Sponsorship of the Fanatik Bike Team

2010 is starting off really well. At the end 2009 I got the opportunity to join forces with the Fanatik Bike Team and I could not be more excited. As some of you know I am a huge fan of the bike and cycling has been a life long passion...both racing and riding. Just after signing on with Fanatik, Stewart Bowmer went to the Bare Bones Track race in Canada taking 1st in the Keirin, 2nd in the Match Sprints and top 10 overall for the series meeting his goals for the season. Congratulations! Here is to more success for the riders on the Fanatik Bike Team for the 2010 season.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010! I am really excited about the new year and am anticipating it being a great one. I recently got signed on with the Hagens Berman Elite Cycling Team out of Seattle to work with these up and coming riders. I will be travelling with the team to some of the big National Racing Calendar races to support the guys and give treatments to keep them racing at their optimum level. Super excited about this opportunity as I believe it will help take my treatments to another level as I constantly try to find the edge to help the rider reach a higher level.

I am also working 2 professional riders from the United Healthcare Professional Cycling Team. This occurred over the last 2 months. It will be exciting to see these 2 riders reach another level in their game. I am confident that treating their weaknesses and keeping the body towards a more optimized state will result in bigger results this season for them. I will keep you posted.

Finally a congratulations goes out to Steve Fisher. He is a rider I have been working with for the last 3 months. He rides for the WWU Cycling Team, Rad Racing and Hagens Berman. He just got back from European Cyclocross Camp in Belgium where he did 8 races over 17 days racing against the best in the world. He achieved his goals and remained 100% healthy the entire time...tough to do in a foreign country while sharing a house with 15-20 other guys.

Exciting year ahead for the Western Washington University Cycling Team. This is my fourth season working with the team and this season's road team on the Men's side looks to be super strong and they will undoubtedly be challenging for the National Championship again. The strength of the women's team is unknown but there is a good group of ladies who I am sure will rise to the challenge and perform nicely.

I hope everyone had a great holiday. Good luck in 2010!

Vitamin D3 Health Benefits

This information was obtained from Dr. Dan Murphy.

Epidemiology and Infection October 2007, Vol 135, No. 7, pp. 1095-1098 "There is an epidemic of vitamin D insufficiency in the United States, the public health impact on this observation could be great." "Over a 3 year period, taking 800 IU (per day) of vitamin D3 reduced the incidence of colds and flus by 70%. Taking 2000 IU (per day)of vitamin D3 reduced the incidence of colds and flus to nearly zero (only one case out of 104 users)."

Vitamin D Supplementation and Total Mortality A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials Archives of Internal Medicine September 10, 2007;167:1730-173 "Low Vitamin D status could be associated with higher mortality from life-threatening conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes mellitus that account for 60% to 70% of total mortality in high-income countries." "Vitamin D influences both incidence and survival of cancer."

Vitamin D intake and incidence of multiple sclerosis NEUROLOGY, January 13, 2004;62:60-65 "Taking vitamin D supplements for more than 10 years lowered the risk of developing MS by 59%." Vitamin D supplements in the first year of life reduces the risk of Type-1 Diabetes." "Vitamin D has strong immunoregulatory effects." "There is no reduced risk of MS with increased Vitamin D intake from food. It had to be in the form of supplements."

And Finally...Vitamin D for Cancer Prevention: Global Perspective Annals of Epidemiology Volume 19, Issue 7, July 2009, pp 468-483 "Vitamin D3 serum levels of 40 to 60 ng/mL would prevent three fourths of deaths from breast and colorectal cancer in the US and Canada." "Raising Vitamin D3 level 40 to 60 ng/ml would require supplementation with about 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day. "There is no reasonable risks from intake of 2,000 IU per day of vitamin D3.""

Vitamin D3 is a must take supplement. The positive effects on the immune system are nothing short of stunning. Vitamin D2 is not the same as Vitamin D3 so be sure you are purchasing Vitamin D3.

Better Performance, Faster Recovery, Greater Longevity

The title states what we all want both athletes and non athletes. In practice I strive to deliver on these ideas. On the athlete side my patients have been reporting better performance and faster recovery. Why is this? One reason is the lending of nutritional support to the adrenal glands. Many athletes (and non athletes alike) are in a state of adrenal fatigue. These glands work to regulate stress in the body. When these become weakened of fatigue the body goes into a state of weakness. Being in a state of weakness is not a good place to be for an athlete who is attempting to perform at their best and recover quickly for the next event...or for work the next day. Once we start to support the adrenals nutritionally we start to see better performances and faster recovery times. It is like magic. Couple this with supporting the gastrointestinal tract through the use of enzymes to aid in digestion and real magic begins to occur. New PRs have been set and for one of my patients a National Championship back in May.

Supporting the system as a whole through adjustments, laser, nutrition, etc. can create in the body an optimization not realized by many patients ever. I have been a competitive athlete much of my life and my own performance has improved and I recover much faster than I ever thought possible. It really is amazing what the body can do when it is given the environment to perform at its peak. Having my patients consistently report they are performing better and recovering faster is more than enough reason to love what I am doing. It really is an amazing time in health care.

Dr. John Brimhall San Diego Seminar

Spent this past weekend down in San Diego attending a Dr. John Brimhall seminar....while Bellingham was enjoying the best weather in probably over 2 years while San Diego was under a gray sky the entire time we were there. We did not see the sun for one minute. Sigh!

I picked up some great treatment protocols especially using the laser. Dr. Brimhall treated 2 frozen shoulders of 8 months and 5 years duration. After a 5 minutes treatment with laser the 8 month frozen shoulder saw a range of motion increase to about 80% normal while the 5 year saw a 100% return. Pretty awesome.

Looking forward to being home on weekends for the next month. I have the Test of Metal mountain bike race coming up on June 20th up in Squamish. The following weekend heading to Seattle for another seminar on nutrition.

Finally, I have to give a congrats to my team at Ski to Sea for placing 28th overall. Nicely done!

A MUST read for anyone concerned with their health!

This is too important not to get the word out. This is from Dr. Jeff Spencer's blog. He reviewed the following paper:

Mechanobiology and Diseases of Mechanotransduction
Donald Ingber, Phd, MD Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Annals of Medicine of Medicine 2003; 35 (8), pp. 564-77

This is exactly what I have been writing about in previous blogs with respect to needing to remove scar tissue from the body not too mention the removal of toxins and weaknesses...now I understand why. This is nothing short of HUGE in terms of health care. Enjoy the reading.

"What does the title of Inger’s study, Mechanobiology and Diseases of Mechanotransduction have to do with musculoskeletal care? Absolutely everything. And, here’s why.
Our current health care system focuses on disease but ignores the fact that many of the phenomena leading to pain and disease are secondary to changes in tissue structure and mechanics. Pretty interesting I’d say as this implies that as a person loses physical capacity, posture, and control of movement their risk of disease increases.
As clinicians this means that everything we do to restore a patients physical capacity increases their chances of having a more productive and gratifying life with less risk of organic disease. Giving a patient those benefits is about as high you can go on the scale of doing good for a better world as far as I’m concerned.
Let’s look at several important points made by Ingber in his publication:
1. “The global shape of the cell determines it’s behavior (eg growth versus differentiation or apoptosis), and these effect are mediated through tension-dependent changes in cyctoskeletal structure and mechanics.”
This statement is profound as the take home is that anything that changes the shape of the cell needs to be removed so the body can function as it’s designed to.
So, what are those things that could change the shape of cells that fall into our domain as practitioners? Well, just thinking off the tope of my head, here’s a short list of items: tight muscles, scar tissue, hypertonic muscles, fascial tension, inflammatory pockets, muscle incoordination, skeletal asymmetry, handedness, movement pattern distortion, emotions, toxicity, metabolic debris,… and the list goes on.
Considering this list and what it means in terms of cell behavior and illness, not to mention loss of energy and stress on structure from cell distortion, it’s obvious that we need to have clinical strategies for removing all of these interferences to normal cell function so the body can get and keep itself well.
2. “Local changes in tissue structure also may explain why genetic diseases, including cancer, often present locally.”
One of my mentors, Harold Kristal, DDS, was one of the most incredible humans I’ve ever met. Harold was a passionate tennis player. One day while playing tennis he was hit on the anterior surface of his lower leg and developed a large hematoma. The hematoma went away and a few years later he developed osteosarcoma at the original site of injury and died. I always wondered about the connection between previous trauma and subsequent vulnerability to health complications. Having read Ingber’s article I now understand the why: the shape of the cell determines its behavior. And, why, we as clinicians, must do everything possible to unwind our patients bodies to remove as much cell distortion as possible.
It’s important, as mentioned in other parts of my blog, that distortions have numerous origins and can reside, often silently, as locations distant from symptomatic complaints.
3. “When the shape of the a molecule is altered, it’s biophysical properties change, and hence biochemistry (eg chemical reaction rates) will be altered.”
This statement appears to say that biochemistry is subservient to tissue structure. If that’s true it further reinforces the important role that body posture and movement symmetry play in how well a person performs in daily life, how fast they age, and the quality of life they will have.
It’s obvious from this statement by Ingber that a patients willingness to do the correct restorative and wellness exercise is paramount in creating a vital and productive life. And, if purposeful movement isn’t done in sufficient quantity and quality a certain percentage of life quality will be compromised.
4. “Understanding of the relation between structure and function in living tissues and of fundamental mechanisms of cellular mechotransduction may therefore lead to entirely new modes of therapeutic intervention.”
This is music to my ears as it validates everything we do as practitioners dedicated to restoring and maintain the physical body’s form and, therefore, function. Just think about that. This means that every time we help restore form back to the body its function improves and life becomes just a little bit better. Now, this is a concept we can hang our professional hat on with confidence. And, we should feel a true sense of empowerment from this as puts our practice purpose at a much higher level than just chasing symptoms and hoping something positive with happen with the patients health. In essence, it’s helping give them there life back.
5. “Because our bodies are hierarchical structures, mechanical deformation of any tissues results in structural rearrangements in many tissues.”
There it is folks; just as we’ve discussed. When anything is changed in the body the whole body is affected. That’s why when you address a patient’s symptomatic complaint condition the body must be evaluated as a holistic single entity, not just a collection of random cells floating around in salt water (which happens not to be the case which we’ll discuss at another time).
This all’s begs the question of treating a diagnosis. If all we do is address our treatment towards the diagnostic complaint we most often miss critical “causes” of why the complaint is there because the important key factors are most often elsewhere in the body a locations that may no rational reason for being there other than they’re part of the single system body. And, if these key factors in complaint generation aren’t addressed and their interference removed then it makes complete resolution of a patients condition less likely, and in my experience impossible.
Summary
To me Ingber’s paper gives me incredible optimism because it creates a level of cause and effect that allows us to create a clinical model that addresses a known cause and major contributing factor to increased morbidity, disease, and life compromise.
"

Dr. Jeff Spencer

I spent Saturday at a seminar put on by Erchonia (the laser company) and Dr. Jeff Spencer. He taught us more gems on using the laser and gave us some insight into what he did to keep Lance Armstrong and the rest of the team healthy during LA's 7 wins and then Alberto Contador's win (In 8 TDFs the team only lost a total of 3 riders...that I imagine is unprecedented). I left with a greater understanding of how the body works. Dr. Spencer is at the forefront of the profession and it was great to be able to get some of that knowledge. For me, since using the laser my way of treating has been flipped upside down as the "old model" of adjusting and some soft tissue treatment and giving exercises seems like a lifetime ago. The "new model" focuses a great deal in getting the nervous system "turned on" and getting the organs reset nutritionally. Thanks Dr. Spencer for sharing your insight and for your passion for the profession. Never stop learning and applying!