Sleep apnea is a breathing-related sleep disorder that causes brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. These interruptions can last 10 seconds or more and can occur up to 400 times per night. Sleep apnea is a serious and potentially life threatening condition that often goes unrecognized and undiagnosed. Sleep apnea occurs in both sexes and across all age groups. Not all sleep apnea is the same, a diagnosis of sleep apnea can range from mild to severe. 

Sleep apnea is serious because shots of adrenaline are going into the heart 20-400 times per night to re-start your breathing. Sleep is when your body is supposed to rest, and this increased stress causes an overload for the heart, possibly leading to a heart attack or stroke. 

Some of the symptoms of sleep apnea are obvious (snoring, etc.) while some symptoms such as loss of sex drive and irritability may be less of a signal that something is interfering with sleep. Here is a list of some of the symptoms of sleep apnea:

• loud snoring
• morning headaches/nausea
• gasping/choking while asleep
• loss of sex drive/impotence
• excessive daytime sleepiness
• irritability/depression
• disturbed sleep
•  concentration difficulty/memory loss
• excessive urination at night
• restless leg syndrome

The “perfect” deadlift does not exist, if it did the person executing it would lift a weight so heavy that setting it back down would punch a hole in the earth and cause a major earthquake. This is no different than the perfect swim stroke not existing. Michael Phelps does a pretty damn good job of executing a swim stroke, but it was still never perfect. It doesn’t mean that he never stopped chasing it or never stopped getting coached on how to do it better.

That being said…the deadlift is so amazing for the posterior chain of muscles and for strengthening the back and preventing low back pain when it is DONE PROPERLY. When it is done improperly, people make their way into my office to fix them because of their poor deadlift technique. My goal with righting this article is to give you the latest information on how to do a proper deadlift, as close to perfect as possible, to reduce injury and enhance your performance.

For a while I was down on the deadlift. I may have even told you face to face that I was because it caused so many patients to make appointments to come see me. Luckily for me I have some amazing colleagues that put me on to some great information that allowed me to expand my knowledge that I can share with all of you.

​At Vallejo Chiropractic, we are now offering Kinesiology Taping or “K-Taping” to our clients. Some of you may have seen this colorful taping at the Olympics where athletes of almost every sport are wearing it. It is also very popular at the CrossFit games, where the participants are looking for extra support as they are lifting. 

Dr. Kunsman, Dr. Zack, Beau and Shanon took a seminar to see how we could apply this method to our patients at Vallejo Chiropractic. It turns out that taping has a huge value for rehabilitating our patients and can help relieve pain as they progress through care. 

We believe that movement is a key factor to getting you better. K-Taping allows us to have another tool to help you get back in action.

When you have an injury to an area, the body’s tissues get compressed down and almost glued together. This compression is a reaction to prevent more immediate damage, but it slows the healing process. K-Taping takes skin and muscle tissue that has been adheased together and lifts it; allowing for more circulation. You can place the tape over a bruise and it will heal faster than without it. 
K-Taping also brings more neurological attention to the area of your injury. Having the tape on your skin causes the brain to send more signals to where the tape is. Touch is very powerful, and if you have something like Kinesiology Tape constantly in contact with the skin and moving with it, more feedback will be provided to the brain than without it.

​Many patients ask us advice on mattresses. Questions like "When should we replace our old one?" and "Which mattress should we get?" are questions we hear weekly at our offices.
 
Most mattresses have about 10 useable years when you buy them. Pillows are good anywhere from 18 months to 2 years. The best answer for "When should we replace our old mattress?" is when you wake up feeling worse than when you went to bed. Sleep is supposed to restore you. You and your body should feel better  after a good night sleep.
 
You spend anywhere from 25-33% of your life asleep in bed. That means that in the next 10 years, you will spend 3 of those years on your mattress (except for that weekend you had to sleep on your cousins futon and had to come in to see your favorite chiropractors right after).  With this in mind, it makes sense to invest in a good bed.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) includes any disorder of the heart of blood vessels, and it accounts for more than 29% of all human losses. The majority of CVD related deaths are attributed to coronary heart disease (CHD).

Phytosterols: Mode of Action
Phytosterols inhibit intestinal cholesterol absorption, meaning less cholesterol enters the bloodstream, thereby lowering low-density liboprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. In 16 recently published studies that used phytosterols to reduce plasma cholesterol levels in a total of 590 subjects, phytosterol therapy was accompanied by an average 10% reduction in total cholesterol and a corresponding 13% reduction in LDL cholesterol levels.

FDA Allows Health Claims for Phytosterols
The FDA states, "foods and supplements containing at least 400mg per serving of plant sterols, consumed twice a day with meals for a total intake of at least 800mg, may reduce the risk of heart disease.” It is very hard to get the FDA to supply a statement endorsing a non-prescription, but the evidence is truly clever.

Omega-3 Fish Oils and Phytosterols
Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation is known to lower triglycerides and to be anti-inflammatory. Clinical studies combining phytosterols with diets rich in fish oil or sunflower oil showed significant lowering of LDL cholesterol; however, only the fish oil and phytosterol combination lowered both triglycerides and LDL cholesterol.
​
Current research has demonstrated that the consumption of a combination of low-dose omega-3 and plant sterols can effectively reduce both LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride level.
​
Please ask your chiropractor about your specific needs, including the risk of CVD and the side-effects and risks of statin therapy.

Source: Karuna Health