El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez investigates if garlic works for back pain.
Test�It Out yourself! Spaghetti, Oil & Garlic.
In my never-ending quest to learn everything I can about the best way to reduce back pain, I conduct research online frequently. Everything from tried and true remedies�like yoga, the latest scientific studies about nutrition as well as foods that promise to possess anti-inflammatory properties � are all on my radar. My intention is always to leave no stone unturned in the event the advice I uncover can reduce someone�s suffering.
So, the other day, when several pages of results turned up, I Googled �natural remedies for back pain� and wasn�t surprised. Granted, not everything you read on the Internet is accurate�in fact, finding information that is credible needs some sophistication. Briefly, it makes sense appraise the purpose of the source, to find out the source and look at the domain name when making a judgement call about it.
All of us know that pain can be alone triggered by inflammation, so minimizing or controlling it may be effective. If it�s accurate that in addition to truly being a vampire repellant, garlic is also an antiinflammatory power food (as some are promising), I�m game to start adding more to my diet.
On my way down the research rabbit hole, I came across some amazing facts from the Journal of Immunology (1), Journal of Immunology Research (2) and the University of Maryland Medical Center (3).
Plants of the genus Allium are known for his or her creation. Among these, garlic (Allium sativum) is one of the very broadly used.
Isolated and when expressed, these compounds display a broad spectrum of effects that are beneficial against microbial diseases and therefore are employed to safeguard against cardiovascular disease.
Garlic is now being analyzed because of its ability to boost the immune system and potentially fight with cancer.
Garlic contains allicin, a strong, sulfur-based compound that is in charge of the distinctive smell, but may also be the basis for �s antibacterial properties that are garlic.
Don�t Rush�The Rose
Garlic, frequently known as the �stinking rose does seem to have a full bouquet of health benefits. But preparation questions. Research supports that heating garlic soon interferes with the health-boosting benefits of allicin.
Cooks Take Note:
Be sure to let minced, chopped or crushed garlic to sit down for 5 to 10 minutes before warming. If you throw it into boiling water or that hot olive oil too soon and are inpatient, you’ll deactivate the valuable enzyme. Patience is definitely a virtue as it pertains to preparing this gold nugget!
Another Advantage Of Garlic, It’s Affordable!
At my last trip to the grocery store, a great-size bulb of garlic was priced at 99 cents. Paradise for under a dollar! All this adds up to what looks just like a total no-brainer to me. Add garlic to my diet. Obtain numerous health benefits. It couldn�t be more or considerably simpler cost-effective than that.
Over summer time, I made a decision to create a concerted effort to consume more garlic, and you also know what? I�ve found I have significantly more energy and feel better. Now it might be pure coincidence, but I�m going to continue my regime of taking one clove in the morning (I just chop the garlic, wait for allicin to activate, then consume the little sections with water). I�ve also been incorporating it to the main meal of the day. All things considered, except for ice cream, what doesn�t taste better using a tiny garlic?
Therefore I encourage you to give it a try and, as the famous, Greek philosopher Hippocrates once said: �Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.�
I�d love to hear your experiences with garlic are going. Please fill me in on how it helped you, or if it didn�t. Share your comments on our Facebook page. Recipes additionally welcomed!
Meanwhile, enjoy this healthful and simple meal that is deliciously. And contemplate giving garlic a standing invitation to your own dinner table!
Spaghetti, Oil and Garlic. Buon Apetito!
Cook spaghetti according to directions
Save 1 cup of starchy pasta water when you drain it.
Chop 4 gloves of garlic�allow to breathe 5 to 10 minutes and then brown in olive oil
Add pasta water to help produce a sauce that may stick to the pasta.
Transfer pasta noodles to garlic and oil
Mix and top using a sprinkling of parsley and lemon zest
Add freshly -grated Parmesan cheese to taste. Enjoy!
FORT MYERS, FL. � The UTEP women�s golf team put the finishing touches on the 2016-17 season by finishing eighth at the Conference USA Championships on Wednesday.
The Miners shot 909 as a team with rounds of 307, 299 and 303. Old Dominion captured the title (289-298-289-876), followed by Middle Tennessee (292-291-301-884), UTSA (298-297-294-889), FIU (305-293-296-894), Southern Miss (300-303-294-897), WKU (305-295-306-906), UAB (296-303-308-907), UTEP, Marshall (304-309-303-916), North Texas (306-306-312-924) and Florida Atlantic (307-307-314-928).
Middle Tennessee�s Jenna Burris was the individual winner with a seven-under-par 209 (67-70-72). She was one of three players to shoot under par for the tournament.
UTEP�s Lily Downs tied for ninth place (75-74-73-222), June Ting tied for 18th place (78-74-73-225), Abbie Anghelescu tied for 42nd place (84-75-77-236), Alisa Rodriguez finished 45th (78-76-83-237) and Sofia Castiello tied for 46th place (76-82-80-238).
Overall it was a much-improved season for the Miners, who won a tournament title (Lady Red Wolf Classic in Jonesboro, Ark.), picked up three runner-up finishes, and five top-five finishes overall.
Downs, Ting and Anghelescu are all slated to return in 2017-18. Downs led the Miners in scoring average (75.1), with Ting second (75.6). Both won tournaments this season, and tied for the team lead with seven top-20 showings.
El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez looks at yoga for back pain.
Yoga increases strength and flexibility, but some find it to be a spiritual experience that brings serenity and delight.
I attended my first yoga class after I was 21 years old. At the time the goal was purely to appease my self so that I really could tell my family, buddies and coworkers that “I do yoga”. In my experience, yogis were “cool” and I enjoyed being linked with that healthy lifestyle. My twenty-something year old mind was in a self absorbed place and that I totally enjoyed the freedom of dedicating myself to yoga and other enjoyable ways to fill my time.
Yoga in its purest form is intended to help the individual’s head and body and is likely to be practiced without ego.
My First Yoga Course
I loved her gentle encouragement. As I visited my weekly yoga classes, bending and twisting and telling myself “I can perform this,” I began to reap the benefits. I was sleeping better. My body felt less angry and I noticed a calmness come over me. I felt more patient coping with the irritations of life, too.
Here is The�Irony
Yoga is not something you do. It’s a thing that you encounter. Because over time, it gets engrained in you it’s called a practice. The teachings of Maureen were put in me like little seeds which didn’t actually completely thrive until much later in my life. To jogging, though I did not intentionally give up my usual yoga practice, around along the way it took a back seat. Those little seeds were there but lay dormant for now.
Running Was Different
I felt free moving swiftly across the road. Being goal oriented, I found monitoring my mileage to be a pleasing achievement. Running was pleasing for another reason, too. My best friend Linda was also a runner, and we’d meet most Sundays for long runs. We’d participated in occasional half marathons and put in 15 to 20 miles each week. Running that distance took time � two hours or even more.
Those small seeds were there all along. Like I mentioned, yoga has a way of becoming engrained in you.
My Back Pain & Yoga
If you’ve been following my site, you understand that I’ve had back pain through most of my entire life. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, my little friend “yoga” softly arrived back on the scene. My pain riddled body seemed to intuitively understand it needed yoga again. I began feeling the requirement to roll over on my back and pull my legs towards my chest, before getting out of bed in the early hours. (The knees-to-chest pose extends your lower back muscles and is a gentle, soothing approach to begin your day.) The reach that was straightforward felt energizing and really good.
There are quite a lot of advantages of yoga, especially for maintaining well-being and managing low back pain. A follow up experiment was conducted after 26 weeks, and those same yoga participants were experiencing increased function and less pain. For me, the continual practice of yoga has relieved my pain to the point that I no more need pain medication to get me.
Other Ways�Yoga Relieves Back Pain
Yoga strengthens abdominal muscles both of which help support the spinal column and builds flexibility in the rear, when practiced regularly.
Holding yoga models, for up to a minute, helps stretch the muscles over time.
Properly stretching�the muscles in the low back reduces stress over the area.
Yoga offers relief from pain, stress and anxiety. All low back pain suffers know this is a vicious cycle. You start with pain that doesn’t go away. You find out there is an anatomical reason for the pain. But, you still have the anxiety, and stress of worrying about how long this may last. Yoga can counter that triple threat.
Yoga improves posture. To maintain a strong, fit, flexible backbone great posture is vital. Seated and standing yoga poses help improve the alignment of the spine and also posture. Proper bearing reduces back pain and removes some of the pressure from your spinal column.
Yoga For Beginners
Thus, let’s get started with a couple of poses which are a cinch to do and great for preserving flexibility in your spine.Try these three poses daily for increased flexibility and your spine will thank you!
Knees to Chest Pose (Picture below)
Lie on your back with legs and arms stretched
Bring both knees to chest as you exhale. Clasp your hands around legs
Back is flat on the floor (mat)
If it’s comfortable for you, gently rock back and forth, which gives you a little massage
Cat/Cow Pose (Images below)
Begin on all fours in a tabletop�position
Place your hands under your shoulders along with your knees under your hips
Like a cat, round your back up to arch on the exhale
Bring your chin to chest
On the inhale, drop your abdomen and raise your head, extending your sitting bones (sits) back up
Cat Pose
Cow Pose
Child’s�Pose (Picture below)
Move from table top to a kneeling position. Rest your arms by your side, press your shoulders down and simultaneously reach your head tall
Slowly lower�your buttocks towards your heels feeling a nice stretch in your lower back/hips.
Let your forehead�rest on the floor
Place arms resting alongside your body
Or you can place�arms above head, gently stretching as they are placed on the floor
If it is easier too, you can widen knees as you stretch out
Those small yoga seeds�put by my first teacher long past � have continued to grow/flourish. I’m a fully certified yoga teacher and revel in sharing my practice with students every week now. May you find peace on your own journey and pain relief too, one pose at a time. Namaste.
El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez takes a look at the Mediterranean diet.
I eat a wide variety of delicious foods every day including pasta dishes, curries, cheese and chocolate. I also drink red wine most days. Yet I’m in the best shape of my life and I’ve never felt healthier.
What’s my secret? Actually it’s not a secret at all. You’ve no doubt heard many good things about the Mediterranean diet. You probably also know that Asian diets, such as the Japanese diet, are also extremely healthy. All I did was combine the best parts of these traditional and highly appetising diets into one ‘MediterrAsian’ diet — so I literally get the best of both worlds.
I didn’t come up with this concept alone. In fact it was an extraordinary set of circumstances that led me to follow a MediterrAsian way of eating in the first place.
My parents are both medical doctors, so I’ve always had a natural interest in health and healthy living. But it wasn’t until I was introduced to authentic Asian cuisine by my Chinese-Malaysian sister-in-law in my late teens that I discovered that healthy food and delicious food could be one in the same. This was a revelation to me, and I’ve been hooked on Asian food ever since.
Then, in my early twenties, I met and fell in love with Ric. Like me, Ric was very interested in health and healthy living. That was mainly because he’d lost his own health following a near-fatal motorcycle accident six years earlier. After lots of struggle and pain, he only fully regained his health by adopting a Mediterranean diet. When we met, I introduced Ric to Asian cooking and he introduced me to Mediterranean cooking. We ended up bonding over pad Thai and paella!
We also discovered there were so many benefits to eating a combined diet of Mediterranean and Asian foods. One of the biggest benefits was for our taste buds! So many of the world’s most mouth-watering foods originate from Mediterranean and Asian regions, including pasta, pizza, risotto, sushi, curries, and stir-fries. So we never felt deprived. And the health benefits were also extraordinary. From getting us in the best shape of our lives to improving our cholesterol and blood pressure, and giving us bucket loads of energy.
What Exactly Makes MediterrAsian Eating So Health Giving?
Actually, we’ve discovered there are a number of important reasons. Unlike modern Western diets that are full of highly processed foods, traditional Mediterranean and Asian diets are based on a foundation of minimally processed plant foods. These vegetables, fruits, grains and beans are bulky and filling but are generally low to moderate in calories. Fish and shellfish, which are also traditional Mediterranean and Asian staples, are also quite low in calories and are a good source of hunger-suppressing protein. So, these foods fill us up long before they fill us out. They also more than counter-balance the higher calorie foods we do eat, such as olive oil, nuts and cheese. This means we end up feeling comfortably full after a meal, without consuming more calories than our bodies need.
Traditional Mediterranean and Asian foods are also overflowing with health-promoting compounds including dietary fibre (which also happens to be one of nature�s best appetite suppressants), omega-3 fatty acids, phytochemicals and antioxidants.
But there’s another big reason why combining Mediterranean and Asian eating practices make so much sense. And it comes down to how the foods in these traditional diets affect our genes.
Scientific research in recent years has found that many foods common in Mediterranean and Asian diets (such as olive oil, red wine, turmeric, green tea, dark chocolate and soyfoods) are rich in natural plant compounds that activate a type of gene in the body called sirtuins. Studies have found that sirtuins play a fundamental role in extending cellular life and the repair of DNA. They also inhibit fat storage and increase fat metabolism.
That’s why a diet rich in sirtuin-activating foods, or “sirtfoods,” is being recommended by a growing number of health experts. In fact, Adele credits much of her dramatic weight loss with following a diet rich in sirtfoods.
So if you want to get healthy and in shape, reduce your risk of chronic disease and live longer — all while enjoying a wide range of delicious foods — we highly recommend you give a MediterrAsian way of eating a go.
Call Today!
— Trudy Thelander is co-author of the acclaimed cookbook, The MediterrAsian Way, and co-creator of the newly-released mobile cooking app, The MediterrAsian Table.
In this cycle we will be working on pull strength, prepping for a better Memorial Day Murph, and extra supplemental strength work to do on your own after or before WOD. You can find this video here.
By the way, �Murph� is a workout that we do every Memorial Day. It is a classic CrossFit workout that just about every CrossFitter has done at one point or another. It is done in memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. (Yes, the same guy the Lone Survivor Movie featured)
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Warmup:
3 Rounds:
8 Hip Extensions w/ 3sec pause half way
12 Lunges
16 Jumping Jacks
Strength:
Superset
4 Sets
a) Sumo DL x 2 @ H
b) 5-10 Glute Ham Raise
Supplemental Strength:
1) Superset x 4:
DB Bench Press x 8 (heaviest)
One Arm DB Row x 8 (ea arm)
2) Dips- 4�7 (Heaviest)
3) Barbell Curls- 4�8 (heaviest)
El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez takes a look at sciatica.
The pain shoots down your leg�burning, tingling, almost electric. Anyone who�s felt it knows that this is the hallmark symptom of sciatica. But did you know that there�s more to sciatica than just leg pain? And what about the best treatment�should you get plenty of rest or join boot camp? Get the answers with this slideshow. It�s your quick reference for all things sciatica�from what causes it to how to get rid of it.
Get the Answers to All Your Sciatica Questions
So What Exactly Is Sciatica?
Sciatica Isn�t A Condition, Disorder or Disease. Though the pain may certainly warrant such a title. Sciatica is actually a group of symptoms. It involves the sciatic nerve, which is the longest and largest nerve in your body. The sciatic nerve is made from several nerve roots in your spine that merge and travel through your buttocks. It then extends down to your knee, where smaller nerves branch out from it and travel to your feet. Sciatica occurs when the sciatic nerve is compressed or aggravated in some way. So what causes that? Read on to learn more.
I Have Sciatica�But How Did It Happen?
Have You Done A Lot Of Heavy Lifting Lately? Perhaps with poor posture? Heavy lifting can cause a disc in your low back to bulge or herniate, and that can pinch your sciatic nerve. Lumbar herniated discs are the most common cause of sciatica. Herniated discs aren�t caused only by heavy lifting�the effects of aging on your spine can also cause herniated discs.�Though a herniated disc is the most common sciatica cause, it isn�t the only one. Spinal stenosis, injury or trauma, and even pregnancy are other common culprits.
What Does Sciatica Feel Like?
You likely understand the pain of sciatica it can shoot from your low back down your legs, sometimes into your feet. Burning, numbness, and tingling are also common sciatica symptoms. You may find that sitting or walking can become painful chores�and even a cough or sneeze can cause your pain to flare up.
Where Does It Hurt?
Sciatica affects people in different ways depending on the root cause. Some have pain in their feet, while others have intense pain above the knee. That�s why you should not only pay special attention to what your symptoms are but also where they are. This will help your doctor understand what�s causing your sciatica and, in turn, recommend the best treatment.
Medications
In some cases, the only thing you need to reduce your sciatica pain is time and over-the-counter medication. To help reduce inflammation and pain, you�ll want to choose non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Advil and Aleve are brand name examples of NSAIDs. You can also try alternating heat and cold packs.
Treating Sciatica Pain
How Do I Treat Sciatica at Home?�Stay Active
Bed rest might be best for a cold, but it won�t treat your sciatica any faster. In fact, it might slow down the healing process. Most studies support staying active with mild exercise. This doesn�t mean you should spend hours in a gym�that would only aggravate your sciatica. Think gentle stretches and soothing movements. Need a place to start? Watch our sciatica exercise video series.
What if At-home Treatments Don�t Work?
You should talk to your doctor. He or she may recommend prescription medications or epidural steroid injections to reduce pain and inflammation. Or you may want to consult with a chiropractor or physical therapist. These professionals use specific therapies and techniques to reduce your sciatica pain.
Should I Be Thinking about Surgery?
But if your pain just won�t go away�even after using a number of non-surgical treatments�then spine surgery might be the best option for you. Having surgery for sciatica is a big deal, so make sure you gather as much information as possible on your procedure and don�t be afraid to ask your doctor questions.
FORT MYERS, FL. � The UTEP women�s golf team enjoyed an improved second day at the Conference USA Championships.� The Miners followed up their 307�on Monday with a 299 on Tuesday, and rose two spots in the team standings in the process.
UTEP (307-299-606) is in eighth place.� Middle Tennessee is first (292-291-583), Old Dominion second (289-298-587) and UTSA third (298-297-595) out of 11 teams.� The final round will take place on Wednesday.
The Miners� Lily Downs jumped from 16th place to 14th after shooting a two-over-par 74 on Tuesday.� The sophomore stands at 149 (75-74) through 36 holes and is 12 strokes behind Middle Tennessee�s Jenna Burris, who is in atop the leaderboard with a seven-under-par 137 (67-70).� Downs recorded three birdies in round two, including on the three-par hole no. 17.
UTEP�s June Ting is tied for 25th place (78-74-152), Alisa Rodriguez is tied for 32nd place (78-76-154), Sofia Castiello is tied for 47th place (76-82-158) and Abbie Anghelescu is in 49th place (84-75-159).
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