Are We Sitting too Much?

Sitting, chances are good you are doing it right now.   Chances are also good that you spend much of the day sitting as well, whether it’s at work, driving, or just relaxing at home.  Unfortunately,but not surprisingly, new information is coming out that prolonged sitting is not good for our health.

Too much sitting sets you up for a host of physical problems including poor circulation, chronic back and nerve pain, depression, osteoporosis, spinal disc degeneration, fatigue and many other health problems.  Even scarier is that according to Canadian researchers prolonged daily sitting could cause these problems even if you exercise regularly.

“More than one half of an average person’s day is spent being sedentary — sitting, watching television or working at a computer,” said  Dr. David Alter, a senior scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

Sitting is the New Smoking.

The paper, published  in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that prolonged sedentary behaviour was associated with a 15 to 20 per cent higher risk of death from any cause; a 15 to 20 per cent higher risk of heart disease, death from heart disease, cancer, death from cancer; and as much as a 90 per cent increased risk of developing diabetes, said Alter.

And that was after adjusting for the effects of regular exercise.

“Avoiding sedentary time and getting regular exercise are both important for improving your health and survival,” said Alter. But engaging in 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous daily exercise does not mean it’s OK to then “sit on your rear” for the rest of the day.

What Can You Do?

–Follow the 50/10 RULE: Don’t sit for more than 50 minutes. Set a timer and take 10 when it rings.

– DON’T BE A CROOKED SITTER OR SLOUCHER: Sit up straight. Your spine may have a misalignment with nerve pressure, which needs correcting.

– TAKE YOUR LUNCH BREAK: Get up and go somewhere even if you bring something in.

– PUT A LUMBAR PILLOW IN YOUR CHAIR

– INVEST IN AN ERGONOMIC CHAIR.

– GO TO THE GYM –

– TRACK YOUR STEPS.   Current recommendation is to get 10,000 steps in a day.   There are many devices out there today that can track your activity for you.   I like the fitbit.   You may be surprised how few steps you get in a typical day.
-ENJOY THE WEATHER: Winter is finally coming to an end in Ottawa so take advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having and get outside!

Can you turn Fat into Muscle?

“Turn your Fat Into Muscle!!”

“Lose 20 Pounds in Just Four Weeks”

“The Best Exercise to Tone your Body”

We have all heard the headlines. For anyone who has been trying to shed a few pounds of fat, turning fat into muscle sounds like the ideal situation. Unfortunately, like most things that sounds too good to be true, it is. But there is a small element of truth to what can take place. Muscle and fat are two completely different tissues, so it is 100% impossible for one to magically turn into the other. With that being said when the proper training and nutritional needs are met it is possible to simultaneously build muscle and burn fat.

Strength is the Key

Even if your goal is to lower your body fat I recommend a workout routine that includes strength training. Muscle building may seem counter-intuitive for someone who wants to lose fat but it actually helps more than you would think. Your body is constantly burning calories, even when you are sleeping, or doing nothing. Every pound of muscle will burn around 6 calories per day to sustain itself. This may not sound like a lot but it can add up over time. In addition to that, an intense strength training session can burn somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-400 calories per hour.

Ditch the Scale
Knowing your weight can be a great way to track progress but it does come with a fair share of drawbacks. First of all, water weight, fecal matter and other fluids can add a significant amount of variance to your scale weight. A single liter of water weighs over 2 pounds. It is not uncommon of having weight shifts of 5-7 pounds from first thing in the morning to later in the evening. Add to that, the fact that muscle is a much more dense tissue than fat, the scale weight may be going up but the fat weight is actually going down. If you are going to weigh yourself, it is best to do it first thing in the morning after you have gone to the bathroom but before you have ate or drank anything.

Lets use an Example

To illustrate my point of how the scale can be quite deceiving lets use an example. Let's say there is a man who weighs 200 pounds with 20% body (which is quite average). That means this person has 160 pounds of fat-free mass and 40 pounds of fat. If this person gains 10 pounds of muscle while losing 10 pounds of fat the scale weight will not have changed. But this person will have 170 of fat-free mass and 30 pounds of fat which is a body fat percentage of 15%. This person will look much different and will be in much better shape, but yet the scale would not have changed.

To sum things up, if improved body composition is your goal, I think the best way to do it is focus on strength. Remember that improvements may not happen over night, it does take time, and don't get discouraged by the number on the scale.

Migraines Triggered By Blood Flow Changes in Upper Neck

It’s been long understood that blood flow changes in the brain is a trigger for migraines. What is not so clear is the exact triggers of these changes. New research out of the University of Calgary is showing that spinal misalignment in the upper neck can cause congestion of venous drainage from the head and be a trigger for migraines.

The chronic migraine patients in this study were examined using state-of-the-art, dynamic MRI technology in determining how the brain’s vascular system and brain function respond to an optimal NUCCA correction. It was found that venous drainage of the brain improved following the NUCCA correction. The majority of subjects reported significant improvement in their migraine symptoms, totally eliminating headache pain in many.

These are significant findings considering that at least 3 million women and 1 million men suffer from migraines in Canada. If there are friends or family members that suffer from migraines please let them know about this latest research. We may be able to help.

Dr. Jim Moore and Dr. Craig Deprez

Ottawa Marathon

The Ottawa Marathon is getting close. For some, this is great news, it's a chance to finally put all those grueling training sessions to the test. For others, it's a harsh reality that they are quite far behind in their training. If this is your first time running a Marathon, Half-Marathon, 10k, or 5k, first and foremost, Congratulations! Whether it is your first or your 50^th it is quite an accomplishment. I have 5 last minute training and race day tips to help you get ready for the big day.

1. Start doing trial-runs of race day- What I mean by this is, is during your long run for the week try to simulate race day as much as possible. Wake up at the same time as you will have to on race day. Eat the same breakfast that you plan to on rest day. Make sure you know exactly which pair of shoes and which pair of shorts you will be wearing on race day. When the day arrives you will be anxious so anything that can be planned and laid out the days prior should be planned early. This includes the route to the race as well as parking.
   

2. Stay Positive- If this is your first time running a race, your goal should just be to finish. Take in the sights and sounds of the day and see what your body is capable of. It might be motivating to find out that you could have gone faster and that feeling will drive you to beat your time for the following race. If you do have a goal pace, remember there are a lot of things out of your control like heat, humidity and wind, so don't get down on yourself if you don't reach your goal pace.
   

3. Start Slow- This tip is more for the marathoners and half-marathoners than it is for the 10k/5k group. Use the first few kilometers as a feeler for how you feel on that day. It is much more important to be able to finish strong than it is to start strong. Even if you feel great after the gun you will need all the glycogen you have in order to finish the race.
   

4. Add stretching and yoga to your training regimen. I do not recommend static stretching(holding a stretch to the point of tension for at least 15 seconds) as a warm up as it causes micro-tearing of the muscles. That is better saved for after your daily run. As a warm-up it is better to do movement based stretches such as high kicks, butt kicks, or jumping jacks.
   

5. Take time for yourself- The last few weeks before a marathon is where injuries tend to creep up as your total distance tends to be increasing. At Moore Chiropractic and Moore Massage we take care of marathoners daily, helping athletes perform their best.
   

Good Luck and Have Fun

Don't Just Survive...Thrive!

Don't Just Survive...Thrive!




When most patients make their way to our practice, they are generally in some sort of discomfort to which they would like some relief. Now being a structural chiropractor I have to explain to them that it is not their pain directly that I will be dealing with, it is correcting their structure. Why is it that I may be talking about correcting your neck if it is low back pain that you came in with? Let me explain with an example.

Of these ladies, which do you expect to have neck pain? Of these ladies, which do you expect to see degenerated discs in the cervical spine (the neck)? For every inch the head is forward from the ideal position, the head puts an additional 10 pounds of relative weight onto the discs in the lower neck, which leads to degeneration of those discs. So if the person to the left were to walk into our office, would it not make sense that correcting the structure of her spine could help with whatever problem she happened to come in with.


These two women are roughly the same age. That tells me that poor posture IS NOT due to old age, it is due to a structural problem that has gone too long without being corrected. As you age it is your responsibility to take care of yourself and your body. Growing old is inevitable, but I think you should thrive in your golden years, not just survive.

Normally I like to write all of my posts myself but this just covered my thoughts so well!

http://lifehacker.com/top-10-reasons-to-exercise-regularly-besides-losing-we-1473616982