Why does my chiropractor care if I smoke?

Why does my chiropractor care if I smoke?
As a chiropractor why do I care if my patients smoke? I mean it’s not like I’m treating their lungs or heart, right? Well no directly I’m not. I will have some effect on your lung function, what? How? By working on your upper back, rib cage and muscles of respiration we can improve the mechanics of breathing.
Now back to smoking, why does my chiropractor care if I smoke?

Smoking isn’t just for hearts and lungs any more, smoking or more accurately nicotine( so vaping counts) causes a reduction in blood and nutrient flow to the discs between the spine and the spine itself, now the blood supply to these structures is rather limited to start with and some of the nourishment occurs only by nutrients being transmitted to these structures. This can result in degenerative changes to the spine. Should this happen over a long period of time you may then need a spinal fusion surgery, continuing to smoke will result in a poorer surgical outcome.

Smoking will reduce bone formation leading to a greater risk of spinal fracture especially women who may already have lower bone density due to menopause. If there is a fracture, naturally that fracture will now heal slower as well due to decreased blood flow and decreased bone formation to repair the break.

Let’s leave the effects of smoking on your bones and spine and wonder why else does my chiropractor care if I smoke. If you recall smoking can affect blood flow to certain tissues is rather limited, this would hold true for things like ligaments that connect bones together say in your knee. Smokers who injure their knee ligaments requiring surgical repair will again have poorer outcomes post-surgery and may need revision surgeries later on. Not fun.

Why else does my chiropractor care if I smoke? Smoking has been shown to be one of the strongest environmental risk factors for developing rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, progressive, debilitating and disfiguring form of arthritis, a form of autoimmune reaction characterized by inflammatory joint dysfunction. Eagle Glen Frey recently passed away due to complications related to RA treatment and its subsequent co-morbidities.

So why does my chiropractor care if I smoke? Because I care about you and your overall health.
For more blogs visit here https://yourpickeringchiropractors.ca

Did You Know That November Is Osteoporosis Month?

I have decided that the topic of this blog should be osteoporosis. For one November is Osteoporosis Month. Secondly, after being in practice for 17 years a number of patients who started care with me at the beginning when they were middle aged are now seniors, retiring looking forward to travel, increased leisure time, time for hobbies and continued physical activity. For some however osteoporosis or decreased bone density may limit what they would like to do.

Osteoporosis which often gets mistakenly used interchangeably with osteoarthritis, is most commonly a condition related to aging and most commonly in women, men and those in younger age ranges can also be affected however.

With osteoporosis the amount of bone is diminished, this occurs without any symptoms until a fracture occurs which results in a great deal of pain and disability. If you imagine the inside of your bone looks like a sponge you might use for cleaning, there is a framework of sponge material with a lot of holes. Your bone is obviously a stronger, harder framework than sponge but the appearance is similar, now imagine an osteoporotic bone, there would be less sponge and bigger holes, thus a weaker structure more prone to fracture.

Areas typically fractured are the hips, wrists and mid/upper back. So who’s at risk, women of Caucasian or Asian heritage, slight build, early menopause, diabetics, those on corticosteroid medications for inflammatory lung conditions or bowel conditions. Those are factors that are hard to modify, avoidable risk factors, things that can reduce your bone quantity are things like; smoking, alcohol use, caffeine use, soft drinks and inactivity.

So what can you do? You can’t change being a senior woman of Caucasian ancestry, you can ensure that you have adequate calcium intake ( 1500mg/day), Vitamin D intake 1000-2000iu/d be active performing regular weight bearing activity, walking is great, but don’t forget things like resistance training or weight training and balance exercises like Tai Chi or yoga. Limit falling risks around the home, wear good footwear use walking sticks (like cross country ski poles).

This is all reasonable once you get to be older and at risk, my challenge is not only to my senior patients but also their daughters and granddaughters. Why? Simply the amount of bone you acquire prior to the age of 30 is your peak bone mass, the more you acquire by that age the more you have to lose as you age before you’re at risk. Bank not only your savings for retirement, but your bone. Encourage our younger women to be active and build their bone mass.

Links

www.osteoporosis.ca      for more osteoporosis information

www.chiropractic.on.ca     for fall prevention strategies