K 19.09 Ronald on the Run 5K
11-11-07 10K 42.13 Old Reliable 10K
11-20-07 5K 27.07

What is Applied Kinesiology

Over the years, many professions, including chiropractic, physical therapy, osteopathy, allopathy, and massage, have developed useful techniques and methods to alleviate chronic/acute pain, rehabilitate muscles, relieve headaches, remove sciatica, and provide comfort and healing to patients.

Applied Kinesiology is a method of diagnosing the nervous system and discovering intereference in the nervous system and related tissues, including muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, and vascular/lymphatic structures. Since George Goodheart discovered Applied Kinesiology in 1964, it has grown and incorporated many different techiques across a wide diversity of professions. Most doctors trained in Applied Kinesiology are Chiropractors, yet the technique is available for any licensed doctor to learn. Applied Kinesiology, an advanced method of testing the nervous system, takes years to learn and often a lifetime to master, making it much different than traditional Kinesiology, which is taught in some undergraduate colleges.

Muscle testing is the primary method by which Applied Kinesiologists diagnose nervous system imbalances. This testing ability allows a properly trained Applied Kinesiogist an added tool in uncovering underlying causes for a patient's condition. Muscle testing does not replace standard method of diagnosis, yet it complements them. This means that doctors trained Applied Kinesiolgy may also use other forms of testing to validate their findings, including x-ray, MRI, blood, saliva, hair mineral, or stool testing, etc.

"Patients prefer Applied Kinesiology methods of testing because it is more comprehensive than most musculoskeletal techniques in discovering muscle and joint dysfunctions."

The way in which our nervous systems are designed often allows for many different causes for our pain or discomfort. The brain and spinal cord, the master control system of our body, sends thousands of nerves to different parts of our body by way of the spinal column. At time, the same nerve that controls a muscle may also have control over a particular organ or gland. In this manner, a muscle injury can cause an impairment in an organ/gland, or a problem developing in an organ/gland will cause dysfunction in a related muscle. This is called "referred pain". A type of referred pain that many people are familiar with is left arm pain because of a heart problem, heart attack, etc. A second, less familiar syptom, is mid-back or right shoulder blade pain due to gallbladder congestion or "gall stones".

So why is there pain? And What can I do about it? Can a Chiropractor Help?

Chiropractic manipulation is very effective at relieving joint pain associated with muscle imbalances, particulary low back pain, neck pain, and headaches. In fact, pain relief is noted almost immediately by many chiropractic patients. Chiropractic and Applied Kinesiology offer an unbeatable pair, which combines the highly effective methods of diagnosis by Applied Kinesiology and standard Chiropractic exam, with the ability to use Chiropractic manipulation in conjuction with other popular methods such as physical therapy, massage, lymphatic release, myofascial release, cranial and sacral adjustments, as well as acupuncture.

What types of problems is Applied Kinesiology useful for?

This list can be very extensive, though many patients seek the advice of a Chiropractor-Applied Kinesiologist for joint pain in the spine and extremities (including foot, ankle, knee, shoulder, wrist, and any other bony articulation).

Other common problem that Applied Kinesiologists are able to help with are as follows:

Joint pain
Muscle Pain
Thyroid (hyperthyroidism/hypothyroidism)
Adrenal Gland Fatigue/Adrenal Gland Exhaustion
High Blood Pressure, Low Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol
Liver/ Gallbladder dysfunction (Gallstones, etc.)
Blood Sugar Imbalances, Diabetes and Diabetic condition
Acid Reflux, Hiatal Hernia, Heartburn
Sciatica
TMJ (Temporo-Mandibular Joint Dysfunction)
Numbness/Tingling in Joints
Female & Male Hormonal Balance

About the Author:

Dr. Ryan E. Fox is a Chiropractor and Applied Kinesiologist at the Chapel Hill Chiropractic Centre, located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He has been trained in over 600 hours of Applied Kinesiolgy and additional training outside of his Chiropractic degree, earned at Logan College of Chiropractic. Dr. Fox provides outpatient Chiropractic and Applied Kinesiology services as well as nutritional consultations, in-office or by phone. To seek further consultation, please call the Chapel Hill Chiropractic Centre at 919-968-4417 to reserve an appointment