Best Children’s Backpack Tips

Step 1: Choose Right.
Choosing the right size backpack is the most important step to safe backpack use.

Tip: Bring a friend to help you measure your backpack properly.

Step 2: Pack Right.
The maximum weight of the loaded backpack should not exceed 15 % of your body weight, so pack only what is needed.

Tip: If the backpack forces the wearer to move forward to carry, it’s overloaded.

Step 3: Lift Right.
Face the Pack -Bend at the Knees – Use both hands and check the weight of the pack. – Lift with the legs – Apply one shoulder strap and then the other.

Tip: Don’t sling the backpack onto one shoulder.

Step 4: Wear Right.
Use both shoulder straps – snug, but not too tight.

Tip: When the backpack has a waist strap – use it

DC Pack™ is the only backpack designed by a Doctor of Chiropractic and co-founder of Backpack Safety America/International, the world’s first comprehensive educational program for safe and proper backpack use among school-age children. Why purchase the DC Pack™ for yourself or your child? Here are just a few of the many reasons why:

• Special lumbar support takes stress off the back and encourages healthy posture by using the backpack’s weight to maintain the natural curves of the spine

• Wide, cushioned, adjustable shoulder straps distribute the contents’ weight to reduce pressure on shoulders and neck and adjust to fit any student

• Equipped with light-reflective material that enhance safety by making it easy to spot the backpack and its wearer in dark areas

• Ergonomically designed in true small, medium and large sizes that afford a perfect fit for every student from the smallest kindergartner to the tallest teen

• Unlike other backpacks, DC Pack™ affords surprisingly ample carrying space for large books and over-sized notebooks while limiting the load and preventing the damage so often caused by over-packing and excessive backpack weight

• Waist strap helps secure the load to the child’s body, preventing side-to-side sway and imbalance that can cause injuries due to falls

• Mobile phone/mp3 player holder located conveniently on one shoulder strap provides easy access for use

• Available in four attractive colors – candy apple red, sky blue, royal blue and black – each with reflective stripes that increase safety by making the backpack and its wearer easy to spot in dark areas

• Zippered outer compartment provides easy storage for keys, pens, pencils and calculators

• DC Pack™ comes with a lifetime guarantee. If it breaks, simply send it back with a note on where to send the replacement. If for some reason we cannot replace it, we’ll refund the purchase price.

For information on how to implement a Backpack safety program in your school you can call our office, (Dr. Spallone) or visit Backpack Safety America. You can buy DC backpacks here. Thanks to Martino TV for the attention to this often time overlooked issue.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably hurting and are looking for back pain treatment.  Hopefully some tips are here to help steer you in the right direction.

Far too often, treating back pain begins at the urgent care center where you’ll likely receive some muscle relaxers and pain pills. Very rarely does this provide even mild relief.

So, after a trip to your primary care doctor…you go online reading about natural, alternative healing methods that can help.  You may have been skeptical of chiropractic until now-the pain is unbearable. You see a long list of Colorado chiropractors.

What now?

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Fibromyalgia Facts:

In 1986, Fibromyalgia (FMS) patients evaluated chiropractic care via a ‘questionnaire study’, as being more successful than  prescribed medication.(1) Follow-up survey figures in 1991 supported the earlier findings.(2) An additional study demonstrated that chiropractors were amongst the alternative health practitioners that FMS (Fibromyalgia Syndrome) patients most frequently used.(3) Myofascial or deep tissue massage has also been a popular treatment.

Supplementary studies propose that spinal manipulation (chiropractic adjustments) and myofascial therapy (myofascial release) improved some of the FMS patients’ symptoms, especially the most prolific symptom- pain.(4,5) And in yet another controlled study, para-spinal soft-tissue massage along with chiropractic spinal manipulation worked to increase FMS patients’ general sense of well-being.(6)

Other studies, though, suggest that the long-term use of spinal manipulation does not measurably improve the pain and functional impairment of FMS patients.(7-9)

?

These reports are why I do not use spinal manipulation as the sole modality to treat Fibromyalgia in my Denver chiropractors clinic. Contrarily, these reports are one of the reasons I sometimes do.  Treatment plans must be customized to the individual. Spinal manipulation is a tool. Myofascial release is a tool and tools should be used accordingly, based on a fluctuating number of individual factors. In my clinical experience, Fibromyalgia patients who receive too much spinal manipulation or too aggressive spinal manipulation may actually react adversely and get worse. I’ve have found that most Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue patients need metabolic rehabilitation as well as neurological relief.

Most suffer from what I call “Nerve Exhaustion.”

The fact is that spinal manipulation and deep tissue therapy may offer mild-to-moderate but temporary pain relief. Most patients achieve long-term reprieve from pain and additional symptoms only when they go through comprehensive metabolic and neurological treatment and physical rehabilitation.

1. Wolfe, F, Smythe, HA, Yunus, MB, et al. The American College of Rheumatology 1990

criteria for the classification of fibromyalgia: report of the multicenter criteria committee.

Arthritis Rheumatism 1990; 33:160-172.

2. Pioro-Boisset M, Esdaile JM, and Fitzcharles MA: Alternative medicine use in fibromyalgia

syndrome. Arthritis Care Res 1996; 9(1):13-17.

3. Wolfe F. The clinical syndrome of fibrositis. Am J Med 1986; 81(suppl 3A):7-14. 35. Wolfe

F. Personal communication, March 8, 1991.

4. Blunt, K.L., Rajwani, M.H., and Guerriero, R.C.: The effectiveness of chiropractic

management of fibromyalgia patients: a pilot study. J Manip Physiol Ther 1997; 20(6):389-399.

5. Hains G, and Hains F. A combined ischemic compression and spinal manipulation in the

treatment of fibromyalgia: A preliminary estimate of dose and efficacy. J Manip Physiol Ther

2000; 23(4):225-230.

6. Backstrom G and Rubin BR. When Muscle Pain Won’t Go Away. Dallas: Taylor Publishing

Company, 1992.

7. Dimmock S, Troughton PR, and Bird HA. Factors predisposing to the resort of

complementary therapies in patients with fibromyalgia. Clin Rheumatol 1996; 15(5):478-482.

8. Jacobs JW, Rasker JJ, Van Riel PL, Gridnau FW, and van de Putte LB. Alternative treatment

methods in rheumatic diseases: a literature review. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd 1991; 135(8):317-

322.

9. Fitzcharles MA and Esdaile JM. Nonphysician practitioner treatments and fibromyalgia

syndrome. J Rheumatol 1997; 24(5):937-940

If you’ve been experiencing lower back pain, take a few minutes to read this through and consider the sources that may be hurting you.

Certain nerves control certain functions in the body. Pain is only one of the functions. Certain nerves carry certain messages. Pain is what’s called a nociceptive signal sent to the brain in response to an even that could be painful.  Not all nociceptive signals are reproduced in the brain as pain though.  Sometimes the signal can be nociceptive, but the amplitude of the signal isn’t high enough to register as pain.  In this case it might only be a dull ache or nothing at all.  Take for instance a sports injury like cutting a finger in a football game and not feeling it; nociceptive thresholds can change due to your activity or due to such day to day things stress.

Lower back pain left alone too long may turn into things like sciatica or numbing and tingling in the leg, which could be sign of a herniated or bulging disc (disk). A lot of times I see improper foot bio-mechanics as the causative factor in chronic LBP. ‘Causative’ meaning THE primary reason for pain in the lower back, sacroiliac joints or hip pain or piriformis syndrome.

Many times a person may injure their low back and not notice the pain till that evening… or the next day. It’s possible that the injury was a muscle strain in this case and when activity decreases the muscle and the pain threshold ‘relax’ enough to notice the nociception to the point that the brain registers the signal as pain.

Bending forward and pulling weeds in the garden is a pretty common task, but if done for too long it can be similar to a lifting injury.  If you hear a ‘pop’ in your spine, it’s likely you over did it. Maybe a ligament injury or herniated disc. Maybe the pop was a strained muscle or a joint dysfunctionly moving.  Back off of your activity and rest immediately until you can be checked.  Letting an injury recover right away is always best – no matter how big or small the injury may seem.  Eventually, injuries will always catch up with us if we ignore them. Symptoms is your body’s way of communicating with you about it’s well-being…pay attention.

Lower back pain affects 80% of Americans at some point in their working lives.  All professions are susceptible too…office managers, receptionists, laborers, drivers, and CEO’s.  Injuries can be chronic in nature such as poor ergonomics.  Chairs with little support aren’t necessarily bad.  The important thing to consider is how well it fits you. Even the best chair with good support ‘steals’ the job of supporting your spine from your core spinal muscles.  Is support bad, no. The point is to maintain a level of fitness that is synonymous with your lifestyle so that YOUR spine can support itself and do what you ask of it.

Upper back pain, although not as common as lower back pain, plagues people every day. I’ll touch on a few of the common sources of upper and middle back pain.

Colorado chiropractors, given the huge number of recreational runners and outdoor enthusiasts; see upper back pain as a result of faulty biomechanics in a majority of the cases. Downtown Denver chiropractors may see more postural related upper back pain due to the frequency of office workers and repetitive stress or cumulative trauma injuries. Some of the best chiropractors, like Dr. Eben Davis, make a huge impact on treating these types of office related injuries naturally and drug and surgery free

When a person ‘runs too tight’ they strain muscles in and around the upper back around the trapezius and rhomboid muscles.  Underneath the ‘traps’ are ribs, and the heads of ribs.  This is where they articulate with the spine. There are joints here. These can become misaligned or subluxated. If an articulation is altered in anyway, this is called a subluxation. Besides sports injuries or poor posture, sometimes innocent things like coughing, twisting or sneezing can cause a rib to ‘come out.’ When they do it can feel like an ice pick on the inside of your shoulder blade.

I see it a lot.

To fix a subluxation, an adjustment can help a condition like this immensely- sometimes immediately.

Upper back pain has other sources too.  Spinal fractures, rib fractures, degenerative discs, trigger points, muscle spasms, referred pain from a lung disorder, and pinched nerves all can cause pain in your upper back.  These conditions are a little trickier to fix.

If you just slept wrong last night then it’s likely a rib isn’t articulating properly.  The symptoms you’d likely feel here are a sharp pain that may or may or may not radiate.  There might be some dull achy tendencies as well, but the most agonizing part of this is that you’re unable to turn your head or breathe properly.  Again, since the rib assists in all of these motions…that’s why it’ll re-create pain each time it’s called upon to move. This is when most people realize how important your rib cage is.

For temporary relief, magnesium sulfate can be used in a bath, frequently called Epsom salt. (Yes, your mother was right) Magnesium is a muscle relaxant.  It can also be taken orally; the taste isn’t all that great.  The relaxing effects can even be felt in the bowel.  Careful not to overdose orally, as this might induce very loose stools or diarrhea.

For other home exercises or proactive ways to prevent upper back pain you can also refer to a yoga practitioner, local chiropractor, physical therapist, or massage therapist.  Get help as soon as you can.  The longer a condition ‘wallows’ in pain, the harder it is to treat and recover from it.  Upper back pain is a game that’s a team sport…call on your spinal specialist as a teammate that can be your catalyst in recovering fast!

The origins of middle back pain can stem from several places.  Middle back pain during pregnancy has a different etiology than middle back pain while running.  To fully understand what might be causing pain in your middle back, it’s important to understand nerves and the path that they take.  The reason this is important is because of what’s called ‘referred pain’.

Sometimes your spine can hurt but it’s your gall bladder full of gall stones that’s the cause. It can send pain to your middle back because the neural pathway back to the brain refers pain to a junction in the thoracic spine and it feels like pain in your mid back muscles.  If this is the case, you may notice that your back hurts more every time you eat (especially fatty or greasy foods).

Middle Back Pain and Sports

Middle back pain when running might be an overuse injury.  Typically we’ll see this case in someone who runs.  Your gait pattern or running style or form may need a little improvement. We perform gait analysis to determine if this is a contributing factor.  After analyzing, I would most likely

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Pain in your back can often be prevented or managed with exercises.  Back pain exercises can range from isometric workouts, isotonic weight lifting, and the infamous yoga routines available. I’m not a big fan of the type of generic back pain exercises that you get from the overworked physical therapist that look like they are a copy of a copy of a from a 1970 copy.

In a case where a disc injury is involved, McKenzie exercises are usually recommended.  Extension exercises often offer the most results with a bulging disc due to the decompressive nature of the movement.  (Decompression of the spine can help reverse the pressure of a bulging disc; sometimes referred to as a slipped disc).

Some motions to be careful of are: twisting and bending (simultaneously) especially under additional weight.  Examples of this are carrying awkward objects.  They don’t have to even be that heavy to cause injury because the orientation of annulus fibers in the disc are such that they ‘criss cross’ at about 15 degrees from each other.  This particular orientation is at its weakest when twisting and bending occur at the same time.  This is why you’ll often see a moving crew wearing back braces.

Is twisting bad? No. Is bending bad? No. Combining the two can be, especially when when you have a deconditioning syndrome, which is what most back pain patients have- spinal stabilizing muscles that are unhealthy or not properly conditioned.

Be sure to ‘layer’ your core exercises.  At our chiropractic clinic in Lakewood, CO we use a functional movement screen to determine which parts of your core needs the most work. We work form the weakest link out. Exercises that compromise the weakest muscles are restricted until the patient can demonstrate that they have ‘fixed’ the weakest link.

When you’re in acute pain, starting out with a back exercise that includes deep bending and extreme ranges of motion isn’t a good idea.  It’s this very motion that keeps chiropractors in business.  The spine needs to be treated with care…work up to your goals slowly.  An injury will always set your goals back and hamper your routine.

The point of your back pain exercises should be prevention, not necessarily treatment.

Neck and back pain pain causes can stem from a variety of conditions.  Conditions can range from an inflammatory diet, statin drugs (yes, you heard right, statin drugs can be a major cause of not only back pain but joint pain), gall stones, kidney stones, ruptured discs, strains and sprains, repetitive stress, cumulative trauma, a bad bed, poor driving posture, poor work posture, bad shoes, crummy pillows, stress, improper lifting… or attempting the pose the woman above. So knowing the history is half the battle.

Acute and chronic conditions present differently and often result in different treatment plans.  The sooner you treat a condition the sooner the recovery…for obvious reasons one can heal faster if treatment is sought sooner rather than later.

Where To Go For The Answer to Your Back Pain Cause

As you probably know by the name of my website, Denver chiropractor, I practice in Colorado. We serve Lakewood, Littleton, Englewood, Cherry Hills Village, Ken Caryl, Golden and all the surrounding areas. We always ask for thorough family history, possible modes of injury, medications, supplements and daily activities. When all of the ‘crumbs’ fall place we can follow the clues to the solution much easier. I liken it to chasing a horse or a zebra.  They both leave very similar tracks, but they’re much, much different. Sometimes the answer is

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Back pain during pregnancy can be debilitating.  Understanding the sources of back pain might give you better insight to the facts and myths about pain with pregnancy as well.

Lower back pain can accompany constipation and the cramps during pregnancy can be miserable for a new mother-to-be.  A mother’s body is accommodating and adapting so much in the first trimester it often can throw her bowels into a temporary ‘freeze.’  The nerves emanating from the lower back eventually innervate the lower GI tract, which consists of a lot of smooth muscle; hence the correlation between low back pain and constipation. Many times this can easily be managed with the proper care. The irregularity can often be relieved with an appropriate dose of magnesium citrate.

If you’re experiencing 1^st trimester back pain, a chiropractor can a great place to start in relieving or managing your spinal discomfort.  It’s common (although not normal) to get back pain with pregnancy.  Many times the added weight gain during pregnancy can cause a previously hidden biomechanical fault to come to the surface where it now expresses itself as pain, when before you’re body was managing it.  So if you’re experiencing these symptoms..all the more reason to be in the hands of a competent provider for back pain relief while your pregnant. In my clinic we frequently use the ProAdjuster, which is a computerized instrument that gently assists the body to realigning. Sometimes mom’s just cant comfortably get in a position to be manually adjusted. So this new technology is quite a relief.

2^nd trimester and 3^rd trimester pains, though still somewhat related are a little more unique than the first trimester (as far as back pain goes).  The second and especially the third trimester are more and more devoted to the growth of your baby.  The fetus is growing so much that the source of your discomfort may in fact be due to altered biomechanics such as pelvic bowl changes. We all know that some pregnant mothers have a distinct waddle:). It is, however, possible to maintain a functional and healthy gait if you are being monitored by a physical medicine specialist. Many times something as simple a case specific exercise may do the trick.

Along with back pain during your pregnancy, I see a lot of athletic mothers in Denver so I focus on treating extremities too.  Leg cramps especially unilateral can be treated with adjustments too.  There aren’t many supplements, pills or drugs that treat the cause of your ‘one-sided’ leg cramps.  Consider the ‘waddle’ again for a second and you might notice that one side of your body has to work a little harder than the other.  If a certain set of muscles is ‘overworked and underpaid’ then the untreated cause may contribute to a symptom in the form of cramps.  This is where a chiropractor can really help with back pain during pregnancy. Our clinic is in Lakewood, CO.

When it comes to back pain relief, a visit to the chiropractor has to be on the list, in most cases. Although we’re ‘not real doctors’ To become a chiropractor one must do so by national licensing and national board certifications…not to mention a 4 year bachelor’s degree and 4-5 years of doctoral training in a professional accredited chiropractic university. (Including cadaver lab at 7AM for a year ) And people wonder why I don’t want to go see “Body World’s.”

Back to back pain…

Since back pain relief is so elusive, personally, I like to bring in “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men” to battle it. Most of the time, that’s what it takes.

You get knocked down 7 times, we stand up 8.

There are some home remedies like a topical analgesic, l use Biofreeze. It can provide temporary pain reduction, but by no means is it a cure.  Analgesics like aspirin or Tylenol are often recommended for low grade back pain relief, but unfortunately this option rarely treats the actual CAUSE of the pain.  It’s highly unlikely that your pain is coming from a LACK of aspirin or Tylenol flowing in your veins.

Back pain causes..

Back pain is caused by various conditions and a proper diagnosis will determine proper therapy.  To get a good idea of what’s causing your discomfort, make a journal of the physical things you do the most. Sitting, driving, sleeping, whatever and review how you are performing them. Example: Today I was driving and the car in front of me looked like their was a passenger  driver was in the very middle of the car with no driver. As I pulled up next to him and looked, the driver was slunk over so far that his head was in the middle of the car! God forbid he get rear ended in a position like that…ouch!

Pain relief should start with first knowing what’s causing the pain. Too many doc’s just use the ’shotgun approach.’ The most conservative options such as manipulation therapy, physical therapy, massage, ice or heat should be attempted first.

Acute and chronic conditions can offer a different approach for back pain relief.  Overuse injuries are often chronic in nature.  This being the case, the management of your condition will become more of a process than an event. Sometimes you can expect immediate relief, but often times injuries result in tissue damage which will lend itself to a treatment plan that isn’t an overnight miracle, although we take them when we can.

Things to consider when seeing your Denver chiropractor are not only how long you’ve dealt with low back pain, but also how you my have injured your back.  Mechanism of injury and daily activities give your doctor a better idea of how the injury was sustained.  In knowing this, the doctor can offer better recovery options for you.  In this case, knowing the past can give clues to preventing the spinal pain from coming back.

Things to consider regarding back pain relief:

• How old is your mattress?
• What kind of shoes do you wear? (Check back for a blog post on the “best shoes for back pain” soon)
  
• How much core exercise do you do?
• What’s your posture like? (Like right now?)
  
• When was the last time you sat and performed back pain stretches for 20 minutes?
• How much water do you drink? Let me guess.. “Not as much as I should.” (I’ve heard that one a few times)
• Do you eat a lot of boxed or packaged foods? (They’re inflammatory, you know)
• Omega-3 fatty acids in your diet?
  
• Are you taking a magnesium supplement? Most should be.
  
• Look at the amount of stress you’re dealing with. Most people have no idea how much stress contributes to physical pain.

Here’s a big one that most people have no idea about…Statin drugs are also a HUGE contributor to back, neck and joint pain! I’m seeing it more and more. Patients get off the statins and low and behold… back pain relief!

**As always, remember we serve Denver, Lakewood, Englewood and all of Littleton.