Picking out the latest and greatest backpack is an end-of-summer tradition for many young
students, but this essential back-to-school item has the potential to cause a lifetime of back
and neck ailments. Here are some tips to correctly choose and use a backpack:

Millions of children struggle under the weight of an overstuffed backpack, putting themselves at risk of injury.

Parents should inspect their child’s backpack from time to time. They often carry much more than they should with extra shoes, toys and other unnecessary items.

A backpack shouldn’t weigh more than 15 percent of the child’s weight, or about seven pounds for a child who weighs 50 pounds. If it is textbooks that are making the bag too heavy, parents should speak with the teacher—sometimes these books can be left at school.

The number of people with chronic non-cancer pain prescribed an opioid medicine worldwide increased in the last two-and-a-half decades. But there was only a small number of studies reporting prescription data outside the United States, finds new research. Chronic pain unrelated to cancer includes conditions such as chronic lower back pain, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

While it is well known that excessive text messaging can result in sore thumbs, less is known about its possible effects on the neck, arms and hands. Young adults with symptoms in these parts of the body use a different technique when texting, according to a new study.

Ergonomist Ewa Gustafsson studied mobile phone habits among 56 young adults who text- message on a daily basis. Half of the subjects reported problems with the neck, arms or hands, while the other half had no such symptoms.

Seeing a physician or other health specialist for low back and neck pain? You’re not alone, according to a new scientific study. Americans in 2016 spent an estimated $380 billion on low back and neck pain, as well as on joint and limb pain, and other musculoskeletal disorders.

About 80 percent of adults experience lower back pain in their lifetime; it is the most common cause of job-related disability. Many argue that prescribing opioids for lower back pain contributed to the opioid crisis; thus, determining the quality of lower back pain in clinical practice could provide an effective tool not only to improve the management of lower back pain but also to curb unnecessary opioid prescriptions. Several studies have documented increases in medication prescriptions and visits to physicians, physical therapists, and chiropractors for lower back pain episodes.

With the significant part of the global population forced to work from home, the occurrence of lower back pain may increase.

Q: How is a chiropractic adjustment performed?

A: Chiropractic adjustment or manipulation is a manual procedure that utilizes the highly refined skills developed during the doctor of chiropractic’s intensive years of chiropractic education. The chiropractic physician typically uses his or her hands—or an instrument— to manipulate the joints of the body, particularly the spine, in order to restore or enhance joint function.

Chiropractors focus on the entire body and how different bodily systems work with each other. They also use their hands to diagnose and treat people. They use “adjustments” to correct alignment, improve how the body works, and restore health.

Among people seeking back pain relief alternatives, most choose chiropractic treatment. About 22 million Americans visit chiropractors annually. Of these, 7.7 million, or 35%, are seeking relief from back pain from various causes, including accidents, sports injuries, and muscle strains. Other complaints include pain in the neck, arms, and legs, and headaches.

What Is Chiropractic Care?

Lumbar disc degeneration and resulting lower back pain become greater concerns with age and disproportionately affect women over men, likely as a result of decreasing estrogen levels during menopause. A new study demonstrates that vitamin D deficiency, smoking, high body mass index (BMI), and osteoporosis are risk factors for greater back pain.

In a recent study of movement-based interventions, researchers discovered that longer duration and high-dose yoga intervention showed reductions in back pain while tai chi reduced acute lower back pain in males in their 20s. Tai chi also was more effective than stretching for lower back pain in young males. In the general community, tai chi showed greater reductions in pain intensity, bothersomeness of pain symptoms, and pain-related disability than the control intervention.

It’s a pain. About 80 percent of adults in the United States will experience lower back pain at some point. Treating back pain typically involves medication, including opioids, surgery, therapy and self-care options. Efforts to reduce opioid use and increase physically based therapies to reduce pain and increase physical function and safety are crucial.

Worldwide, more than 23 percent of the population suffer from chronic low back pain (CLBP). This makes CLBP the most prevalent chronic pain disorder, associated with immense costs to the health care system. The problems are often attributed to risks at the workplace, but are usually related to physical factors such as incorrect posture or sitting for too long.

Q: How is a chiropractic adjustment performed?

A: Chiropractic adjustment or manipulation is a manual procedure that utilizes the highly refined skills developed during the doctor of chiropractic’s intensive years of chiropractic education. The chiropractic physician typically uses his or her hands—or an instrument— to manipulate the joints of the body, particularly the spine, in order to restore or enhance joint function. This often helps resolve joint inflammation and reduces the patient’s pain. Chiropractic manipulation is a highly controlled procedure that rarely causes discomfort. The chiropractor adapts the procedure to meet the specific needs of each patient. Patients often note positive changes in their symptoms immediately following treatment.

The world’s population is steadily growing older. Along with increased age comes a variety of age-related health problems, and degenerative spine diseases constitute a common health problem in older persons.

Spine surgery can improve quality of life in many patients with damaged or deteriorating spinal components. This is true for older patients as well as for younger ones. But what about patients in the upper range of elderly, those 80 years of age or older? Is spine surgery advisable in this group and what risks does it carry?

A review of the evidence on the use of complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies to treat babies with colic has shown some that some treatments—including probiotics, fennel extract and spinal manipulation—do appear to help, but that overall the evidence on the use of these therapies is limited so should be treated with caution.

Researchers reviewed published ‘systematic reviews’ on the use of CAM therapies to treat babies with colic. Systematic reviews bring together all the studies on a topic, to understand the totality of the evidence available.

Nagging pain should not be ignored. If you have persistent neck, shoulder, upper back, lower back, hip, knee or foot pain, chances are great that Darrell Johnson, D.C., and his chiropractic team can help.
In a candid interview, Dr. Johnson shared his experience of discovering chiropractic care, studying in New York, interning in Canada, and starting a practice and providing chiropractic care for his neighbors here in Union County.

Yoga and physical therapy (PT) are effective approaches to treating co-occurring sleep disturbance and back pain while reducing the need for medication, according to a new study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
The research showed significant improvements in sleep quality lasting 52 weeks after 12 weeks of yoga classes or 1-on-1 PT, which suggests a long-term benefit of these non- pharmacologic approaches.

A new study shows that more than half of office-based physicians in the U.S. recommended at least one complementary health approach (CHA) to their patients during the previous 12 months, with female physicians more likely to recommend a CHA than male physicians.