Vitamin D May Cut Risk of Flu

New research from the Yale University Medical School showed that Vitamin D may reduce the incidence and severity of influenza and other the upper respiratory tract infections, and those with higher levels of vitamin D also experienced a marked reduction in the number of days they were ill.

Simple steps such as eating foods rich with vitamin D and getting more sunshine may help to reduce your chances of contracting flu and other similar illnesses. In addition to getting more sun and consuming milk and foods with vitamin D such as fatty fish, eggs, and grasssfed beef products (especially dairy), researcher James R. Sabetta, MD recommends supplements, especially for people in areas with less sunlight and for those who spend daylight hours in darker, indoor environments.

The researchers conclude that the lower levels of vitamin D seen during the winter in temperate climates may contribute to the prevalence of influenza in colder months. Sabetta says vitamin D has known effects on the immune system, and the study reinforces the association between vitamin D deficiency and susceptibility to infections of the respiratory tract.

Sabetta JR, DePetrillo P, Cipriani RJ, Smardin J, Burns LA, et al. 2010 Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and the Incidence of Acute Viral Respiratory Tract Infections in Healthy Adults. PLoS ONE 5(6): e11088. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011088

Chiropractic Cures A Blind Man?

Overloaded Backpacks Hurt Our Kids' Backs

This article was written for the Washington Post, and picked up by newspapers nationwide. It offers tips such as limiting the amount of weight in a backpack to just 10% of a child's weight and using both straps to carry the bag.

Overloaded Backpacks Hurt Our Kids' Backs

Schedule an appointment to have Dr. Permenter examine your child's spine with and without their backpack. 704.569.3130

Ergonomics for Mouse-Intensive Jobs

I saw this article on ChiroHealth, a publication from the American Chiropractic Association for patients and chiropractic advocates.

Workers such as architects, graphic designers, animators and computer-aided design (CAD) users spend countless hours in front of computers barely ever changing position. Does this sound familiar? If your job keeps you planted at your desk all day consider the following factors to help prevent injuries:

• Prevent forearm overuse – Find a mouse that fits your hand, and then slide your palm up to rest on the mouse and use your whole arm to move the mouse when possible. If you rest your wrist on the desk for extended periods, consider using a soft gel pad to minimize pressure on the carpal tunnel. The best solution is to invest in a graphic tablet that will allow you to use a digital pen with a more relaxed and neutral position of the fingers, hand, wrist and forearm.
• Prevent neck pain – You should be able to use your mouse with your elbow at your side and your hand directly in front of you. Try a keyboard that has a separate number pad or one that is on the left of the keyboard, which frees up space on the right for the mouse.

Choose a specialty chair – Recently, more chairs have been designed with a pear-shaped back, particularly with mouse-intensive users in mind. This type of chair supports the spine, but frees the scapula to move, encouraging whole-arm use rather than motion only from the wrist.

For more information, ask Dr. Permenter at your next appointment. Call to schedule at 704.569.3130.

Chiropractic As Part Of A "Get Healthy" Program

If you're like many people, you'd love to be a healthy person. If you already feel pretty healthy, that's great. However, I've noticed more and more people are searching the internet for ways to get healthy. They want to be healthy, they just don't necessarily want to have to take any difficult action steps in order to make it happen.

Getting healthy usually means all the normal steps. Eating better, getting some regular exercise, and addressing various ailments and symptoms that have begun to show up. Still, most people are going to take a passive approach to their health. They want to do things and go places where things will be "done to them" rather than them having to "do stuff."

Let's take eating better for example. There's no real mystery any more for you in which foods are good for you. Fast food is usually bad (even the stuff they try to make seem like it's good for you), and vegetables are good. When you are snacking on potato chips, you can't honestly be telling yourself "I sure am eating healthy."

Eating healthy things, putting only healthy things in your shopping cart, and worse, planning your meals ahead of time so you don't get caught starving and nothing to eat but fast food requires effort.

Exercise is the same thing. Remember those belts that people used to strap around their waist and get shaken into better health? You don't see them anymore because exercise really is not a passive thing. You've got to get out of your chair and regularly move around to make anything happen. After awhile, just walking around is not really going to get you the results you want either. You'll have to put in more effort to increase the intensity of your exercise to hit the next level.

Here's the good news for those people that want to do something healthy, but don't want to put forth a ton of effort. Get a chiropractic adjustment. You don't have to wait for headaches, neck pain, or back pain to decide to visit a chiropractor (even though that's what a lot of people do). Getting a chiropractic adjustment is one of the easiest things to do, and one of the healthiest.

It's an insidious thing. You don't see that your spine is breaking down. You don't see the degeneration process start to occur in your spine and the spinal discs. You just know that things aren't quite right. I've had patients that never complained of anything more than low back stiffness, before coming in for their first chiropractic visit.

However, their x-rays showed advanced spinal degeneration something that simply could not happen overnight. The best part of all in starting this type of program is that the only "action" you have to take is to show up. The chiropractor will do the rest, and you get to just sit back and feel better about taking a healthy step toward a better you.