Back and Spine Health Dr. Jimenez Chiropractic for Children: A child’s health includes physical, mental, and social well-being. Knowing the basics of keeping kids healthy, like healthy foods, making sure they get enough sleep, exercise, and safety. It is also important for kids to get regular checkups with their health care providers. Regular visits offer a chance to check a child’s development.
They are also a good time to catch or prevent problems. Other than checkups, school-age kids should be seen for significant weight gain or loss, sleep problems or change in behavior, a fever higher than 102, rashes or skin infections, frequent sore throats, and breathing problems.
Chiropractic care for children offers a solid foundation for wellness. A regular chiropractic lifestyle offers choices and benefits for your greater health and well-being throughout pregnancy, birth, and childhood. The following video and articles will help you understand the importance of the chiropractic family wellness lifestyle.
While back pain is a known and widely-studied issue in adults, its prevalence in school-aged children has received comparatively little scientific attention. Elementary, middle, and high school students must often carry backpacks that weigh enough to cause chronic back pain, poor posture, and even decreased lung volume. Recently, several studies reveal the truths behind childhood back pain and ways to mitigate it.
Are Backpacks Too Heavy for Kids?
Recent research supports that children carrying backpack loads of more than ten percent of their bodyweight have a greater risk of developing back pain and related issues. An international study found that an alarmingly large proportion of school-aged children in Australia, France, Italy, and the United States regularly carried backpacks weighing more than the ten percent threshold.
In another study involving a sample of 1540 metropolitan school-aged children, over a third of the children surveyed reported back pain. In addition to carrying heavy backpacks, female students and those diagnosed with scoliosis had a greater association with back pain. Children with access to lockers reported less pain.
The number of straps on the backpack had little impact on the respondents’ answers. Children also reported limited physical activity due to back pain, and some took medication to relieve the pain.
Girls who carried purses in addition to wearing a backpack reported significantly greater back pain. Adolescents with back pain spent more time watching television than their peers. Over 80 percent of those surveyed believed that carrying a heavy backpack caused their back pain.
Proper Backpack Carrying Techniques
The studies revealed several factors that may help reduce back pain in school-aged children. The best way to prevent back pain is to avoid carrying heavy loads.
Children should take advantage of locker breaks and only carry items necessary for a couple of classes at a time. When lifting a backpack, children should crouch down and bend their knees rather than curve the spine.
Children should avoid carrying over 10 percent of their bodyweight in their backpack. For example, an 8th-grader weighing 120 pounds should carry no more than 12 pounds.
Place the heaviest objects at the back of the pack.
Make sure the items fit as snugly as possible to minimize back pain due to shifting weight.
Adjust the shoulder straps so they fit snugly over your child’s shoulders and the backpack doesn’t drag your child backward. The bottom of the pack should be less than four inches below your child’s waist.
Children should avoid carrying backpacks slung over one shoulder, as it can cause spinal pain and general discomfort.
Encourage your child to carry only necessary items in their backpack. Additional items can be carried in hand.
Look for backpacks with helpful features such as multiple compartments for even weight distribution, padded straps to protect the shoulders and neck, and waist belt.
If your child’s school allows, consider a rollerpack, which rolls across the floor like a suitcase.
If problems continue, talk to your child’s teacher or principal about implementing paperback textbooks, lighter materials, or digital versions.
Chiropractic Care Can Help
If your child continues to experience back pain, contact your local chiropractor. Chiropractic care benefits many adults with spinal discomfort, and licensed practitioners can provide tailored treatments for children.
Chiropractors can also recommend safe exercises to improve back strength, and additional advice on proper nutrition to build strong bones and joints, healthy posture, and more. If your child is experiencing back pain from carrying a backpack, gives us a call. We�re here to help!
Backpack Safety
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Ask kids what their favorite part of the school day is and most will say lunch and recess. But the timing of these events matters when it comes to what children eat and how much physical activity they get, researchers report.
The new findings could help schools develop policies to promote healthy eating and exercise habits for kids, the study authors said.
“Overall, our findings suggest that recess and lunch behaviors are interrelated. However, the specific food choices and activity levels children engage in may be subject to the timing and duration of lunch and recess,” researcher Gabriella McLoughlin said in an American Society for Nutrition news release.
Nutritional Intake and Physical Activity for Kids
McLoughlin, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is scheduled to present the research Sunday at the society’s annual meeting in Chicago.
For the study, researchers analyzed what 151 fourth- and fifth-graders at two schools ate for lunch and their physical activity. All ate lunch right before or right after recess. Most research has focused on nutritional intake or physical activity during recess. Study leader Naiman Khan called this the first “to objectively measure food intake at lunch in conjunction with physical activity, and consider the influence of duration and timing.”
Khan is an assistant professor of kinesiology and community health at the university. The researchers discovered that students who had recess before eating lunch wasted less food. But kids who had lunch before recess ate more vegetables.
While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends recess before lunch to help curb food waste, researchers say this schedule and how much time kids have to eat and play could have unwanted effects on what they eat and how much exercise they get. The study found that kids who had more time for lunch and recess and who ate before they played were more active. The opposite was true for boys and girls who had less time for lunch and recess. These students were more active if they had recess before they ate.
“We plan to communicate our findings to school teachers, administrators and policymakers to facilitate the implementation of evidence-based policies that support children’s ability to meet their daily physical activity and nutritional recommendations,” Khan said.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Whole Body Wellness
Maintaining overall health and wellness through a balanced nutrition, regular physical activity and proper sleep is essential for your whole body�s well-being. While these are some of the most important contributing factors for staying healthy, seeking care and preventing injuries or the development of conditions through natural alternatives can also guarantee overall health and wellness. Chiropractic care is a safe and effective treatment option utilized by many individuals to ensure whole body wellness.
Here’s yet another reason to make sure your kids are active: New research shows those with stronger muscles may have better working memory.
Evaluating 79 children between the ages of 9 and 11, scientists said they found that muscle fitness was directly related to a more accurate memory. The results also reinforced established research linking kids’ aerobic fitness to better thinking skills and academic performance.
“There are multiple ways children can derive benefit from exercise … to build healthy bodies as well as healthy minds,” said study co-author Charles Hillman. He’s a professor of psychology and health sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. “We know that kids are becoming increasingly inactive, overweight and unfit,” Hillman added. “So, it’s important to take studies like these … to basically indicate the benefit of physical activity and the importance of it.”
Physical Activity in Children
Only 1 in 3 children in the United States is physically active every day, according to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. One contributor is the 7.5 hours per day, on average, that children spend in front of a screen — whether it be TV, video games, computers or the like.
Children taking part in the study completed both aerobic fitness and muscular fitness assessments, including upper body, lower body and core exercises. Additionally, their working memory and academic achievement were measured by various tests.
Hillman and his colleagues found that participants with higher levels of aerobic fitness also scored higher on tests of memory and mathematics. But a new insight was gleaned with the finding that muscle fitness was directly linked to memory performance — though not academic performance. Hillman emphasized that the muscle fitness tests used in the research resembled the kinds of activity kids take part in regularly — not lifting large weights.
“It wasn’t pure strength the way that running is pure cardio,” Hillman explained, “in the sense that they were doing high volume [repetitions] and low weights. Much was body movement, such as pushups and squats or lifting light medicine balls. We were trying to mimic the way kids would typically be active.”
Working memory in both boys and girls appeared to benefit equally from greater muscle fitness, he noted.
Hillman said scientists aren’t sure how greater muscle fitness would work to enhance memory. Drawing from the results of animal research, he theorized that muscle fitness could help connections develop between brain neurons.
Dr. Bradley Sandella, fellowship director for sports medicine at Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del., said the new findings provided information he could use in his own practice.
“I think we always think about the benefit of physical activity on overall health, but not specifically for cognitive function,” Sandella said. “This is something I can use to motivate students, but also parents of students, to become more physically active. Not only do we know it’s good for physical development, but also that it’s good for cognitive development.”
He cautioned, however, that the study was preliminary and that long-term research is needed to determine any effects of muscle fitness on academic performance. The study also did not prove that stronger muscles caused memory to improve.
The study was published recently in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
SOURCES: Charles Hillman, Ph.D., professor, psychology and health sciences, Northeastern University, Boston; Bradley Sandella, D.O., fellowship director, sports medicine, Christiana Care Health System, Wilmington, Del.; April 2017 issue, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Whole Body Wellness
Maintaining overall health and wellness through a balanced nutrition, regular physical activity and proper sleep is essential for your whole body�s well-being. While these are some of the most important contributing factors for staying healthy, seeking care and preventing injuries or the development of conditions through natural alternatives can also guarantee overall health and wellness. Chiropractic care is a safe and effective treatment option utilized by many individuals to ensure whole body wellness.
Water is a better bet than sports drinks for young athletes, sports medicine specialists say.
Most youngsters don’t exert themselves at an intensity or duration that requires the extra sugar and salt contained in sports drinks, said Dr. Matthew Silvis. He is director of primary care sports medicine at Penn State Health Medical Center.
“Sports drinks can replenish some of what you lost during exercise, but you really need to be exercising for more than 45 minutes to an hour before you would consider that,” Silvis said. “Many of our kids are not doing enough to warrant it,” he added in a university news release.
Also, giving children sports drinks with extra sugar puts them at risk for weight gain and tooth decay, Silvis and his colleagues noted.
Water Over Sports Drinks
Dr. Katie Gloyer is a primary care sports medicine physician at Penn State Medical Group, in State College. She agreed that “kids and adolescents really should not be using these drinks. Water is the best method of hydration.” Energy drinks that contain caffeine or other stimulants are also ill-advised for children, the physicians said. These beverages can boost blood pressure, cause heart palpitations and heart rhythm disorders, headaches and upset stomach.
Some kids may also feel jittery or nervous after downing an energy drink, the experts added. Coaches and parents should provide water to make sure children are properly hydrated during exercise, the doctors said.
“If they are playing 30- or 45-minute halves, they should have a water break, and maybe add fresh orange slices or a granola bar to add a bit of sugar and/or protein at an appropriate level,” Silvis said.
After exercise, whole or low-fat chocolate milk works just as well — if not better — than recovery drinks. “Chocolate milk has the perfect combination of fat, proteins and carbohydrates that you want to get back into your system,” Silvis added.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Whole Body Wellness
Maintaining overall health and wellness through a balanced nutrition, regular physical activity and proper sleep is essential for your whole body�s well-being. While these are some of the most important contributing factors for staying healthy, seeking care and preventing injuries or the development of conditions through natural alternatives can also guarantee overall health and wellness. Chiropractic care is a safe and effective treatment option utilized by many individuals to ensure whole body wellness.
If you have a child who plays sports, then you share my excitement for them when they play the game. You probably also share my apprehension about injuries. I recently witnessed one of my daughter�s teammates tear her ACL in a volleyball match�in a non-contact play. The same thing happened to my son and it was heart wrenching. In fact, this caused me to look at the latest research for ways to prevent this from happening to my child and to other children in our community. It is more important than ever before to have parents understand the importance of injury awareness. �This has never been more true today as we become a highly competitive�community.
The Research Is Revealing
My son and daughter�s teammate are not alone. There are nearly 150,000 ACL injuries in the U.S. each year (American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine). 70% of those are non-contact injuries involving landing or cutting. Females are 2-8 times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than males. Worse still: 1 in 4 go on to have another knee injury later.
One study (American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2014) looked at re-injury rates in 750 people after 5 years and found that of the 561 people who finished the study, 4.5% had their graft repairs tear and 7.5% tore the ACL in the other knee. What I found most disturbing is that the highest incidence of further injury occurred in the people who had their first surgery before 20 years of age!
I looked at several studies going back 15 years. They all conclude about the same things when it comes to injury prevention: a program of education, strength, flexibility, sport specific agility drills and plyometrics [aka: jump training] help to prevent injuries.
You might well ask: If we know that is the case, then why haven�t we taken the recommended actions to reduce the number of injuries �the rate of which are basically unchanged in the past 10 years? There are a number of reasons, and perhaps one of them is because we parents assume this is part of the coach�s job.
Truth be told, though, we really expect coaches to focus on technical training �that will help our children gain proficiency and expertise. Sure, they want to reduce injuries, too, but they can�t do it all and most don�t have degrees in injury prevention. So, if the coach can�t do it, who can? Well, if you are lucky enough to have a certified athletic trainer at your school, that helps. But for me, the �aha!� from the research is that injury prevention falls first and foremost on my shoulders as a parent.
What a Parent Can Do �And Should Not Try Do
A�childs athlete�s best training tool is BODY AWARENESS. Learning how to decelerate and land from a jump are just some of the important skills to learn that can help with performance and safety”.
The research backs this up.
There are various screening tools to assess an athlete�s ability to hop from a box, jump and land. Athletes who have poor control or have asymmetries right to left were correlated with greater injury risk. (Chorbe et al N AmJ Sorts Phys Ther 2010; Padue et al AJSM 2009).
The�PUSHasRx’s�and other local pre-season programs are progressive student education programs�starting with teaching body control in static positions, progressing to linear jumping drills and plyometrics. Then, the young athletes are taught to apply the learned techniques to deceleration activities in their sport, while all along maximizing strength and joint range of motion. This type of program needs to be ongoing to be effective (Padue et al AJSM 2012) and typically works best if done 2-3 times per week pre- season and 1 time per week in season.
Mind and Body Make the Winning Combination
So why can�t we just give our children a packet of drills to do on their own or take them to the gym ourselves? After all, I was a pretty good athlete in my day� Well, one reason is psychological. They need to understand the serious purpose of the activities and be 100% committed to what they are learning and doing. One way to do that is to work with a professional. �Sometimes kids need to hear it from someone not in a parent position to understand. �We just will have to do what it takes to get our kids to understand.
The second reason is about what is known as �motor memory�. Form is everything and it takes a trained eye to recognize and teach form, such as good landing mechanics and deceleration skills so that they become a part of motor memory. The bottom line is: If your child practices good jump-landing techniques s/he may have better form and motor memory to handle knee joint loading forces (Meyer et al. Am J Sports Med 2013).
As we head into summer�sports, let�s give our kids the best opportunity for an injury free season. I urge you to do what I�m doing: seek out a body awareness/training professional who can teach them to stay in the game they love!
El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez takes a look at parenthood and longer life.
Parents, take courage. If you survive the sleep deprivation, toddler tantrums and teenage angst, you may be rewarded with a longer life than your childless peers, researchers said Tuesday.
Fathers gained more in life expectancy than mothers, a team wrote in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health — and particularly in older age.
“By the age of 60, the difference in life expectancy… may be as much as two years” between people with, and those without, children, they concluded.
Researchers tracked the lifespan of men and women born between 1911 and 1925 and living in Sweden — more than 1.4 million people in total.
Data Was Gathered On Whether The Participants Were Married & Had Children
Men and women with at least one child had “lower death risks” than childless ones, the team concluded.
“At 60 years of age, the difference in life expectancy was two years for men and 1.5 years for women” compared to peers with no kids, the researchers wrote.
By age 80, men who fathered children had a remaining life expectancy of seven years and eight months, compared to seven years for childless men, said the team.
For mothers, life expectancy at 80 was nine years and six months, while for childless women it was eight years and 11 months.
The study merely pointed out a correlation, and cannot conclude that having children is the cause of the life expectancy gains, the researchers admitted.
But they theorised that parents may benefit from social and financial support from their children in older age, which childless people lose out on.
It Could Be That Childless People Live Unhealthier Lifestyles Than Parents Do
The association between having children and longer life was found in married and unmarried people, but appeared to be strongest in single, older men, said the study.
This could be because unmarried men relied more heavily on their offspring in the absence of a partner.
The study did not echo previous research which found that having daughters is more beneficial for longevity than sons.
Fewer and fewer people are having children in Sweden at the same time as older people are spurning old age institutions to receive care at home — often by their children.
“Therefore, to further investigate health and survival consequences for childless older individuals is of importance,” wrote the team.
The Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics (JCCP) is the official peer-reviewed journal of the ICA Council on Chiropractic Pediatrics. It is committed to publishing research, scientific and professional papers, literature reviews, case reports and clinical commentaries for chiropractors and other health care professionals interested in the treatment of the pregnant, postpartum and pediatric patient. Through the publication of these papers and the dissemination of this information, the JCCP seeks to encourage professional dialogue and awareness about chiropractic pediatric care to help enhance patient care and improve patient outcomes.
Editors: Sharon A. Vallone, DC., DICCP., Cheryl Hawk, DC, PhD.
We are hopeful that this venue will provide field clinicians interested in maternal health and pediatric chiropractic with current research, case reports and clinical commentary that they will find both useful and informative. �We invite you to submit your own research or scientific writing for consideration for publication in this journal.
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