Low Back Pain in Dogs?

Determining where the root problem in a dog can be difficult.  They can’t explain to you what they are feeling and they don’t have fingers to point where it specifically hurts.

When I see injured dogs as an animal chiropractor, I am usually presented with a dog that has very common symptoms like limping or change in activity levels, but it usually comes with no diagnosis of what is happening… and I totally get why.

Full diagnostic work ups and imaging such as x-rays can cost a lot of money since your dog isn’t covered through OHIP.  Most owners are hesitant to get these tests done because a lot of the time they come back negative.

You spend your hard earned money and get no answers.

Sometimes those tests are absolutely warranted and I usually tell people right away that they need to go to their vet first and get them done instead of seeing me.

However, most of the time it is a mechanical injury such as a muscle strain, or a joint injury that is causing the pain.  This is the perfect time to have an animal chiropractor check your pet.

The bottom line is you don’t know until it is examined.  But in the meantime here are some clues that might help you determine if you should take your dog to the chiropractor for a low back issue.

Lameness - If you aren’t from the horse world, this just means that your pet is not moving normally, ie.  something is disrupting their normal gait. This could be caused by soreness therefore they would limp.  Or this could be caused by weakness, sometimes associated with nerve irritation from the lower spine.

Change in normal activity - You might start to notice your dog, avoiding normal tasks such as going up and down stairs or avoiding getting up from their bed as often as they would before.  Dogs are really resilient but if they are in discomfort they are going to avoid the normal daily activities to lessen the aggravation.

Point tenderness - If you suspect something may be going on with your dog’s low back, don’t be afraid to poke around.  Slowly run a finger down either side of your dogs low back from the ribs down and apply appropriate pressure depending on the dog’s size.  If your dog has a sore spot they will turn their head quickly, they may try to move away or their muscles in their low back will twitch. These are all an attempt to remove the pressure from the sore area.

If you find any of the above in your dog it might now be a bad idea to have them checked by a dog chiropractor.

Symptoms - the tip of the iceberg

Thank goodness for symptoms!

If you didn’t have symptoms you wouldn’t know if you were sick or injured.

Symptoms are like essentially your body’s fire alarm, they go off when something is wrong.

If the fire alarm goes off in your home it is because it detects smoke, alerting you to take action.

Symptoms such as headaches, low back pain and shoulder tightness are your body’s alarm signal when it detects change, like injured tissue, inflammation and more.

If you listen to the symptoms usually you can put the fire out pretty quickly.

All too often however, you don’t get to the root cause of your symptoms, and we take minor actions to suppress the symptoms so you can make it through your day easier.

This is the equivalent of the fire alarm going off in your house and to solve the problem you take the batteries out so the alarm stops.

CRAZY RIGHT?!!

You would never do this to your home without looking for the cause of the smoke, yet people do it to themselves all the time.

Next time you have new symptoms, dig a bit deeper to find out what the root of the problem is rather than “removing the batteries” just to feel better.

What is the difference between adjusting a dog and a human?

First off the principle of chiropractic care is the same for both.  A human and a dog both have a spine and nervous system. The function of their spine directly affects the function of their nervous system.  The nervous system is in control of muscles, organs and sensory function. In everyday life problems with this can show up in performance, mobility, or daily routine.

The major difference between a human chiropractor and an animal chiropractor is understanding the different anatomy of each species and the related stress caused by this different anatomy.

Let me give you a few examples…

The number of vertebra a dog has in certain sections is different that a human.

Both have 7 in the neck (cervical)

In the midback (thoracic) human’s have 12 while dog’s have 13.

Finally the low back (lumbar) human’s have 5 while dog’s have 7.

This is basic spinal anatomy that if you were a human chiropractor only you would not know this difference.

Another important factor an animal chiropractor must take into account is the different types of stress the spine will take in a four legged animal compared to a two legged human.

The spine of a human is vertical and is affected mostly by compression, while a dog or horse have horizontal spines which are affected greatly by shear force.  

Understanding these differences allows an animal chiropractor to use correct techniques and forces to certain areas that may be weak points due to the differences in anatomy between species.

Lame horse? Are you seeing the full picture?

Obviously there are many reasons why you can have a lame horse.  But sometimes treating a specific area only will get you your horse so far.

Your horse has four limbs for a reason.  When an injury affects a certain limb the other three limbs must work overtime.  Not to mention the stabilizing musculature that will be sent into overdrive.

Correcting the area where the injury occurred is absolutely necessary but looking at the rest of the compensatory issues while they are current may help to prevent future nagging injuries.

After any injury I recommend having your horse checked and corrected before this becomes the new normal.

At the end of the day your horse is not just a machine.  It is more than a sum of it’s parts and must be evaluated as a whole.

Hip Pain in Dogs - Can an Animal Chiropractor Help?

If you have a large breed dog you probably know that their hips can cause trouble.  Whether it is severe hip dysplasia or osteoarthritis the hips can affect the health of the dog, their quality of life and the pocket book of the owner.

Whether it is a human or a dog the same principles of wear, tear and degeneration apply.  The difference is when humans have a bad hip they don’t run, jump and play. Dogs on the other hand do.

I don’t know how many owners try to limit the dog’s exercise, but when the dog finds a squirrel in the backyard they get up and go, and make a youthful leap off the back deck causing impact to those bad joints.  They come back limping and it stays this way for the following 3 days.

Week after week this pattern continues.

If you can’t correct the behaviour, how do we make the joints adapt to handle those repetitive stresses that are placed on it.

Motion is lotion.

Your dog needs movement. Or should I say your dog’s hips need movement.  No just any movement, proper movement.

Dogs with hip issues, will get atrophy of the muscle from disuse and from a phenomenon called arthrogenic muscular inhibitiion.

Regular check ups from your animal chiropractor can be a game changer in the function of your dogs hip health.  I have literally seen old dogs get a bounce back into their step.

When owners tell me their dog is now walking them and that hasn’t happened in years, I know the visit to the animal chiropractor was well worth it.

The bottom line is dogs don’t lie.  The proof is in the pudding!

When Your Headache Comes From Your Neck

One of the most common things we help with are people with headaches and migraines.  

How would a chiropractor help with headaches you ask?

There are many connections between your head and neck.  Changes in the neck can affect nerve, bone and/or soft tissues connecting to the head, and sometimes this can result in head pain or more often referred to as headaches.

One very important area in the upper neck is the suboccipital region.  There are four tiny muscles on either side, and one called the Rectus Capitis Posterior Minor has a direct attachment to your Dura.

The Dura is part of the sheath around your spinal cord and brain.  Changes in the structure of the neck can put strain on this small muscle (that is connected from your skull to the first vertebra) and cause tension in the Dura and lead to headache.

One case study looked at a man who suffered for years, and the migraine medication was not working.  The surgeons cut this connection between the muscle and dura and the headaches disappeared.

As a chiropractor I look at what is causing the tension in the first place.  If you have structural shifts in the spine leading to this you will know when I test your neck.  

In most cases I feel the shift, put a slight pressure on the irritated tissue and the patient reports that it creates the same headache they have been feeling.

Search for the root problem, and not just the symptom.

The 60 Pound Head

“Sit up straight”

You’ve been told this when you were young and you have probably said it to your kids.  

Your ear, shoulder and hip should be one vertical line, perpendicular to the floor. While inside your neck your vertebrae should have a nice smooth “C” curve to it.

When we lose that curve there is more strain on your neck. But the question is how much?

A spinal surgeon out of New York did a study to figure this out.

The average human head weighs in at 13.2lbs.  10-12lbs of force is placed on your neck while you are in the perfect position mentioned above.

So what happens when perfect changes?

15 degrees forward = 27lbs of strain

30 degrees forward = 40lbs of strain

45 degrees forward = 49lbs of strain

60 degrees forward = 60lbs of strain

This increased strains lead to faster degeneration in the neck and eventually disability.

Corrective chiropractic care aims to restore this changes back to normal as close as possible, and the changes we see in curve correction can be truly amazing even to us.

But it's more amazing when our patients feel and move much better as a result.  It's very simple actually.  Reduce 50lbs of strain off of your neck and it's going to work better. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that. 

The crazy part is that these bad postures and neck curve changes are now seen commonly in kids with increasing time spent on technology.

In a one year period the average person spends 700 to 1,400 hours a year on smart devices. The average high school student may spend up to another 5,000 hours on their smart devices.

That’s Insane!!!

The bottom line is you don't know what you don't know.  Get your kids checked by a corrective care chiropractor and see if there are in fact any structural changes that have already started and correct it now,  as it is much easier to do while they are young.  

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Check your child's posture with this easy checklist.

Are You Shifted?

Imagine you are standing in front of me and I told you to close your eyes.  Then while your eyes are still closed I moved your arm in front of your body.

If I asked you where your arm is, do you think you would know?

Of course you would.

But how would you know this?  

Well your muscles and joints are full of these special receptors that tell your brain where your body is positioned in space. They are literally the eyes within your body. They give you feedback on how you move, how fast you are moving and when you overstretch they will cause a reflex to engage muscles to prevent injury (this is what happens when you have your knee reflex tested).

These receptors are located all over the different regions of your body but there is one place they are way more dense than the rest of the body. That’s the spine and in particular the neck.

When your spine is in proper alignment these receptors only report movements and changes to the area (normal input).  

When a joint is damaged, irritated or is out of it’s optimal position, these receptors are firing a barrage of signals to your brain telling it something is not right.  This works in a feedback loop so your brain gets the message and has to come up with a response.  The usual response to this is muscles tighten (spasm), reduced motion, and the end results can be pain. 

This can not only lead to the symptoms above but it can lead to further degeneration due to increased spinal dysfunction.  Even if the symptoms subside for a period of time you will be more at risk for re-aggravation.

We see this time and time again when someone comes in as a new chiropractic patient and they complain of back pain.  They have had this multiple times in the past but “it went away on its own”, but “this time it’s not going away and I think I need to do something about it now”…

The bottom line is these dysfunctions that turn into full blown painful conditions are a result of repetitive strain breaking down the tissue further because there is poor communication between your body and brain.

As a chiropractor my goal is to identify these problem areas and improve the dysfunction and as a result reduce the pain. Dysfunction is corrected by restoring normal motion to joints, returning the normal alignment of the spine and decreasing the strain on degenerative tissues such as the disc.

I will leave you with a tell tale example that spinal dysfunction is present.  

If you have knots around your shoulder blades and you have your partner try to work them out or you go for a massage but the last few times they don’t seem to be “worked out”, then it may not be a muscle problem.  Think why are the muscles tightening up in the first place.  Most likely in this scenario there is dysfunction in spine of the lower neck and as a result muscles attaching there are becoming irritated.

Chiropractic and Your Immune System

There are numerous studies that show how getting adjusted by a chiropractor can cause an immediate rise immune markers like white blood cells. This is great but if you get adjusted once to boost your immune system that is only going to have a mild impact on your symptoms, no different really than trying to suppress your symptoms with an over the counter remedy. 

What is fascinating about chiropractic is it may help to reduce the stress load on your nervous system.

This stress response in our body is natural and is innately programmed so we could run from the Sabertooth tiger thousands of years ago.  Even though we don't have to worry about these threats today our body reacts the same none the less when the nervous system shifts into the stress response. 

The following are some of the changes that happen during the stress response:

- increased cortisol,  adrenaline,  heart rate,   blood pressure,  blood glucose levels,  blood lipid levels,  blood cholesterol levels,  breakdown of protein,   clotting factors,  feelings of stress fear anxiety and depression,  sensitivity of sensory systems (including pain)

- decreased short term memory,  concentration,  serotonin levels , growth hormone,  sex hormones, bone loss. 

** and you guess it decreased cellular immunity. 

You see in the short term this response is not a disease, it is normal. 

The chronic stressful environment including your internal environment is pathological, not the response your body has to it. 

When we look at your spinal health, the degeneration it may have will create a chronic stressor to your nervous system.  Checking, adjusting, and rehab type exercise is going to help reduce the likelihood of the stress response keeping your immune system working optimally. 

Tabata Leg Burner

This leg burning Tabata workout will leave your legs fatigued. Check it out and let me know what you did!

Be careful about depth of squat, and if the lunge is too difficult try any lunge variation as a substitute. 

DIY Bone Broth

Bone broth not only tastes amazing on cold winter mornings but it has amazing health benefits as well. 

The long low boil extracts so many nutrients from the bone and other goodies that you put in there. 

One effect is the collagen and fat that you will get.  Both really important to keep you healthy. 

The other benefit of this fatty drink is that it will keep you full.   When I have this in the morning I am usually good until lunch where I will have a smoothie. 

- Enjoy! 

What Type of ________ Supplement Do You Take?

I get this question all the time and people   The only supplements I recommend are the ones that supplement our diet.  When it is difficult to get all these different foods and nutrients it’s sometimes easier to take the supplement to fulfill our need for that nutrient.

The only supplements I can stand behind are that I have tried and continue to use for myself and recommend for my family.

The bottom line is you always want to try and get your nutrition from real food, but depending on the area you live in the world sometimes having a fully balanced diet is difficult to achieve.

I decided to post the all the supplements that I currently use and the ones I recommend for my family members, and give you a brief description of why I take them. You can find all of them HERE.

In health,

Dr. Adam Markew

Hardy Autumn Soup

This recipe is a popular one on our detox.  The detox will be put on in January 2018, but it's a great fall dish - enjoy! 

2 tbsp coconut oil
3 carrots (diced)
1 yellow onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 cups butternut squash (cubed)
1⁄2 tsp all spice
Pinch cayenne pepper
8 cups chicken broth (home­made or store bought)
2 cups diced tomatoes
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 cups kale (chopped)
1 cup chickpeas

Heat oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add carrots and
onions and cook 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1
minute. Add squash, all spice, cayenne and cook 5
minutes. Add broth and tomatoes and let simmer for 30
minutes. Add chickpeas and thyme and cook additional
5 minutes.

3 Natural Immune Boosting Supplements

This time of year we try our best to avoid germs, but sometimes our efforts fall short.  If you can’t avoid the germs this cold season then boost your immune system so those germs can’t wreak havoc on your body.

3 things to take to boost your immune system this season, and my recommendations.

1. Chlorella - this algea is packed with antioxidants and minerals like Vit.A, B., Magnesium, Zinc, and iron.  This can help aid immune cells and decrease the inflammatory response.

2. Vitamin D - This Vitamin is more than just that, it’s actually a hormone.  Vitamin D3 is what you can take to modulate innate immune defense.  Getting a drop is a lot easier as you can take more concentrated doses if you feel you are getting run down.  Remember that vitamin D is fat soluble so take it with food.

3. Curcumin - the ingredient that makes tumeric so potent.  This anti-inflammatory compound also increases the activity of various immune modulating cells.  It has shown to have a positive effect on allergies, arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, heart disease and more most likely due to it’s immune responses.

Here are the supplements I take everyday:

Chlorella - https://goo.gl/n7Nffq

Vitamin D - https://goo.gl/xKF3vm

Curcumin - https://goo.gl/AmmcFi

What Is Sciatica - Can Chiropractic Help?

Sciatica is a blanket term that gets tossed around a lot.  Some patients present with signs and symptoms not remotely close to Sciatica and think they have it.  Others have been suffering for years with debilitating sciatic pain and don't realize they had it. 

Sciatica is a medical term for a set of symptoms, that typically involve low back pain and leg pain.  This could be pain in the hip, buttock, hamstring , and calves region, as well as all the way down to the foot. 

The low back pain and leg pain are classic signs but depending on the cause of the Sciatica you can also have numbness and tingling as well as muscle weakness or twitching. 

Common causes of Sciatica include but not limited to, degenerative disc disease, a disc herniation, a pinched nerve in the low back, and piriformis syndrome. 

Chiropractic care can be very beneficial to help reduce the symptoms of sciatic pain and in some cases it can fix the problem.  There are many different techniques that a chiropractor can use to help this so make sure you contact or have a consultation with the chiropractor before you start can to make sure they are comfortable working with you. 

As with any condition it is important that your chiropractor finds the root cause of the sciatica and low back pain.  This way your chiropractic can have a specific approach, reduce the time needed for correction, and choose the appropriate chiropractic techniques for your case. 

For more information on Sciatic please watch the video listed below. 

Why I would never trust a regular chiropractor to work with my dog…

I never adjusted my dog out of concern that his anatomy is different than mine and yours.  I recently completed the first of five modules in a veterinary chiropractic course and let me tell you I made the right decision by not adjusting him. 

Let me give a short explanation why. 

First of all this course goes really in depth in dog and horse anatomy (we even work with and are tested on cadavers).  Let me tell you that although a spine may look like a spine the anatomy of the joints, muscles and other tissues as well as the stress placed upon them is completely different across different animals and are especially unique when compared to us humans.  So needless to say, applying human techniques to animal spines is like throwing darts blindfolded, you might get lucky and hit the board once but by no means is it a detailed systematic approach.

Secondly the health conditions, repetitive strains and traumas animals can face are not the same as what humans deal with.  The obvious is that animals are not vertical structures, they walk on four legs and the result is they deal with shear forces as opposed to compressive forces in their spines which can affect their spines differently.  Also the conditions that can present although similar to some human conditions can present differently. Finally some breeds are highly predisposed to health conditions that if adjusted by a chiropractor could potentially be life threatening to the dog. In essence if a human chiropractor applies human techniques to animals it can not only be dangerous to the animal but it is very naive for the chiropractor to think that it would be effective in the first place.

I hope that puts into perspective the difference animals and humans, as well as the type of training that goes into becoming certified to work with animal chiropractic in Canada.  If you are looking for an animal chiropractor, I will be licensed early 2018.  Also I need work with and present case studies on animals. If you have a dog or horse that you would like to get checked, please reach out to me and we will work together to help them.

In health,

Adam

When To Use Ice and When To Use Heat For Pain and Stiffness

Every week patients ask me if they are doing the right thing by using ice or using heat for their pain, injury or stiffness. 

I can see why it could be confusing, because most people don't understand what they are trying to accomplish by using ice or heat, but more importantly they may not understand where their pain is coming from to properly apply it. 

If you suffer from back pain, neck pain and shoulder pain you are not alone.  Many people suffer from this as well and can get intermittent relief by using ice and heat. 

I've put together a short guide to help you understand how ice and heat work and how to know which to use depending on the type of pain or stiffness you have. 

Please click the button below and press the download button to be able to save this to your computer. 

Stay healthy, stay happy, 

Dr. Adam

Should You Sit On An Exercise Ball?

The trend of swapping your office chair for an exercise ball seems to be fading a bit.  However, many patients still ask me if it is beneficial to sit on an exercise ball rather than a chair.  The exercise ball is an unstable surface that in theory should lead to increased trunk movement which aids in the nutrition of your muscles and vertebral discs and increases the activity of your core musculature.  There are other proposed benefits as well, but let’s find out if they outweigh the negative side effects.

A 2009 study published in the journal Applied Ergonomics, researchers compared an adjustable office chair with armrests to an exercise ball while the participants did a one hour typing task.  The chair and the ball were fit to the subject’s body size so when sitting their knee angle was 90 degrees.  As hypothesized by the authors they found 33% more global trunk motion when sitting on the exercise ball (not found to be significant).  They also found the average rate of change of lumbar EMG and amplitude of lumbar spine muscles to be 66% and 38% higher when on the ball.  Although increased spinal movement and muscle activation are good for spine health, they also increase forces on the spine, which can have detrimental effects on the intervertebral discs.  To test this, the authors looked at the compressive forces on the spine and found that spinal shrinkage was significantly greater when sitting on an exercise ball than the office chair.  Another implication of increased muscle activity is that it can lead to muscle fatigue which can increase your susceptibility of low back injury. 

Another study by McGill published in 2006 in Applied Biomechanics, looked at pressure distribution.  Comparing an exercise ball, an office chair, and a stool they found that the surface contact area was significantly greater with the exercise ball.  The increased contact area actually increases the level of discomfort when sitting on the ball.  This is because the soft tissue is now absorbing the pressure of sitting, when it should be on the boney part of your butt! 

In conclusion, although there seem to be benefits of sitting on an exercise ball, the benefits are outweighed by the significant negative effects to your spine.  For this reason use a traditional office chair at work or utilize an exercise ball for short periods at a time to limit the shrinkage of your spine! 

Stay healthy my friends, 

Dr. Adam 

If Your Dog is Fat, You Are Not Getting Enough Exercise

By this time next year I should be certified in veterinary chiropractic.  It's a year long course for both chiropractors and veterinarians. I'm excited to work with house pets like dogs, but I'm also excited at the opportunity to work with larger farm animals like horses.  

In light of my excitement and my love for animals I thought I would produce this post.  Enjoy!

The health benefits of having a dog are obvious.  Mentally they make you laugh and give you unconditional love when you are only gone for 30 minutes, they make it seem like you have been gone for 30 days.  But first I’m going to touch on the physical health benefits. Whether it is play, walking or jogging, you are forced to get off the couch and move.   Many studies have shown that owning a dog can help to avoid a sedentary lifestyle.  Increasing regular exercise, such as leisure walking can help to decrease the risk of certain cardiovascular conditions.  One study showed that pet owners have lower systolic blood pressure which is the driving force of the contracting heart, than non-pet owners.  Another study showed lower plasma cholesterol levels, as well as triglyceride levels in pet owners.   It is even reported that dogs may show adverse behaviour if their Type 1 diabetic owners are having hypoglycemic episodes which could help their owner avoid an adverse health event.   Finally, pet owners who suffered a heart attack had higher 1 year survival rates than their non-pet owning counterparts.   

More intriguing perhaps than the cardiovascular benefits are the psychological benefits of owning a pet.  Most pet owners do not get a pet to reduce sedentary behaviours but rather to have companionship and an improved quality of life.  In a study that followed just under 1000 participant for one year, it was found that pet owners had fewer doctor contacts than their counterparts without pets.  It has also been reported that certain populations of people that own pets suffer less from depression.  

The authors of one article proposed a theory of how pet companionship can improve cardiovascular health, by reducing emotional stress.  Increased emotional stress leads to a barrage of negative effects on the body.  This is caused by increased sympathetic nervous system function.  We developed this over thousands of years when we had to worry about Saber Tooth Tigers.  If you turned a corner and met up with a tiger you would instinctually fight back or run away (fight or flight).  Nowadays the Saber Tooth Tiger comes in the form of commuting, work deadlines, family stressors etc.  Short durations of this type of emotional stress is good because it can help us get away from the Tiger.  However, when long lasting, this type of stress can lead to chronic disease.  Among other things like exercise, owning a pet can psychologically decrease or limit stressful sympathetic activity.  This decreases potential endothelial dysfunction, chance of cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death, as well as high blood pressure through decreased kidney activity. 

If you train with your pet make sure that they are getting adequate rest and recovery. And for the same reasons that you should be taking care of your health by visiting a chiropractor, you should also be taking your dog to an animal chiropractor. 

If you would like a great recommendation for an animal chiropractor check out my friend’s page here. 

Until next time, stay healthy my friends!

Setting Up a Work Station

Many people suffer from the constant strain of poor posture.  This article will give you the optimal set up at your work station.  However, it is important to understand that any posture will at one point lead to fatigue.  Therefore small changes in posture and micro-breaks throughout your workday will give you most relief. The following information is from the Ontario Ministry of Labour website.

Computer monitor should he at a height to allow your neck to be straight (top of screen at eye level).  If you wear bifocals the screen should be slightly lower so head is neutral when reading the top line on the screen

There should be a 90 degree bend at your elbows, with your arms hanging naturally at your sides

Your hands should be in line with your forearms, so there is no bending of your wrists

Your thighs should be parallel to the floor, allowing your feet to rest flat on either the floor or a footrest

Your chair should have a lumbar (low-back) support to help maintain your natural lumbar curve in the seated position

Your mouse hand should be supported so there is no bend in the wrist

Use a document holder that is adjustable, to the same height as your monitor

Although the above is helpful, less people are using desktop computers as the popularity of laptops increase.  With the screen and keyboard connected, the screen will be too low, the keyboard will be placed too high or a little bit of both.  This means the importance of micro-breaks increase, and more frequent changes in posture will be needed.  

If you follow the above protocol you will put yourself in a less compromising position.  However, you still will put your neck in a compromising positioning.  Losing the normal curve in your neck can cause headaches, neck stiffness, numbness and tingling into the arms and hands as well as shoulder pain. If you suffer from any of these symptoms you should seek out a corrective care chiropractor who can assess your neck and let you know if you would do well under care.