Having spent the last 13 years seeing a couple of hundred patients a day, I’ve pretty much seen and heard it all.  Although the lay population finds new and interesting ways to hurt themselves every year, some crowd favorites clearly rise to the top.  I resist writing posts like this for fear that I am reinforcing the false popular notion that chiropractic care is for “people with bad backs.”  However, I do recognize that there is a growing population of better-informed people who sincerely want to learn more about curbing the likelihood of joining the masses side-lined by low-back injury.

Here is a quick survival guide for those of us who are fortunate enough to live at a latitude that seems to mock the global warming projections.

1.  How to shovel snow:

• Practice the 2015 Technique:  Find a 15 year old and give them $20 to do it for you.
• If this is not possible, follow these rules:

i.  Warm up for fifteen minutes before you begin.  (See Rule of Fifteens) Never exert yourself without sufficiently warming up – go for a walk, jump on the treadmill, do 50 burpees…whatever.  Never shovel “cold” (pun intended).

ii.  Walk Quietly and Carry a Small Shovel:  Using a smaller shovel will reduce load and strain, and prevent the terrible.  The shoveling position puts your spine at risk by nature of mechanics (your discs hate the coupled motions or combination of rotation, flexion and lateral flexion).  The last thing that you should do is put a heavy weight at the end of a long stick, twist, and try to throw it.  Paraphrasing Bill Clinton’s infamous comment on the economy, “It’s physics, stupid.”

iii.  Keep it Below the Belt.  Good shoveling form takes place below the belt.  Think of shoveling as a highly dynamic deadlift.  Start with your feet.  When you shovel, stay on your heels.  Keep your lower back flat (in extension) to keep your posterior chain engaged (read: your hamstrings and buttocks).  Always point your feet where your hands are working.  Never twist; move your feet instead.  When you exert yourself, engage your core muscles.  Find these by imagining someone punching you in the belly.  Inhale and hold your air as you lift or toss, tightening those core muscles.

iv.  Ice When You Are Finished.  There is no excuse; there is always plenty of ice around if you are shoveling snow.  Ice is God’s anti-inflammatory.  It’s free and readily available – and as long as you don’t put it directly on the skin or use it for more than 20 minutes, there are no side-effects.  No one has ever gotten a bleeding ulcer from using ice.  90,000 Americans a year cannot say the same thing about Ibuprofen.  Stop.  Think.  Ice.

v.  See Your Chiropractor Regularly.  Adjustments are preparatory, not custodial.  Yes, it is wise to get your spine checked after any physical stress or trauma; but a more effective strategy is to get adjusted before strenuous activity.  Think about it.  Spinal subluxations are weak links in your structure.  You are much less likely to experience an injury without a pre-existing weakness.  I’m just sayin’…

Stay tuned for Doc’s Winter Survival Guide Part 2 and Part 3 in upcoming blog posts.

Now go book that vacation.

In Health,

Dr. Stephen Franson

• This activity burns approximately 395 calories per hour for an average, 145-pound person.

A seal’s life is relatively simple. Find food, find mate and avoid 2-ton, jumping Great White sharks.

Seals are perfectly adapted to diving to great depths to find and chase food. They have developed the ability to hold their breath underwater for amazing lengths of time. And they have the uncanny ability to dodge the most stealth and ferocious of all predators in the sea.

A Great White will stalk its prey from deep below and charge upward in a vicious vertical attack that is likened to a violent car crash – with teeth. Fast and powerful, the sharks approach is nearly undetectable. Its favorite targets are surface dwelling animals, like a seal or sea turtle, a fact that is deeply unnerving to us surfers.

A seal’s entire physiology changes with a shark encounter. Stress hormones course through their body and immediately an explosive symphony of neurochemical reactions produces the “fight or flight” state. This short-term visceral change is physiologically expensive, but promotes the survival of the organism for the long run. Stay alive now, rest and repair later. This dance is part of a seal’s everyday life. It’s taxing – I know, because I’ve done it.

I’ve been forced out of the water because of sharks in four countries. Unfortunately, sharks are also part of a surfer’s life. They have cut my sessions short in Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Australia. You think that you’ve got stress? Try creeping across the water pass to South Stradbroke Island in Australia.

I was in Australia to teach a three day seminar in Melbourne in 2004. I quickly befriended a group of impassioned surfing chiropractors and spent the week scouring the local line-ups and enjoying world-class waves. They were eager to show me the best surf that the Gold Coast had to offer – which, unfortunately, meant a requisite trip out to South Stradbroke Island. “South Straddie” is known for two things: dredging beach break peaks and lots of big sharks.

To get to the island, surfers must first paddle across the Seaway Spit, a 100 yard outlet that serves as the sole portal for ships – and sharks- to pass in and out of the huge Runaway Bay. My short paddle across this notorious shark pit was so charged by adrenaline that I can barely recall it. Barely.

What I do remember was feeling my heart beat against my board as I paddled. I also remember thinking about the fact that sharks can pick up on a normal heart beat from over a mile away. I might as well have been chumming the water.

The mental stress that I was dealing with during that paddle triggered a powerful physiologic adaptation that was totally appropriate for the reality of my situation. This neuroendocrine response created a cascade of chemical and hormonal changes that shifted my body away from a rest, repair, digestion and reproduction state and slammed its gears into a DEFCON 5 “Do or Die” state. This survival mechanism is highly effective and a totally appropriate response to a real and present danger.

The fight or flight response begins with a stimulus. Whether the stimulus is real or perceived, the brain assesses the situation and responds accordingly. If the stimulus is perceived as a threat, the body prepares to act. In this case, a region of the brain called the hypothalamus calls your survival system into action. Your nervous system works with your hormone system (the adrenal-cortical system) to produce the stress hormones that will act as catalysts to trigger the appropriate physiological adaptive responses. In other words: all systems go!

Stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline (epinephrine) and noradrenalin (nor epinephrine) course through your blood stream and stimulate your organ systems to jump into action. The adrenal-cortical system becomes activated by way of the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland secretes a hormone known as ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) which journeys – via the bloodstream – to your adrenal cortex, which produces a host of different hormones to address the stressful situation at hand.

If you are being pursued by a shark, you want your body to be ready to move. Your eyes dilate, hearing sharpens, focus narrows, blood pressure builds, heart rate skyrockets, breathing intensifies and muscles tense. Below perception your blood sugar and blood lipids elevate for energy; clotting factors increase in your blood; and your immune, digestion, and reproductive systems are shut-down in the name of energy prioritization. All this for great surf?

In nature, danger is usually short-lived. The outcomes vary, but typically the danger passes and the threat is over – or your life is over. With the exception of weather and famine, there are few forms of sustained stress in nature. Historically man experienced a fairly predictable cycle of rest and repair, with brief, yet stimulating brushes with danger and the occasional intense life and death situation. All days were physically active and challenging, but overall, man was designed to enjoy a generally simple lifestyle.

Now consider modern man.

We now find ourselves in a constant state of low-grade stress, or more accurately, somewhere between “low grade pressure” and “moderately chaotic” on the lifestyle stress continuum. I love Mark Sisson’s take on the post-modern world’s affect on our health today:

“Theoretically then, persistent, low-level stress – which the body unfortunately interprets as warranting a “fight or flight” response – is destructive to health. In other words, being stuck in traffic for two hours a day, every day, is the equivalent of a serious survival threat to your as-yet “primal” brain, and the adrenals pump accordingly. Cortisol serves many important functions, including the rapid release of glycogen stores for immediate energy. But persistent cortisol release requires that other vital mechanisms effectively shut down – immunity, digestion, healthy endocrine function, and so on. Among other stress-health associations, the link between elevated cortisol and weight gain has already been established.

“The tremendous volume and scope of stressful stimuli present in the modern, fast-paced lifestyle may play a very critical role in the high rates of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, depression and anxiety we’re seeing.”

The reality is that our world has become more complex and stressful around us. As a natural consequence, so have our lives. There are countless contributors to the aggregate stress that we feel. Some things are out of our control, some things are not. Well People focus on developing more effective coping mechanisms to the unavoidables, while mitigating the reducible stressors with better decision-making.

Start every decision today with one simple question: Is this going to add to my stress or reduce it? Sometimes the waves are just as good on this side of the channel.

Choose well,

Dr. Stephen Franson

You don’t GET sick, you DO sick.

How empowering - to think that we are not living “at effect”. To understand that the best minds in science can all agree on one thing: the way that you choose to live is the greatest predictor of your health. But wait, it gets better.

We now understand that your health is best represented by a point on a continuum. Imagine a spectrum that has SICKNESS at the far left and HEALTH at the far right. At any point in time, and more accurately, at every point in time, you are either moving towards sickness or towards health. In fact, there is no stasis. There is not one second out of the 84,600 seconds that you’ll enjoy today where you sit idle on this scale. Your health is absolutely dynamic, always changing, never the same from one moment to the next. Wait, there’s more.

Science also tells us that our lifestyle choices (read: how we eat, move and think) are not only additive, they are multiplicative. In other words, it’s not EAT + MOVE + THINK, it’s actually EAT X MOVE X THINK. Now get this: your choices actually COMPOUND over time. The longer you practice healthier behaviors, the benefits actually accrue geometrically – compounding wellness.

So what are you going to do about it?

It all adds up. Every little positive thing that you do adds to this equation and moves you towards HEATLH on the bigger continuum. Like points in a Pacman game, you should be gobbling up every opportunity make deposits into your wellness account (does anybody even remember Pacman - I guess I'm dating myself with that one). Every workout, every meditation, every avocado … point, point, point.

Of course, this presents a sobering truth. The opposite is also true. If good habits add together and you get well; bad habits must also add together and you get sick. Unfortunately, sickness is as much a holistic issue as wellness is. Our lifestyle choices can create debt as easily as abundance. Toxicity and deficiency follow the same mathematical laws and the outcomes are just as predictable.

These days everyone seems to fear that the sky is falling and radical measures are being considered. You should realize that there is nothing proven to be more effective at preventing disease and promoting health like a radical commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Point, by point, by point.

Remember, you don’t GET healthy, you Do healthy.

Dr. Stephen Franson

Bonfire has launched. As the father of two children I am qualified to say that launching a project of this scope has been much like birthing a child. From conception, pregnancy, labor and delivery - the analogies are clear and readily available. And now, as precious and loved as this new project is, I find myself once again in the throes of late night feedings and diaper changes. And I love it.

The response of our Tribe to the arrival of Bonfire has been as expected: pure enthusiasm and excitement.  The reception was exhilarating and the adoption, participation and feedback have been incredible. Together we are shaping the Bonfire Experience.

The Ning site has been the center of the communication – a place for members to gather and ask questions, connect with the doctors and benefit from the insights, frustrations and experience of other members.  There has been no shortage of confusion with certain features or functions, but that is to be expected during a Beta launch. Now is the time to find the bugs, over-sights and feature flaws. Don’t hold back with ideas or requests. We are actively updating and changing functionalities, now is the time to create your Bonfire. 

A common question across all domains (Fuel, Air and Spark) is in regards to the ability to make substitutions within the recommendations or assignments (The Daily Meal Plan, Workout and Journaling). Most members are concerned about substituting their workout or menu selection with a healthy choice of their own.  Members wonder if they can still get the “Smiley Face” (emoticon) compliance credit for that day if they substitute with an alternate healthy choice. The answer is YES.

Bonfire will eventually have Alternate or Substitution and Equivalent selections in a future version. This was a complex feature that we chose not to incoporate in Bonfire version 1.0 because of the delays it would have caused. These options will allow for some “drift” within the program and will be presented in such a way as to protect the integrity of the program and ensure you the best results. Clearly, this community is ready for this feature – watch for it.  

The Bonfire Virtual Café Menus, Exercise Library and Spark Tool Box will be new features that get folded into the program as we move forward. These items will mitigate some of the confusion that new members have expressed and will enhance your family’s Bonfire Experience in the future. 

Eventually babies start to sleep through the night and even potty-train. As I did with my own kids, I am going to be sure to enjoy and appreciate every step of the process. 

Thanks for your support and enthusiasm.

SF

Bonfire Health Program Part 3 of 3

If the advent of the internet and its accompanying free flow of information have taught us anything about adopting healthier habits it’s this: People don’t need more information, they need transformation.   In any significant change effort, we don’t need more explaining or logical advice, we need help changing.  Because, let’s face it - change is hard.

In fact, the statistics show that it is almost impossible to change – unless you know how to change.  Social Scientists, Behavioral Psychologists and Influence Masters have identified human traits and tendencies, neurological automaticity pathways and trigger features that are nothing short of social jujitsu.  Face it, you’re covered with buttons.

Lost in the vortex of compulsion?  Use the force to help you.

In almost every attempt to create a good habit in place of a bad habit we must overcome indifference, complacency, fear and down-right laziness.  We could push our change effort uphill against the forces of gravity, friction and inertia or we could leverage the powerful findings of successful social change experts.

You have been subject to the findings and practices of these influence experts, choice architects and compliance gurus throughout your life.  Whether it was changing your driving habits, energy consumption or voting tendencies – you’ve been influenced.  If you’ve bought rental car insurance, 2 for 1 sneakers or Girl Scout Cookies, you’ve experienced social persuasion first hand.  Or if you’ve signed a petition, put a bumper sticker on your car or band on your wrist – you’ve been nudged. 

The Bonfire Health Program leverages these social influence forces in your favor.   Coiled within the DNA of the program are some of the most powerful compliance tools and influence weapons available.  It is time that we use the change technology that social science has discovered toward an honorable goal: you getting your life back. 

To get a different outcome, you must start acting differently.  You must address behavior. 

We have studied successful people.  Not just financially successful, but those that lead happy, healthy, well-balanced lives.  We’ve watched people who have successfully quit smoking, lost weight, saved money, stayed happily married, raised confident children and can get their dogs to sit on command.  We’ve studied the people that are doing it – in the real world; people who David Dorsey calls “positive deviants”.  We’ve observed behaviors, teased-out commonalities and emulated successful strategies.  Consistent behaviors create predictable outcomes. 

If you know what you want, identify the behaviors that lead to it and do them consistently.  Oh, it sounds so easy.  So why isn’t everybody doing it?

I wish that it was that simple.  Behaviors do not stand on their own.  In the Bonfire Experience we carefully address the belief systems that support - or detract from – constructive behaviors as well as the environment in which a change effort takes place.  But that’s another blog post. 

Welcome to Bonfire.  Remember, the life that you save will be your own.

Now let’s get started,

Dr. Stephen Franson