If you are like 90% of the population you only take care of your health when something breaks.  I call it the ER mentality. You only go to the ER when the pain is so great that you can’t move, even though for the past 2 months you’ve had twinges of the same pain, but decided to ignore it thinking it would go away.

90% of my patients have the ER mentality.  They wait till the pain is so intolerable that they can’t go another minute.  These are the reaction people.  Someone once said that “Humans only react when they reach a precipice.”  This goes beyond reacting to our body; look at 9-11.  The twin towers go down, airport security is beefed up.   The brakes or your car start squeaking, but you wait till you almost crash to get them fixed.

What would happen if we took a more preventative approach?  Look at where we have security issues before there is a breach.  Get checkups on the car before something breaks.  Take preventative measures with our body such as regular exercise, monthly massages, smart eating.  All these things can help prevent your body from shutting down.  I have a lot of clients that wait till they have severe heath issues like diabetes or high blood pressure till they decide to change their diet and start on a wellness regimen.

I’m going to put out a challenge to all of you.  I challenge you to take a look at your life and your health.  Where can you take preventative steps to make it better?  What can you do on a daily basis to improve your life?  The key is to make attainable goals;  For example, let’s say you are going to start an exercise program, instead of making a goal of going everyday for 2 hours, try one hour two times a week.  If your goals are attainable they have a much greater chance of being achieved.  Another goal could be to get a massage or acupuncture treatment once or twice a month.  This will make it so that we can stop those little aches and pains from becoming BIG problems later down the line.

Do you or have you ever suffered from knee pain?

Knee pain is a common complaint among most of the population, but the cause of this pain is greatly misunderstood leading to countless unnecessary invasive procedures.  Those who run, or are overweight tend to be more susceptible to this type of pain.

Our natural reaction to pain is to associate the pain with its location; I cut my finger, my finger hurts, the pain is coming from the cut on my finger.  With the knee the pain can be localized but the cause can come from many different places.  Western medicine has a tendency to be very myopic, only seeing one little piece of the puzzle.  Doctors’ today all have their specialties.  The theory is that the body is so complex that to know everything about everything is impossible. Most doctors focus on one part or area of the body so that they have highest understanding of that area to best treat you.

The problem with this theory is that the body is not a bunch of individual parts but instead a complex machine which uses all these “parts” together to create the person you are today.  By not looking at the big picture, we have a tendency to “chase the pain” opposed to treating the root of the problem. 

The knee is a complex mechanism but is at the mercy of its upper and lower siblings the knee and ankle.  When one is disturbed or out of alignment, the knee has to compensate.  This compensation causes the knee to be over worked in one direction or the other which can then lead to a variety of different pains.

The best way I have found to treat the knee is to keep the hips open and aligned and the quadriceps stretched and open.  This treatment is not difficult; most patients find relief, depending on the extent of the injury, within 1-3 treatments.  Acupuncture also has a very beneficial effect in treating knee pain by helping to reduce the localized inflammation around the knee itself.

Below are two stretches that can help reduce knee pain dramatically:

Split Squat stretch:

Place one foot on the seat of a chair with the opposing foot out in front.  Keep your chest tall.  In 2-3 second intervals alternate between leaning forward and back. (Stretches Quads and hip flexors)

Pidgin:  This is a modified version of the popular yoga pose.  On the bed or low table bring one leg perpendicular to your body and lean forward.  (Stretches the Piriformis and glute muscles)