Category Archives: Approaching Your Health

Seasonal Shift from Ocean to Indoor Pool Swimming

One of my major exercise issues is going from the joy of open water swimming to indoor pools. No waves, or fish to get my attention, it gets a bit monotonous. And, sharing lanes with other people, some with good manners, some not so much, is another issue.

Probably the most annoying aspect of indoor swimming pools is dealing with chlorinated water. So with a bit of digging around, I discovered a sweet, low cost way to remove this strong chemical from the skin. Vitamin C to the rescue!

A West Coast Naturopath, Dr.Deborah McKay wrote up a simple solution I would like to share. Simply add a half teaspoon of crystallized Vitamin C to a pint of water in a spray bottle, apply after swimming, rub it in, and rinse off.

Here is the link to her article:http://drdebmckay.com/vitamin-c-for-chlorine-removal/

Reap the Benefits of sleeping on your Side: Let Me Show You How.

The way we sleep has more to do with how it feels when we wake up than meets the eye.  Everyone knows how certain sleeping postures can cause stiff necks, tight muscles and joints, or grogginess.  There is new evidence that side-sleeping offers health benefits by promoting improved lymphatic drainage of the brain and spinal tissues.  Since the cells associated with this are called “glail cells,” the term “glymphatic system” was coined.  The Glymphatic System, does a profound job during the graveyard shift: it rids the brain of waste.  New research strongly suggests that the postures we assume while sleeping can encourage efficient brain waste removal by allowing the cerebrospinal fluid to flow more freely.

From Science Daily

Could body posture during sleep affect how your brain clears waste?

Date: August 4, 2015

Source:Stony Brook University

Summary:
Sleeping in the side position, as compared to on one’s back or stomach, may more effectively remove brain waste and prove to be an important practice to help reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases, new research suggests.

 See the full article here:

sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150804203440.htm

This is all nice in theory, but how to sleep comfortably on one’s side can be a challenge.  Laying on your side puts a sideways pull on the spinal cord, making it bow in the center like a telephone line between two poles.  I teach how to find the proper support so this distortion can be elliminated.  My patients tell me how this technique gives them more restful sleep, they wake up less stiff, and ready to take on the world.

Baby Got Back Pain?

If you’re like many of us, you’re absorbed all day….by a screen. Reading, typing, scanning and glancing: these are your primary activities. When your mind is drawn into what is on the screen, you tend to ignore your body.  You’re likely to default to a posture dictated by gravity and spinal mechanics. Unfortunately, both of these things can impact your body in ways that lead to one thing… back pain from spinal misalignment.

 Everyone responds differently to prolonged sessions at a workstation. Contributing factors include, chair support, and previous spinal injuries.  Today, I will focus on seats.

Take a Seat

Piano players sit upright for hours, but you rarely hear about their bad backs. Why? Look what they’re sitting: a firm, flat bench. We can all take a cue from them.

Most office chairs are destructive to spinal health and posture. The biggest culprits being the “high tech” chairs engineered for comfort. The illusion of comfort from soft bucket-style seats is just that, an illusion. You’re supposed to sit on the bones of your pelvis (ischial tuberosities), not sink into the surrounding soft tissue. This throws your spinal support system out of whack.  Moreover, the slope of the chairs typically rounds your lumbar spine—where it should curve inward. The result? Forced slouching…leading to eventual discomfort.

You can’t always be mindful of your posture and the task at hand so it is best to get the proper support that naturally prompts you to sit correctly. At my office we provide firm foam supports that angle the spine, restoring the natural spinal curves we have when standing up. We also show you how to ­­ sit, stand and sleep for optimal spinal health.

 

 

Taking the Charge Off

Cold Air is Dry Air that has a Static Charge

A 2007 article in “Atmospheric  Environment”; microbes and allergens that normally float in moist air, will settle and stick to the moisture of our skin and lungs when by contrast the air is dry.  This can in turn increase the risk of infection and asthma.

The article goes on to describe several high tech and expensive ionization systems. In the end, the simple solution is to have a humidifier. There is quite a range of options here. While I love my fancy ultrasonic machine, with a bit of maintenance a simple vaporizer does the trick.

So don’t wait for the first evidence of a cold or flu to start looking for  this, DO IT NOW!

Get Out of Your Winter Rut

As the days grow shorter and colder, friends and patients have told me that they feel less energetic or blasé. I too have gone to bed a bit earlier, and still noticed my energy flagging. We need to acknowledge this energetic shift as nature’s way of preparing for the Winter season. It doesn’t mean we have to pack on pounds for hibernation (we’re not bears!). 

My own case involves recovering from a knee tear. I bolt my bicycle to my stationary trainer, take advantage of the amazing body workers in NYC, and rehabilitate. I have reasonable and challenging goals to greet the coming year a little more fit and stable than before. To do this, I make sure I get adjusted regularly: yes, by my own chiropractor. 

If your own workout felt out of sorts, you probably had some underlying tension that needs to be resolved. My active patients progress through their healing process faster as a result of uncovering these flaws – just as tempering steel creates a strong, sharp blade. Sedentary people will take longer, but there’s nothing like taking that first step.

Don’t wait to make New Year’s resolutions because you’ve let yourself go. Challenge yourself now!

Stomach This!

As a Chiropractor, I see a variety of patients with chronic health issues. While the FDA puts out a number of medications for the purpose of mitigating these ills, many of these FDA approved drugs have had disappointing results, a variety of debilitating side-effects, and we have yet to see the damage they reap in our bodies over the long term.

In the Health Section of The New York Times http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/combating-acid-reflux-may-bring-host-of-ills/, I was glad to read that health officials are FINALLY recognizing the adverse effects of Acid Reflux medication. The fact is, the stomach needs to produce acid in order to properly digest foods and absorb their nutrients. It turns out that in many cases, acid reflux medications like Prevacid and Nexium often reduce the absorption of vital nutrients like B12, magnesium, and calcium.  Even more problematic, these medicines create dependancies that are difficult to break. 

I choose to provide my patients with natural, or what I call “Wholistic” solutions for their digestive health.

The body’s not stupid. Its an incredible machine of nature, and requires natural care. Incompletely digested proteins can get into the blood stream and trigger mild to severe allergies of all kinds. The focus of my care to truly address these digestive/ allergy issues so that you won’t have to resort to being a guinea pig for the FDA.

Do you have questions about your digestive health? Your allergies? Let’s talk about it.

Feel free to ring my office at 212-254-4586.

Staging A Chiropractic Intervention

The bottoms of your feet toughen from walking. Yet a tight shoe leaves a blister, which gets infected if ignored. Why do you get a blister, and not a callous?

The answer lies in nature. Nature supports and heals your body in more ways than many of us are aware. It also sustains your body’s current condition: a daily phenomena that makes us daily, walking, talking miracles.

Healthy stress (yes, there is such a thing!) occurs when the body is presented with a problem or challenge—and then evolves beyond it. That’s what a callous is all about, or the building of healthy muscle or a strong heart.

Unhealthy stress pushes your body beyond its boundaries. Enter: dis-tress. The challenge floods your system, overwhelming it to a point beyond recovery.

Now, let’s take this in the context of your spine. Your spinal system can do amazing things—particularly if your built-in systems for self-correction are in place. But when an external force pushes beyond these self-correcting systems, you’ll survive, but leverage a lesser degree of function, grace, and ease.

Some people’s spines alert them with pain emanating from the back, neck or sciatic nerve. Others feel little to no pain—but practice chronically poor posture. Pay attention to all of these warnings. Not only do they foretell a worse prognosis in the years ahead, they are also indicative of internal dysfunctions in the digestive or immune system.

I hate to see this, because it’s all so preventable. Spinal integrity is possible—and it’s within reach. You can see a chiropractor like me: one that works in specific areas of the spine and knows enough about internal functions to make sure to address it all.

I have devoted my life to finding and experiencing healing solutions to restoring spinal integrity that allows us to have more joyful and productive lives. Make a healthy cause for yourself today! Come in and experience the benefits of my work.

-Dr. Lenny

There Are No Accidents

When I am out in public, especially in a city like New York, I see a broad variety of humanity.

Nothing is an accident, how we live in our bodies is determined, however this large part done unconsciously.

A lifetime of neglect can be seen everyday when we walk down the street. We come across people with horribly distorted postures, how did they get this way? Some were probably traumatized, but most cases developed slowly on a day by day basis.

Our posture gets distorted from two things:

Bad habits, which we can change as we become conscious of them.
Internal spinal tensions, and subsequent compensations.
How do we know which is which?….duh, start paying attention!

Habits that we can’t seem to easily break, usually have an underlying spinal tension as the cause. Unresolved, the constant response to pull on the spinal system is to change posture to alleviate this disturbance.

The purpose of my chiropractic work is to release those tensions, and help you to gracefully undo those compensations. It will take time as each distortion and the compensations needed will release only when the body can accommodate such change.

The work is the work. So far there are no shortcuts to this natural healing process. There is much we can do to help this positive change along. I educate people in the details of how to sit, stand,and even sleep.

There is no hiding from poor spinal management or it’s consequences.

Calcium Should Not Be Kept Lonely

My cousin recently reported about her visit to a modern medical doctor, she was told to start taking more calcium. When I asked how the consulting doctor knew this, she said it was a general guideline for women in their thirties.
There is constant drumbeat in our media; if we don’t get more calcium, our bones will collapse like a house of cards. So all kinds of calcium supplements get pushed upon us, from additives in cereals to Tums. There are so many things wrong with this scenario. I will start with one.
Balanced Minerals- As intended by nature, calcium never shows up alone in any living food source, i.e. plant or animal. Moreover, bones are like structural concrete; a complex combination of materials that need to be proportionately combined to achieve full strength. Simplistically increasing only one thing, calcium, creates an imbalance that can backfire most cruelly.
A recent study on expectant/ lactating mothers found that supplementing only calcium over a 12 month period actually led to significant bone loss, as compared to the placebo group with out any calcium added. (Jarjou LMA et al. “Effect of calcium supplementation in pregnancy on maternal bone outcomes in women with a low calcium intake.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2010:92 450-457) This study, cited by Dr. Alan R. Gaby in the Townsend Letter for Doctors, July 2011:37-38. He goes on to comment that only increasing calcium, “interferes with the absorption of magnesium, manganese, zinc, phosphorus, and silicon, each of which plays a role in maintaining bone health”. Again it’s like trying to make concrete by only supplying sand, without the right proportions of cement, water, pebbles, etc. you don’t get structural integrity. Worse yet, the body will actually pull apart bone mass to restore the deficient minerals to the bloodstream. That’s because bone is used as storage of these minerals for times of need; even if it is artificially induced by short sighted nutritional advice.
So when I saw my cousin at my chiropractic practice, I recommended a balanced mineral supplement.
Best foods are goat milk products (more similar to human milk than cow milk). Also, consider leafy greens, after all, where did the cows and goats get the minerals for their milk? One of my favorite mineral sources are the seaweeds, additionally rich in chromium, a mineral now lacking in the soil.

The Real Work Begins After The Crisis

Hello my friends. I’m writing to check in with you on the state of your well being.

As you know, I help remove and resolve spinal distress – allowing you to feel fully present and experience the awe of living.

While most new patients enter my care because the house of their being is on fire, many discontinue care abruptly once their suffering has dipped just below bearable. The real work is the restoration. Same as in a home.

By dropping out before the real restoration work can begin, they fail to experience the full value of my value.

Waiting for crisis isn’t a long term strategy. Just look at the way our country is run.

Please notice the subtle warning signs in your body –

  • A tendency to slump, especially in the shoulders
  • A need to fold your arms in front of you while standing
  • Your head is chronically forward of your shoulders
  • Sitting becomes painful, even within a half an hour

If you have put this off until you have the money, time, need, etc… please call me, and I will work with you  – especially during these slower summer months. Let this be a summer you remember investing in yourself long term than hoping against hope for a change outside of yourself.

Don’t wait for another four alarm fire in your body.
-Dr. Lenny

Zinc and B12 are an important team for your mental and emotional well being.

In “The Townsend Letter of Doctors “, I was reading about all the B12 health benefits: everything from fighting anemia to memory and mood elevation. While I don’t practice psychiatry, the function of the central nervous system is key in my practice.

One study caught my eye. This one, (Mitsuyama et al) brought up the issue of how important zinc is in getting the B12 across the blood-brain barrier and into the central nervous system. No matter how good your B12 status, if Zinc isn’t available the vitamin won’t arrive where it’s needed. Without B12, the brain is vulnerable to a host of mental and functional difficulties.

Various obstacles exist to Zinc’s availability: mercury, cadmium and copper. How do we know if you have adequate Zinc? I have a simple, cheap and direct test at my Union Square Spinal Care office. A weak solution of Zinc is given to patients to swirl around in the mouth. I time how long it takes for any taste to develop. The more deficient a person, the longer it takes to notice.

Zinc supplements are cheap and effective. Who is most likely to develop Zinc deficiency? People exposed to cadmium, lead and copper like mechanics, plumbers, electronics technicians and those in the dental industry. Cigarette or marijuana smokers are exposed to cadmium and should also be checked regularly.

So before resorting to powerful medications consider increasing B12 and evaluating Zinc availability.

Ignore Your Health, It’ll Go Away


I was walking in the West Village last weekend, when the sight of this ice encrusted car caught my attention. I had to take the photograph you see above. As you can see the vehicle in the background is free and clear. The past weeks of snow, freezing rain, partial thaw then re-freezing created this miserable condition. Yet it is the result of doing nothing that made the difference between the two vehicles.
I constantly urge my patients to keep the small problems small. Stay of aware of your body, and take action early. Get the exercise, the massage, of course see me; before you have to take drastic action and see a surgeon! The owner of the car may have to wait for the Spring thaw, the owner of our bodies (that’s us) don’t get that luxury.

Self Assessment, an important starting place

“Know Thyself” is credited to Socrates. In ‘The Art of War,’ Sun Tzu wrote: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” And, John Lennon; “How can I move forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing?”

Living in the information age, what tools do we have to assess ourselves? Tests should be simple, inexpensive, and accurate. Equally important, they must point to solutions that allow us to determine choices.

-What small changes will greatly improve your condition (ex: quit smoking)?
-What large change will be worthwhile (ex: you may really need a surgery)?

I am currently reviewing several symptom survey forms that “cast a broad net” over a great variety of health issues.