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This weeks blog is actually a Vlog! This is the first of our warm-up series. Stuart is going to show off his personal warm up routine. Take notes, try some new things in your own routine, and stay tuned for more vlogs and featured guests! Don't forget to send your health and wellness questions in to [email protected]
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-- By Dr. Jason Queiros Detoxes or cleanses are often misconstrued as a quick weight loss mechanism. I treat a detox like hitting the reset button on the modem or restarting the computer. In this case the computer being my diet. It's an easy way to get back on the healthy track when you've strayed. I chose to do this detox after my son was born, a time of both extreme happiness and stress. I was getting less sleep, and my eating habits definitely took a temporary dive. This was a stressful time and I'm sure my decreased nutrition and changes in hormones had me feeling less energized, sluggish even. Making me less productive at home and work. This then carried to even occasional feelings of gloominess at times. At this point I knew it was time to hit the rest button. I asked a colleague at work about a detox she was purchasing and I thought, "Why don't we do it together." We referenced other popular cleanses and customized them to our preferences and to add more nutrients. We also decided that we would be making our drinks using the entire fruit and vegetable, not just the juice. This was important to me since most juices are sugar and water and lack valuable minerals, nutrients and fiber. By making the smoothies at home, it costs only a fraction of what it would if you were buying the juices at the store or smoothie shop. For a total of $75, opposed to paying $65-80 per day for juices, I was able to buy organic fruits and vegetables and make enough shakes for 2 people for 5 days. The amounts of each ingredient may vary, adjust to your taste! I made the shakes at home with my Nutribullet. The organization of our cleanse consisted of 4 smoothies (3 hours apart). Coupled with a large salad consisting of lettuce, mixed greens, spinach, mixed nuts, seeds, finished with a drizzle of olive oil & vinegar to complete the day and keep from late night snacking! The Schedule 7 AM - Green 10 AM - Orange 1 PM - Yellow 4 PM - Red 7 PM - Salad
Experiment with recipes and discover what you and your family like! Enjoy your smoothies, and send your questions to [email protected] for our next Q&A! 
-- By Erica Sastre, LMT
This weeks Q & A was inspired by Game of Thrones! Lots of us are excited for the final season to begin. If you have dragons and sports medicine on your mind, read on.
Q: Should I use FIRE (heat) or ICE (cold) treatment? A: Did you tweak a hamstring in the battle of Winterfell? Do you have neck pain after a long day of combing over old tombs in the Maester's library? Do you get headaches every time you Warg with your wolf? Read on and the choice will become clearer than a green dream. 
Let’s start by taking a look how heat and cold affect the tissues in the body!
FIRE/Heat/Thermotherapy on the body will...
You have lots of options with heat,
Heat is best for... Chronic conditions, sore muscles, stiff joints, and overall relaxation. 
ICE/Cold/Chryotherapy on the body will..
Therefore, ICE is best for acute (new) injuries such as twisting your ankle, strained muscles, or back spasms. You should also use ICE after an activity that aggravates a chronic injury. The goal is to reduce swelling and keep the injury from getting worse.
Tip from Dr Q:
"Don't waste your money on an ice pack. Buy a frozen bag of peas, which will serve a triple purpose. It is effective cryotherapy for your injury, it will also act as a timer (by the time the peas melt it will be time to stop your cryotherapy), and then you have a healthy snack afterwards!" 
Within 24-48 hours of an injury, sprain, strain, or spasm, you will want to ice it. Apply cold no more than 15-20 minutes at a time to decrease swelling and inflammation to keep the injury from worsening. Wait 60 minutes between treatments.
After 24-48 hours, after the swelling has gone down post-injury or for chronic conditions, you will want to use heat. We recommend applying heat no more than 20 minutes at a time, and wait 60 minutes between treatments. Follow instructions for your hot pad or heating devices to keep a nice even temperature that will to increase circulation, tissue pliability, and cell metabolism for healing the injury over time. Still in doubt? Go with ICE. Although heat has more therapeutic benefits, you can do more damage when applied in the wrong situation or instance. Therefore, there is more room for error with ICE. Be cautious, as you can burn yourself with either. ​ That is our secret, we can only be victorious in our health and wellness treatment plans if we use fire AND ice! Have a great week! Send us your questions for next time to [email protected]! ​ -- by Erica Sastre, LMT A: The answer is… Probably! Let’s be honest, most of the time the answer is yes. Even if it is not the root cause of your back pain, wearing a backpack incorrectly can seriously worsen other conditions such as disc herniation, scoliosis, hip and shoulder disorders. Most people wear backpacks improperly, or are overloading their backs. How heavy are our backpacks? School books are just the beginning of spinal stress for students, most of whom are doing extracurricular activities. Imagine a 30 pound backpack, a tuba, a poster board presentation, and a soccer bag that all need to be transported to and from school! How heavy is ‘too’ heavy? “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that a child’s backpack weigh no more than 10 to 20 percent of a child’s weight.” Yikes, textbooks add up fast! Most parents are not checking to see if their kids backpacks are weighing too much, and few students are self monitoring their posture or the weight they are carrying. They merely accept whatever the coarse-load demands of them. In addition these same students spend a lot of time studying at a desk or computer, most of their day encourages a slouched, leaning forward posture. Schools are slowly changing with the times, some students have options to have electronic books, or share books at school so they don’t need to carry so much. Each situation is different, but most still need to carry all their books, and do their best. The WRONG way to wear Backpacks The Correct Way to Wear a Backpack  Correct posture: Spine is straight, shoulders are even, hips are even. Straps are used so that weight is evenly distributed between the hips and torso!  Photo by Mar Bocatcat on Unsplash Notice how the spine is straight, shoulders are even, hips are even. The straps are used so that weight is evenly distributed between the hips and torso! This is the part that most kids want to skip, but if you look at climbers, hikers, military, they all use straps with their packs to distribute the load properly, this helps them move more freely and prevent injury!  Why is this so important?
Most students spine are in the process of growing! Teens are experiencing their growth spurt, some don’t finish growing until their 20’s so this concern even applies to college students. The spine is supposed to be extending upwards as it grows There is a normal amount of curvature within the spine, but not too much (which is called Kyphosis in the thoracic spine and Lordosis in the lumbar spine). Nor is it supposed to grow into a twist, or a side-to side bend (Scoliosis). If we load up the back, and twist the spine because of weight, every single day, over time we are encouraging the spine to grow in a curve or twist. It much more difficult to correct posture later in life. What can we do if our children seem to be suffering from posture problems related to their backpack? 1) Lighten the load. Two sets of textbooks, electronic textbooks, sharing books with friends. Talk to teachers and administrators to work out viable solution for your child and the other students! 2) Corrective stretches and exercises, as well as regular participation in activities that encourage correct posture and body mechanics such as yoga, dance, martial arts & climbing are all great examples. Stay tuned for next weeks Q&A! If you have any questions yourself, please feel free to send in your questions to [email protected] |
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