It would be another seven years before he got his first clients, and another 11 before he opened his first clinic in San Diego. Today, he has 30 clinics across the world, millions of clients (including an impressive roster of professional athletes) functioning pain-free, and six best-selling books to his credit, with a seventh due out this week, a revised and updated version of his first, Pain Free.

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But it was 50 years ago that he figured out why, despite a year of medical treatment for wounds incurred in Vietnam, he was still in pain and, with that knowledge, began developing the Egoscue Method by which he has helped so many, including himself, become pain-free.

As he writes in this latest book, indeed in all of his books, “Humans are designed as symmetrical bipeds.” Which means we should be symmetrical from side to side, that is, one shoulder or hip should not be higher than the other. We should also be aligned vertically, which is to say that in profile, there should be a straight line from our ears to our ankle bones that runs through the center of our shoulders, hips, and knees.

That is not the case with most of us, and it wasn’t the case with Egoscue 50 years ago. We have eight load-bearing joints—shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles—and he realized that when one of those joints is out of position, some other part of the body has to compensate to enable us to function, which led him to a major discovery that too many medical professionals today still ignore: The source of the pain is rarely the source of the problem.

Related: The At-Home Workout That Will Help You Live Pain-Free

For an event like a car accident or broken bone, yes, the source and site of the pain are the same, but for the chronic musculoskeletal pain that more than 50 percent of all Americans suffer from, the source and site are different and are the result of one part of the body compensating for what another part can no longer do. For instance, if you have back pain, it’s probably because your hip is out of alignment. And yet, most remedies for back pain treat the back, perhaps alleviating the symptom of pain but never addressing the actual source, and therefore never fixing the original problem.

That’s what Egoscue spent years figuring out how exactly to do. Knowing that “bones do what muscles tell them to do,” he experimented with an array of stretches and exercises designed to get our muscles to move our joints back into their proper position. Egoscue had learned that when our hips are where they’re supposed to be, our back stops hurting. Or when our ankles are functioning the way they’re designed to, our knees stop hurting. Or when our shoulder can move as it was intended, we no longer get tennis elbow or carpal tunnel syndrome. It took time for him to learn how muscles move joints, but eventually he learned enough to develop the Egoscue Method, his revolutionary program to return our postures to their original design and thereby relieve ourselves of chronic pain.

Egoscue explores all of this anatomical and physiological information in his expansive new Pain Free, the revised and updated edition of his 1999 best-seller. The book is written in such engagingly accessible prose that one needn’t be a PhD in either field to readily grasp what he’s saying. But much of this information has been available since he wrote his first book decades ago. Why the revision?

“When I wrote my other six books,” he says, “we had a stronger tradition of self-reliance in our country. But we’ve lost a lot of that. We’re more isolated as individuals now than we’ve ever been before, and since the advent of social media, we’ve become more reliant upon the opinion of others in everything, including our pain. We’ve succumbed to this idea that somebody else knows more about our bodies than we do. That’s just not true. But we have to convince people now in ways we’ve never had to before that they really do have the capacity to relieve themselves of their pain.”

That gentle convincing explains, in part, the warmer tone in this updated version: less clinical, more consoling and encouraging.

But he also wrote this revision because, as a society, we are in a different place than we were when he first devised the Egoscue Method—and that place isn’t good. “Many Americans now are physically weak, and by weak, I mean they have lost the ability to remain upright,” Egoscue says. “It’s astonishing to me how many people cannot stand on one foot and, sadly, don’t even know they’re supposed to be able to. We have lost postural stability. Forty years ago, we could treat clients by focusing on strength because they were still stable. Now, we have to stabilize them first before we can strengthen them.” The culprit here is our sedentary lives.

Related: The Simplest Change You Can Make for Better Health

As Egoscue points out in the book, “In the 1920s, manual workers outnumbered knowledge workers by a ratio of 2:1. By 1980, that ratio was reversed.” All that sitting impacts our postures and leads to pain.

“Evolution didn’t stop once we got upright,” Egoscue explains. “It continues, and our evolving, or de-evolving, depends upon the stimulus of our environment.” Right now, for too many, that stimulus doesn’t involve movement. Sadly, that affects more than just our bodies, a mind-body relationship that Egoscue also explores in this book. “We know that exercise improves our endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health,” he writes, “but movement is also directly connected to feelings of hope, happiness, connection, and confidence.”

The book also contains testimonials from beneficiaries of the Egoscue Method, some famous, some not, including a wonderful foreword from NFL Hall-of-Famer John Lynch, who gives a share of the credit for his success to Egoscue. “Quite simply,” Lynch writes, “Egoscue is the most brilliant person I have ever encountered when it comes to the human body and unleashing its vast potential.” When Lynch was hired as general manager for the San Francisco 49ers, he immediately incorporated the Egoscue Method into the team’s fitness regimen.

And of course, the book incorporates menus of E-cises (Egoscue exercises) to address the issues in your feet, ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders that are causing pain elsewhere in your body or reducing its ability to function at its full potential. The menus come with pictures and detailed explanations to make sure you’re doing the E-cises correctly.

Egoscue is notoriously reluctant to discuss himself, but when asked to reflect on his accomplishments these past 50 years, he said that his favorite fact is that he’s created competition. “You can imagine the ridicule and scorn I endured when I started talking about posture as a source of most of our pain. But now that thinking permeates the healthcare world, and we have competitors, and I think that’s wonderful. We’re figuring it all out together, and in the end, that can only benefit us all.”

True enough. But it all started with Egoscue 50 years ago, and this newest edition of Pain Free (available on Amazon) is the ideal commemoration of how far we’ve come in our understanding of the relationship between our posture and our pain.

The post Pain-Free Reading: The (Updated) New Book from Pete Egoscue! appeared first on Sonima.

Among Americans who partake (roughly 22.2 million people over 12 years old), 36 percent use cannabis for both recreational and medical use, another 10 percent lighting up solely for medical benefits, according to a massive meta-analysis conducted by the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine, released in 2017. A recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found Americans’ view of marijuana is more favorable than prevailing opinion. That study also found that most people hold false notions about what medical conditions cannabis can actually help with. We’re here to set the record straight.

If you’ve ever wondered if cannabis can help ease your anxiety, relieve chronic pain or soothe muscle soreness, here’s a run-down of what the latest science says about it, plus how to choose a quality product that’s both safe and effective.

The Ways Cannabis Interacts with Your Body

It’s important to understand the impact plant-based cannabinoids—that’s the molecules found in cannabis—have on your body. The main way cannabinoids affect your mind and body is via your natural endocannabinoid system. “It’s a communication system between cells that helps guide development and growth of the human body with the goal of maintaining homeostasis,” says Dustin Sulak, DO, a Maine-based integrative medicine and medical cannabis physician and founder of cannabis educational resource, Healer.com.

When one kind of cellular activity becomes excessive or insufficient, the endocannabinoid system is part of that signaling cascade that corrects the over- or under-activity and restores balance. For example, when your brain is releasing too much of an excitatory neurotransmitter, neighboring nerves will produce an endocannabinoid to turn off the overactive receptor and restore homeostasis. And it’s doing that in all the tissues of the body, Sulak adds, so it’s regulating your brain, your gut, your immune system—it’s maintaining cellular homeostasis all over the body, in every tissue, in every organ.

The molecules in cannabis, particularly tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), mimic that endocannabinoid system and further affect nerve receptors. But while endocannabinoids are produced right where they’re needed and subsequently broken down after they do their job, THC enacts a global stimulation of the system, affecting your whole body at once.

The other most helpful cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD), acts differently—and wears a lot more hats. When it comes to the endocannabinoid system, CBD essentially slows the breakdown of an endocannabinoid, so we have more of that molecule available, for longer, Sulak explains. But CBD also works through a whole slew of different mechanisms, including stimulating and inhibiting various neurotransmitter receptors and impacting the immune system (more on that later).

Here’s a few of the ways forms of cannabis are most powerful—and most misunderstood.

1. Cannabis for Inflammation and Pain

“Chronic pain often stems from chronic inflammation, and cannabis gets to the heart of the situation, taking away not just the pain, but also the problem. You’re not just looking at a band-aid [like with other pain medications],” says Junella Chin, MD, integrative medical physician in New York and California specializing in medical cannabis and osteopathic neuromuscular medicine.

In fact, both she and Sulak agree that, from the research we have and the patients they treat, the strongest benefit of cannabis is in helping ease chronic and neuropathic pain.

Through the endocannabinoid system, CBD and THC tap into receptors (specifically the vanilloid receptor) that help control how much pain we feel. But it’s really the anti-inflammatory properties that are so powerful: The various cannabinoids in the plant extracts activate the CB2 receptors in our tissue, which controls the release of proinflammatory signals (cytokines). Additionally, THC actually gets into the cell and stimulates nuclear receptors that control the expression of genes related to inflammation and pain, Sulak explains.

The large 2017 study analysis by the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine confirms that cannabis significantly reduces pain in chronic sufferers, including less muscle spasms for adults with multiple sclerosis (MS). A 2014 study analysis by Israeli researchers reports when people with Crohn’s disease started supplementing CBD, their symptoms eased up enough that they were able to wean off their medications. In fact, one promising-but-small study found 45 percent of Crohn’s sufferers who were taking CBD actually achieved complete remission, compared to just 10 percent of those taking a placebo (though, in another study, low-dose cannabidiol had no effect).

Reducing pain has a domino effect on quality of life—for someone living with chronic pain, if you can make the pain less bothersome, your mood improves, you can sleep better, you can reduce your other meds, Sulak points out.

And it seems to be a promising alternative to opioids since cannabis actually hits the same receptors in your brain as the drugs, but delivering the same relief in a healthier way, Chin adds. But it isn’t a guaranteed relief for everyone: A recent study in The Lancet reports people suffering chronic non-cancer pain who tried to supplement their opiates with cannabis actually had more pain and less control over pain management. But, at the same time, another new study, this one in Addiction, found among states where medical cannabis became legal, use of Schedule III opioids (that’s the highly addictive vicodin, demerol, oxycodone, and fentanyl) dropped by 30 percent in the Medicare population.

Both doctors (and the prevailing body of research) agree cannabis is probably worth a few tries if you’re suffering from chronic pain.

Same goes for acute inflammation, like the kind you get from a really good workout. “A lot of athletes are now taking CBD for recovery instead of Advil or Ibuprofen, which can wreak havoc on your GI system,” Chin adds. You won’t be dosing as much as someone with, say, rheumatoid arthritis would, but if you head to a SoulCycle class and wince every time you stand up from a chair, rubbing a topical cream on your hamstrings may help you move with more ease, she says.

2. Cannabis for Anxiety

Chin, Sulak, and a whole body of research agree: CBD is very effective in treating anxiety. “People often say they feel calmer and more grounded after taking CBD,” Chin says. A 2015 study review in Neurotherapeutics found CBD is beneficial for all types of anxiety, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Cannabis actually acts a lot like pharmaceutical treatments: “CBD works by binding with a natural brain chemical, GABA, which is a neurotransmitter that tells your body to calm down, that it’s not in danger and it doesn’t need to worry,” explains Chin. While benzodiazepines—a common anti-anxiety prescription—bind to GABA receptors synthetically, CBD does this naturally.

It’s important to note the benefit is in CBD, not THC. Researchers in Chicago found that while low-level THC (7.5 mg) did reduce stress before a public speaking event, a slightly higher dose (12.5 mg) was enough to make people actually feel more anxious. “Some people taking the 10 mg, 20 mg will have a mild anti-anxiety effect, but just know you may need a lot more CBD for severe anxiety,” Sulak warns.

Still, Chin says she’s seen CBD be effective enough to help reduce dosage of, or even replace, prescriptions like benzodiazepines, klonopin, valium, or Xanax. And unlike most anti-anxiety pharmaceuticals, CBD calms your nervous system without sedating you, Sulak adds.

3. Cannabis for Mood Disorders

There’s no research directly on depression in humans, but there are some promising findings in mice: A few studies have confirmed CBD interacts with the serotonin neuroreceptor (5-HT1A) in animals, responsible for regulating levels of the happiness hormone that keeps depression and anxiety at bay. A 2016 study in Neuropharmacology found CBD exerts an antidepressant-like effect on the brain of mice, increasing signaling in the serotonin and glutamate neuroreceptors to regulate both happiness neurochemicals and GABA production, which then helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system and keep the body calm. What’s more, researchers add CBD may actually boost serotonin levels faster than SSRIs (the most common antidepressant medication) in mice.

Marijuana’s relationship at the onset of a mental illness is a little murky: There’s evidence to suggest people who use cannabis are more likely to develop schizophrenia, other psychoses, and social anxiety disorder, as well as to a lesser extent depression. What’s more, heavy users were more likely to have suicidal thoughts and, for people with bipolar, have worse symptoms, according to a 2017 study-analysis.

Nonetheless, Chin says she has found with her non-suicidal patients who already suffer from depression that cannabis products often help with the symptoms and byproducts of both depression and depression treatment. “Because anxiety is so closely intertwined with depression and bipolar, often times getting the anxiety down works as a piece of the puzzle to ease the mood disorder,” she explains. “If you can control your anxiety with CBD, it can help you take less of the antidepressant or antipsychotic.”

Similarly, with anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants, and antipsychotics, the more you take, the more side effects come—fatigue, insomnia, brain fog, mood shifts, low libido—which just exacerbate your symptoms more. But if you can supplement with CBD and lower your pharmaceutical dosage, that can actually help reduce depression by way of reducing side effects, she explains.

4. Cannabis for Epilepsy

Even among the most cannabis-conservative states, where medical marijuana is outlawed, most allow one formula for one specific purpose: marijuana-derived CBD oil to treat epilepsy, namely in children. A 2017 study in The New England Journal of Medicine found when kids with a specific kind of drug-resistant epilepsy, Dravet syndrome, took oral CBD for 14 weeks, 43 percent saw their seizure frequency cut in half while 5 percent became seizure-free. A recent large meta-analysis published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry found patients who took cannabinoids for treatment-resistant epilepsy had an improved quality of life and over 50 percent saw a reduction or complete stop in seizures (though many also experienced more side effects like diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, pyrexia, somnolence, and liver issues compared to a placebo). In fact, the research supporting CBD for epilepsy is so strong, the FDA actually approved an oral CBD solution for the treatment of seizures in two types of epilepsy in June 2018.

5. Cannabis for Cancer

Most of us associate medical marijuana with cancer patients—but that’s really for end-of-life care and comfort. In this context, cannabis is powerful medicine since it has the ability to knock out four major pharmaceuticals in one go, says Chin. Cannabis can help with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting; chronic pain—enough so that a lot of patients will get off opioids or take less of them as they supplement cannabis, Chin adds; sleep issues and insomnia; and, as a byproduct, the constipation that often comes from the anti-nausea meds and opioids. Together, this can make life a lot more comfortable at the end.

When it comes to using cannabis while fighting cancer, some preliminary studies on cells and animal models do suggest cannabinoids may have anti-tumor properties. But we don’t have confirmation of that in humans yet, and there’s actually concern over their immunosuppressive effects potentially promoting tumor growth, as outlined by a study analysis published in Cancer Medicine earlier this year. We do know smoking marijuana doesn’t increase your risk for lung, head, and neck cancer the way tobacco does.

6. Cannabis for PTSD

“One of the most dependable, positive outcomes I can expect in my clinic is if someone who has nightmares related to PTSD starts taking cannabis, they’ll then be able to sleep through the night,” Sulak says. One case study published in The Permanente Journal in 2016 found when a young girl suffering from PTSD from sexual abuse started taking CBD oil, her anxiety was significantly reduced and she was able to get more and better quality sleep.

“Cannabis likely helps suppress dream recall and keep one relaxed, which allows people with PTSD to stay asleep,” Sulak explains. Cannabis also helps reduce what Sulak calls “re-experiencing,” which includes flashbacks, social avoidance, and hyper-vigilism, or feeling like you’re in fight or flight all the time.

The anecdotal evidence for this is so strong, in fact, that in May, the FDA approved the first-ever study of cannabis for military veterans suffering PTSD. Sulak adds this is important because the standard first line of treatment—namely antidepressants—doesn’t work for most sufferers and other anti-anxiety meds can be dangerous with long-term use.

Related: 5 Essential Ayurvedic Herbs that Heal

The Risks of Cannabis Use

There aren’t a whole lot of risks to ingesting cannabis, both doctors agree. But they both also highlight that not everyone reacts the same to CBD or THC. “Cannabis has a lot of bidirectional effects—take the right amount of CBD and you feel less anxious, but take too much and it feels like you’ve drank too much caffeine. It can help relieve nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, but if you take too much, especially on the THC side, and it can cause all these things,” Sulak says.

Chin echos this notion: “I have patients who can’t use it at all, where a little bit of CBD will cause more panic attacks or cause their heart rate and blood pressure to go up.” And since THC can affect your sense of balance, there is a potential fall risk if you take too much and are unsteady on your feet.

But Chin adds most people know right away if they can’t tolerate cannabis and can rule it out immediately as an option (though you will have to sit with the discomfort for a few hours). And really, that makes it like any other medication—every body reacts different to both pharmaceuticals and plant-based medicine.

Where Buying Cannabis is Legal

The laws around legality of marijuana are downright confusing. For starters, it’s important to note that on the federal level, all forms of marijuana are illegal. “CBD and THC is considered a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it is federally illegal everywhere in the US, with the exception of products that are made specifically from the stems and seeds of imported hemp plants. Even in states with laws allowing [adult-use or medicinal marijuana], these products are still considered illegal by the federal government,” clarifies Morgan Fox, media relations director for the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), an industry-led organization aimed at the growth of a responsible and legitimate cannabis industry.

That said, individual states have their own laws around what uses of marijuana are and aren’t legal, with more than 60 percent of states allowing the purchase of cannabis to some degree. At the broadest umbrella, anyone over 21 years old can purchase marijuana for any use, medicinal or recreational, in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont (as of January 2018), Washington, and Washington D.C. (For the sake of accuracy, while marijuana is legal for adult use in D.C., a weird twist of law makes it so someone 21 or older can possess cannabis or be gifted it, but can’t actually purchase it in exchange for money.) Adult-use marijuana, generally, follows the same laws as alcohol—you have to be 21 and you can’t consume it in public or drive under the influence of it.

If you have a medical card from an in-state doctor, you can legally purchase certain cannabis products in Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana (medicinal use approved, but available pharmacies still pending as of September 2018), Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma (signed into law July 2018, dispensaries predicted to be accessible December 2018), Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, or West Virginia.

Then, in an even more narrow category, there’s legal medicinal use of marijuana-derived CBD, typically only allowed for specific conditions like epilepsy and at specific low levels of THC. Marijuana-derived CBD is legal to some degree in all the aforementioned states as well as Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

For a visual and condensed version of the above, check out the NCIA’s state-by-state policy map:

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If you live outside of these 31 states, plus D.C., you cannot legally purchase marijuana, even at the state level. There’s a loophole though: non-psychoactive, hemp-derived CBD, which is legal in all 50 states. There are a lot of technicalities, but the long and short of it is, the Controlled Substances Act only outlaws harvesting the flowering tops, resin, and leaves of a marijuana/hemp plant (where the main psychoactive compounds like THC are found), which leaves the seeds and stems—benign hemp—as legal to harvest. Hemp is classified as cannabis free of THC (which technically means less than 0.3 percent THC), though there’s no cap on the CBD quantity. While marijuana-derived CBD legality varies state to state just like THC legality (covered above), hemp-derived CBD is legal at the federal and state level nationwide. When your friend who lives in a state where marijuana hasn’t been approved for medical or recreational use talks about purchasing and using CBD oil, they’re talking about hemp-derived CBD with less than 0.3 percent THC (we’ll refer to as “legal hemp-derived CBD” from here on out), Fox confirms.

Talk to Your Doctor About It

For the general population using the plant for acute issues, like muscle soreness, mild anxiety, or mood disorders, Sulak says supplementing with cannabis is low-risk to try on your own. “In general, cannabis is extraordinarily well-tolerated, even in high doses,” he says.

If you have a serious health condition, like high blood pressure, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, or anything that’s life threatening, you should consult a doctor before turning to cannabis (either recreationally or medicinally). If your doctor isn’t open to the topic, find one who is.

“Most doctors don’t know how to recommend cannabis,” Sulak says, adding even ones who approve medical cards often just sign the certificate and send the patients to the dispensary for specific questions. What you want is a licensed medical cannabis physician, a specific certification provided by the state to approve someone who can be between you and your primary care physician or psychiatrist, Chin says. (Check out the directory on your state’s Department of Health or on Leafly.)

If you head straight into a dispensary for those acute issues, the budtender (that’s the person behind the counter) may be able to help guide you on what brands and dosage others like for anxiety or sleep. But there’s no standard training that everyone who works in a dispensary goes through. “It can be the equivalent of going to the health food store and asking the cashier what you should be taking for your blood pressure,” Sulak adds.

Educate yourself via sites, like Healer and Medical Cannabis Mentor, which highlight the newest research and run-downs of different strains and ratios of cannabinoids for various ailments (basically, everything you’d expect from your doctor).

If you live in a state where marijuana isn’t legal, you can find a medical cannabis certified doctor in another state who does phone consultations. But since you don’t have easy access to marijuana, you’re best bet is to try legal, hemp-based CBD.

How to Buy Quality Products

Marijuana
Remember how, despite individual state laws, all forms of cannabis are illegal at the federal level. Because of that, the FDA doesn’t regulate cannabis products the way it does other medications or edible items. This lack of a watchdog has created a marketplace where quality and safety of any given product is, to some degree, based solely on blind trust.

To be clear, there’s no evidence that ties contaminated marijuana to illnesses or health issues. The main question is, is this product contaminated with mold, bacteria, solvents, heavy metals, or pesticides?

Most every state does have third-party labs to confirm the formula the label is claiming—X mg of THC and Y mg of CBD—is, in fact, what the product contains and doesn’t also contain the aforementioned offenders. But not only are those tests expensive to process, but whether the cannabis products sold in dispensaries even have to be tested (and to what extent) is entirely dependent on your state.

California, for example, just changed their laws to require all products be tested for 66 pesticides, harmful chemicals, and dangerous bacteria. Oregon, meanwhile, loosened their strict requirements when the laws were creating a backlog at labs, leading to a shortage of available products. What’s more, there’s no regulation over how extractions are tested. Alaska’s two privately owned testing labs, for example, regularly report vastly different THC content results in testing the same products.

And while third-party testing is a great start to quality control, as Chin puts it, “it’s kind of like going into a supermarket and saying, yes, this can of corn really contains corn. Great to know, but it’s not necessarily reflective of the quality of the extraction.” All we really have to ensure product quality is the reputation of the brand at hand, she adds.

Legal Hemp CBD
When it comes to legal, hemp-based CBD, the water around quality and efficacy is even murkier. A sensational 2017 study published in JAMA found nearly 70 percent of CBD extracts sold online were mislabeled, with 42 percent containing higher concentrations of CBD than indicated and another 26 percent containing a lower concentration. Although there was some conflict of interest with the study’s funding, Sulak says you can safely assume that about half the products you buy outside of a dispensary don’t contain the doses they purport.

Chin adds that the majority of our hemp CBD is imported through Europe, China, and Canada and then “white labeled” by a U.S. company, so we have no confirmation or control over what kind of testing rigor that product has gone through.

That doesn’t mean you should steer clear of it all, though. “The nice thing is that something that is mislabeled is not going to be deadly, but it could be less effective or produce more side effects,” Sulak adds. Undisclosed additional THC, for example, could induce anxiety. “Every medical decision involves weighing risks and benefits.”

One other note on legal, hemp CBD: Cannabis is a complex medication that involves hundreds of plant compounds to work synergistically with one another to be maximally effective, Sulak says. “CBD, as a molecule, is good medicine. It’s absolutely safe and broadly effective. But it might not work as well as another product made from the full plant with CBD in high quantity and along with dozens of other compounds,” Sulak explains.

Because hemp-based CBD is even less regulated than medical or adult-use marijuana, product quality is all over the place. Some products work better than other—in part because of superior extraction, but also in part because a lot are “hot CBD,” or products with more than the legal 0.3 percent THC, which makes it more effective, Sulak says.

If you decide to try a hemp-based CBD product, but feel like it has no effect, try upping your dosage before switching products, Sulak advises. There’s not a lot of risk of over-dosing and some people may need 50 mg instead of the oft-recommended “serving size” of 5 mg or 10 mg.

The good news: The industry is moving quickly and pretty much everyone with a vested interest is focused on setting up quality and safety control ASAP. Until then, use these tips to ensure you’re buying quality products.

• For any purchase, educate yourself on how to maximize the benefits and minimize the side effects via sites, like Healer and Medical Cannabis Mentor.

In medical or adult-use states:

• Always shop at an official dispensary, where product is most likely to be of quality and safe, Fox says.
• Do research to see which dispensaries near you are known for their knowledgeable staff who may be able to help you understand strains and dosage, and point you toward reliable brands. Leafly offers some user-generated reviews, but Google reviews is also surprisingly helpful here.

• Research brand reputations by checking out “top product” lists from reliable sites like Leafly and High Times and asking the dispensary budtender what products they find work best for your ailment.
• Ask the budtender to see a product’s certificate of analysis—that confirms the product was tested by a state-licensed lab and that the formula is accurate, Chin says.

When purchasing hemp-based CBD in-person or online:

• Scour reviews from reliable sites like Leafly and High Times to ensure you’re buying from a reputable company.
• Opt for a tincture or lozenge rather than food, drinks, or edibles—CBD is absorbed better through blood vessel in the mouth than the gut, so you’ll get more bang for your buck with an oral delivery method, Sulak says.
• Even though certificate of analyses are less reliable for online shops (forgery is too easy), it’s still worth asking the brand or shop for testing verification, confirming the date is recent and that the batch number on the results matches the batch number you’re purchasing, Sulak says.

The post Can Cannabis Really Help You Heal? appeared first on Sonima.

What was the innocent, yet detrimental act? Putting on shoes.

“Optimum foot development occurs in the barefoot environment,” wrote Lynn T. Staheli, MD, in the article “Shoes for Children: A Review” published in Pediatrics. This was back in 1991, long before tales of Tarahumara runners and research from Harvard’s professor of human evolutionary biology, Daniel Lieberman, PhD, helped spur the barefoot running movement.

Staheli, who also wrote several books on pediatric orthopedics (including the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal problems in kids) explained in the paper that “stiff and compressive footwear may cause deformity, weakness, and loss of mobility,” and that “shoe selection for children should be based on the barefoot model.”

You probably didn’t grown up wearing Vibram’s so-called “toe shoes,” especially considering that those kicks weren’t available until 2005. It’s also unlikely that you spent much time digging your toes in sand or grass either. That’s not your parents’ fault. Most pathways are not exactly foot-friendly, especially urban sidewalks covered in all kinds of debris (broken glass, sharp sticks and pebbles, animal feces, etc.). While it’s true, your soles need the protection, wearing shoes too often—even before you could walk—can affect you adversely in unexpected ways.

“We’re interrupting the development without allowing our children to develop the way nature intended them to – through crawling,” explains Sonima alignment expert Pete Egoscue. “People think that the sooner their kids walk, the smarter they are, but nothing could be further from the truth. The arches of the foot need all of that crawling. And then we put them in these little hard shoes that disrupt them even further.”

Related: The Crazy Thing That Can Happen to Your Feet

“When parents put these clunky shoes on kids at a young age, they are impeding foot and ankle activation. The kids rely on the crutch of a pair of shoes rather than the muscles around their feet, ankles and toes, which need to be developed,” agrees Joel Seedman, a Ph.D. in kinesiology and athlete trainer based near Atlanta, Georgia. “It’s probably one of the biggest mistakes you can make for a kid. And it’s going to affect them the rest of their lives.”

Seedman sees the results firsthand in the clients he coaches, and says the issues are far-reaching. “It’s going to affect their movement patterns, their posture, and how injury-prone they are. It’s also going to mess with their coordination and reaction time. Foot and ankle strength plays a huge role in your movement patterns.”

The effects aren’t just neuromuscular. “Take the lymphatic system,” Egoscue says. “It’s everywhere in your body. It’s just as pervasive as the circulatory system. And like the circulatory system, it has to pump against gravity. It drains upward, just like the veins. The structures act like little elevators to return waste back up your legs. They can’t do it without help. And what helps? Muscular contraction.”

The robust muscle action that takes place when your bare foot touches the ground helps the lymph nodes drain to their interlinking vessels. Egoscue says that’s just one example of how what’s going on with your feet impacts the rest of your body. Some others? “Balance, digestion, absorption, elimination and bowel movements—everything, really. The body is a unit,” Egoscue says.

One of the more worrisome effects of wearing shoes too often is a condition known as “toe crowding.” People with it appear to have very little space between their toes—or in some cases, the toes overlap. While this can be the result of a structural deformity, muscle weakness is also a main culprit. “It’s actually a common sign of aging,” Seedman says. “But we’re starting to see it in populations as young as 10 years old now.”

Shocking as this sounds, it also makes sense when you take a closer look at the shoes most people wear. By and large, shoes are tapered, coming to a point near the toes. “Most shoes constrict the toes together,” Seedman says, which, he adds, is the opposite of how the foot is supposed to work. “We need those toes to splay. Having that room in the toe-box is critical.”

Seedman’s advice? “Throughout the day, I tell athletes to work on lifting and spreading their toes—especially the big toe. You want to lift it medially or out.”

Try lifting and spreading your toes as Seedman describes, and hold the position for 30 seconds to a minute. The exercise will help you develop the toe flexors—the little muscles that help you lift the toes toward the shins. The strength of these muscles is a surprisingly good indicator of your overall health, recent studies show. Perform that movement as often as you’d like throughout the day.

Also, consider implementing this simple rule from Egoscue to improve the performance of your feet and ankles: “When you’re indoors, no shoes and no socks,” he says. “That’s where you start.” If doing this daily is not an option, try “Barefoot Saturday” or spending one day (any) a week without shoes. It’s a practice that Kelly Starrett, a physical therapist best known for his work with CrossFit, and other movement experts have also encouraged.

Let’s be clear that this does not mean you should never wear shoes. Shoes protect the feet from wear and tear. There are many instances where you absolutely should be wearing shoes. In fact, your ability to continue to operate in society probably requires you to wear shoes most of the time, lest you think your boss would be cool with you roaming the office halls with your pedicured toes al fresco.

If you’re looking to add minimalist footwear to your shoe collection, ease into it, especially if you’ve only worn traditional shoes til now. “Once you’re comfortable walking around the house without shoes, buy a straight-lasted shoe,” Egoscue recommends. A straight-lasted shoe is one that does not have an elevated heel. “Most athletic shoes lift your heel above your toes, which puts your foot at a mechanical advantage for running faster,” he says. “Shoes that keep your heels level with your toes are sometimes called ‘zero-drop’ shoes. Then work your way toward barefoot-style shoes.”

The post The Case for Going Barefoot More Often appeared first on Sonima.

Once an athlete pulls a hamstring, he or she can be knocked out of commission for anywhere from two weeks to two months, depending on the severity of the damage. That is why many athletes go to great lengths to avoid this injury, incorporating a detailed and protracted regimen of stretching. Unfortunately, no amount of stretching will prevent this problem for one simple reason: The crux of the matter lies in the hips, not the hamstrings.

I’ve said it thousands of times, but it bears repeating: barring recent trauma, such as a car accident, the source of the pain is never the source of the problem. Hamstring pulls are really the result of a dysfunctional posture and an imbalanced body. To prevent this injury, athletes must bring proper alignment to their postures so that their bodies can work as a unit.

First, let’s cover some anatomical specifics. What is commonly referred to as the hamstring is actually three muscle groups: 1) the semitendinosus muscle and tendon, 2) the semimembranosus muscle and tendon, and 3) the biceps femoris, short and long. Those muscles run from the pelvis to the knee and are attached by the tendon to the bone. When people pull their hamstrings, it’s often in one of the muscles, however, the more severe strains that take longer to heal occur in the tendon. Regardless of whether the pull is in a muscle or a tendon, the underlying problem is the inability of the tendons and muscles of the hamstring to work in a synchronized fashion.

Related: Taking the First Steps Toward Pain-Free Living

When we break into a sprint, the muscle spindles in our hamstrings contract. In a properly aligned, fully functioning body that contraction is flawless. The tendons at the knee and hip work simultaneously to allow that muscle to correctly engage. However, if the hamstring tendons at the hip don’t work in synchronicity with those at the knee, the body, in its wisdom, puts an immediate halt to the contraction in that hamstring muscle. While the body instinctively commands that muscle to stop, the rest of you doesn’t get the memo so you continue to full-on sprint. In that split second, you may experience a pulled hamstring. (Note: I am speaking here about the most overwhelmingly common cause of hamstring pulls.)

So, you can see, the problem is not the hamstring, but rather the inability of the tendons at the hip to work in concert with the tendons at the knee and in accordance with the muscle. Pain is the body’s way of communicating to you that something is wrong. A common misconception is that you can stretch that muscle back into alignment. But the truth is, stretching or isolating it by intensely strengthening the muscles around it will not remedy the underlying issue. Yes, the hamstring will eventually feel better, but that’s the result of time allowing the body to heal itself.

Moving the hip back to the appropriate position is what will best prevent hamstring pulls. No one is more aware of this than Elliot Williams, the director of Functional Performance for the San Francisco 49ers. Elliot was recently hired by my old friend, John Lynch, the new General Manager for the 49ers. I have worked with John on his posture and fitness since he was a teenager, and because he is such a staunch supporter of postural alignment, he immediately brought on Elliot, an Egoscue Method-trained therapist, to work with the NFL team on their alignment, too. Given the prevalence of hamstring injuries among athletes, Elliot spends a great deal of time working to counter their occurrence.

“When it comes to hamstrings,” Elliot says, “the actual compensation is almost always upper-body driven. That is, if the hip isn’t in its proper place and working as it was intended, it’s something in the upper body that gives me that clue.” For instance, if a player is in the weight room, and he does a series of squats, Elliot looks at the position of his arms when he is finished.

“If those arms are spread wide and distant from their sides, as if he’d just worked his trap muscles, then I know there’s a big problem with the hips. Squats are a hip-driven exercise. But if that hip-driven exercise caused his arms to move out as if he’d just done a back-driven exercise, that means the back did actually do too much work, and that’s because the hips couldn’t. The back was compensating for a hip that’s so dysfunctional, it’s in danger of not being able to work properly for a sprint.”

The upper body is always a dead-giveaway if there’s a misalignment that could hurt the hamstrings, Elliot continues. For example, when a player sprints, his arms will move freely back and forth if the hip is properly aligned. But when the player’s hands don’t move very far from the body mid-sprint, then that’s a sign the shoulders aren’t enabling the arms to swing. In this case, the shoulders are working too hard to compensate for a hip not doing its job to allow the body to run. Sometimes, the compensation will be so extreme that the hands actually chug sideways, crossing perpendicular across the center line of the spine. That’s another sign of someone who is about to pop his hamstring.

Elliott also pays attention to the legs. “If I see someone’s stride has noticeably shortened, that’s a sign of a compromised hip.”

The bottom line: The body is a unit, and all of its many elements work in complete concert. You cannot isolate any one part from the rest. Too many people are pulling their hamstrings these days, and it’s causing untold hours of pain as well as disappointment on multiple levels. When a professional baseball player pulls his hamstring, the team loses his services for any number of weeks, perhaps diminishing the team’s chances of winning and certainly reducing the return on the owner’s investment. And when amateur athletes pull their hamstrings, they lose their ability to play that game of tennis or golf over the weekend, take that jog with their dog, or go for that moderately difficult hike with their kids.

Hamstring pulls can be prevented by aligning the body so that it is balanced and the hips are functional. Full postural alignment with a trained therapist is always best, but if that’s not immediately accessible to you, try this 15-minute exercise sequence to realign your hips so that they can help your hamstrings out when needed.

The post Why Hips Are Hurting Hamstrings appeared first on Sonima.

Abductor hallucis is the phrase you’re looking for. You were just about to say that, right? You can group it in with a larger formation of muscles known as the plantar intrinsics, a not-particularly-well-understood group that both begin and end within the confines of the foot.

Only recently, researchers have been able to take a detailed look at what, exactly, these muscles do. Among those leading the charge is Luke A. Kelly, PhD, a biomechanics research fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia. His work over the past five years has shown that the plantar intrinsics play a crucial role in maintaining balance, especially when you are standing on one leg.

Why is this important? One of the biggest risks you’ll face during your life is falling. In fact, falls are the number one cause of injuries and death among older Americans. Whether you’re a senior or a millennial (or somewhere in between), those tiny-but-crucial muscles in your foot that keep you upright are getting weaker by the moment. A recent study released in March 2017 examined toe flexor (part of the plantar intrinsics) strength in more than 1,400 men and found it was a good indicator of one’s body composition and metabolic health. It also showed that an age-related decline in strength developed earlier in the toe flexors than it did the grip (another effective predictor of a long, healthy life), and that strength dropped more sharply.

All of which is to say that the little muscles in your feet are a bigger deal than you think, and not just because weak plantar intrinsics have been linked to bunions, plantar fasciitis, and shin splints (although all of this is true). The strength of your feet and toes is reflective of your strength overall.

Related: An Active Alignment Sequence for Feet and Femurs to Improve Posture

“The body is a unit,” says Sonima’s pain and anatomy advisor Pete Egoscue. “No matter what our brilliant minds do to treat a specific symptom, the entire body is impacted. The body treats itself globally.” Which means you can strengthen your feet, and it will improve posture and balance throughout your entire body. It also means that some of the exercises you’ll use to improve your foot strength involve more than just those two things you’re standing on.

Here are five foot-strengthening exercises—including four from Egoscue’s book Pain Free—that help counteract the dysfunctional loading of our feet, restore them to their proper alignment, and strengthen the muscles helping to keep you upright.

1. Foot Circles and Point Flexes

Lie flat on your back. Bend one knee toward your chest while leaving the other leg flat on the floor, toes pointing straight up at the ceiling. Interlace your fingers behind your elevated knee, then circle the foot of your bent leg in a clockwise direction. Do 30 rotations, then do the same number counterclockwise. Switch legs and repeat.

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 2. Supine Calf/Hamstring Stretch

Stay on your back but this time bend one knee so that your foot can rest flat against the floor. Lift your opposite leg and wrap a strap or stretch band around the ball of your foot. Use the strap to help guide the leg toward your face until it forms about a 45-degree angle with your body (or until you feel a stretch sensation in your calf – you don’t want to push it like crazy here). Hold the stretch for 30 to 45 seconds. Then repeat with the other leg lifted.

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The Hamstring Stretch is the same as the calf stretch for the most part. The main difference is that the strap should wrap around your arch (mid-foot), rather then the ball of your foot. Lift your leg until it forms about a 90-degree angle with your torso or until you feel sensation in your hamstrings (again: don’t try to be a hero here). Keep both sides of your butt pressed flat against the floor and hold for 30 seconds.

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3. Static Extension

Kneel on a block or chair with your hands on the floor, directly under your shoulders. Relax your head and back toward the floor and let your shoulder blades come toward one another. Your back should be arched with your belly toward the floor. Keeping your elbows locked, slide your hips forward six to eight inches so that they are in front of, and not aligned overtop of, your knees. Hold the stretch for one to two minutes.

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 4. Wall Sit (or “Air Bench”)

Stand with your back against a wall. Press the small of your back against the wall as you walk your feet forward and slide down into a sitting position. Stop when both your knees and your hips are bent 90 degrees. If the sensation on your knees is too intense, lift your body up to relieve the pressure. Hold for one to three minutes.

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5. Janda’s “Shortfoot”

This exercise dates back to one of the forefathers of biomechanics, Vladimir Janda. A 2016 study showed it effectively activated the plantar intrinsic muscles. To do the exercise, stand with one foot about two foot-lengths in front of the other, then raise and lower the toes of the forward foot 20 to 30 times. Switch legs and repeat.

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The post The Crazy Thing That Can Happen to Your Feet appeared first on Sonima.

All those men in that grainy, vintage footage mimicking playground-like maneuvers among the trees were members of the Polish National Weightlifting Team. Though their “workout” might not have looked like much other than fun, they were building strength, according to Egoscue.

To understand how Egoscue defines strength, first a quick anatomy lesson. The body has four pairs of load-bearing joints—the shoulders, the hips, the knees, the ankles. When the body is in alignment, those joints vertically line up. In other words, if you were to draw a line straight up from your right ankle, it would intersect with your right knee, right hip and right shoulder.

When a body is in alignment, it is balanced horizontally, too, which means that one’s shoulders, hips and knees would be precisely parallel. Feet should also never pronate (rest on the inside of the foot) or supinate (rest on the outside). While everyone is born with perfect alignment, we all get out of whack over time, and it’s not the result of anything specific we did. In fact, it’s likely something we didn’t do or didn’t do enough: Be active. A sedentary lifestyle causes joints to slowly move out of proper positioning, which can lead to pain, affecting the back, neck, head, and other areas.

Another issue that arises from misalignment is weakness. Even the fittest athletes are weak when they are misaligned. A guy who can bench press 400 pounds, for example, might not be able to side squat under a low branch. Think of it like a game of Jenga. When the blocks stack up seamlessly, you can build a pretty high and sturdy structure. However, when a few blocks are slightly out of place (picture some edges sticking out), stability is compromised, which means it won’t be long before that tower comes crashing down.

The same rules apply to your body. When you’re aligned, your joints can operate more freely, communicating with each other and working together as a unit to lift or support more weight. You have a full range of motion with your load-bearing joints, regardless whether you’re upright or in another position. Which brings us back to how Egoscue defines strength: The ability for ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders to talk to each other in a balanced way, regardless of the position.

If you want to get your body back into alignment, Egoscue’s Patch Fitness can help. The core eight principles behind its exercises recruit muscles to move joints back to their intended position for optimal function. Depending on your posture, it can take days, weeks, months and, in rare cases, years to realign the body through Patch Fitness. But, little by little, if done regularly, these key movements can help shift your joints back into place where they have full range of motion again.

Related: Unlock Your Body’s Fullest Potential with Patch Fitness

Much of modern weight training has abandoned the concept of full range of motion. It focuses on isolated muscles—which is a misnomer because no single part of the body can be divorced from the rest—in an attempt to promote a specific strength that is measurable. But that strength is incomplete as it tends to measure a specialized type of strength, such as how much you can bench press.

This myopic approach to fitness isn’t limited to just weightlifting. Running, for instance, is a great form of exercise, but if all you’re doing is logging miles, you’re promoting a tightness in the hips that will eventually affect the knees and lower back. Cycling is also great, but if you’re only pedaling, you’re reducing the range of motion in your shoulders and hips, which may eventually stiffen your spine, causing neck pain, headaches, elbow and wrist pain—all the result of the body no longer being allowed to work as a unit. Of course, some athletic trainers have learned this, and are still learning it, which is why there is more and more cross-training among our athletes. But many people in the fitness world still fail to comprehend the importance of the body as a single unit that needs to be aligned.

Changing load positions—compelling the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles to move across every plane of possibility—encourages full function of our bodies, which, in turn, enables for greater strength in every position. The fact that our training has gotten away from this basic truth has made people weaker, even the strongest among us.

The post A Holistic Approach to Strength Training appeared first on Sonima.

“He showed us everything,” Pete recalls. “I mean, the kitchens, the banquet facilities, even the laundry rooms.” But there was one place that Manuel conspicuously ignored—a big circular building that he didn’t acknowledge as they walked past it toward the outskirts of the grounds then again as they returned to his own office for cool refreshments. Before the tour ended, however, Troi asked delicately, “Manuel, what is this building? Why aren’t we going in?”

“Oh, that’s just a fitness building. Would you like to see it?” he said nonchalantly.

Both obsessed with fitness, Pete and Troi were excited to take a look, so Manuel invited them in. It was a gorgeous, state-of-the art facility. One long stretch of the circular wall was a bank of windows that overlooked the Pacific Ocean and some majestic palisades. In front of those windows was a line of treadmills, all vacant. In fact, the entire gym, beautiful as it was, was a ghost town. Pete asked why, and Manuel explained that it wasn’t peak season, so there weren’t many Americans at the resort.

“They’re the only ones who use this facility,” Manuel confirmed. Then he shook his head, confused and disapproving. “We have incredible places for people to jog and walk. We have pools and beaches and so many ways to have fun and exercise. We just don’t understand why anyone who wants to exercise would choose a treadmill over any of those other options, but Americans always do.” He paused then before he added, “When they’re on the treadmill, they never look like they’re having any fun.”

“Somewhere in the not so distant past, fitness got off on the wrong track,” Pete says in hindsight. How? Accidentally. “It wasn’t malicious,” he says. “It was just an unintended consequence.” Which is partly why he created Patch Fitness back in the 1980’s. Patch Fitness is many things: It’s a great workout for any part of the body. It’s an efficient exercise plan for any busy person. It helps realign the body, improve metabolism and boost energy. It’s a workout that burns calories, enhances cardiovascular capability, and tightens the physique everywhere. But just as important as all of that (and numerous other benefits not mentioned), Patch Fitness is fun. And that’s no accident.

Related: Unlock Your Body’s Fullest Potential with Patch Fitness

There’s a human compulsion to measure outcomes and effects, and in the age of endless data at our fingertips, there’s an epidemic of measuring just about everything we do, all under the auspice of charting progress. Today you may be able to do only 15 pushups, but after a month of working out, you can do 25 push-ups, and that’s progress. And that’s good, right?

“Not necessarily,” Pete says. “At no point are we measuring the joy.” In order to accommodate this focus on measurable progress, much of the fun gets squeezed out of the fitness in America, and the problem with that is that the less fun something is, the less likely people are to do it.

That’s why the fitness of the Patch emphasizes the enjoyment aspect. “Every sport ever invented is the combination of spontaneity and fun. Native Americans didn’t invent lacrosse because it seemed like a great way to stay in shape. Volleyball, tennis, football, soccer—you name it, they weren’t invented from a studied effort to stay in shape. They were invented spontaneously as a way to have fun,” Pete explains.

The Patch abides by similar principles—spontaneity and fun. “When was the last time you got down on the ground and crawled around? The last time you stepped up on a chair or hopped on a bench or squatted to get under a split rail fence? You don’t think of any of that as exercise, but it is,” Pete says. That philosophy is a primary impetus behind the Patch.

Whether you’re a professional athlete or a potato fresh off of the couch, when you bear crawl under a bench or jump over that same bench, you are doing it at your level. “You’re not focused on how many reps you’re doing or how fast you’re moving. There’s no digital readout of how many calories you’re burning or steps you’re taking, all of which removes you from the present enjoyment of an activity,” Pete says. “You’re just doing it to the best of your ability in the same way you used to just swing from a jungle gym when you were a kid or jump over a fence on the way to school. That focus on measurement is about fear. It’s about making you feel inadequate if you don’t do enough reps. If you’re exercising from a position of fear, you can achieve a sense of accomplishment at the end of a workout, but you won’t have any fun.”

Again that matters because a fun workout keeps you coming back. “It’s very unpleasant for people to try to get fit doing something they don’t love doing. If you don’t love running, but every day you’re way to fitness is a run, then at some point you’re just going to stop running.”

This fun factor also has an impact on the actual physical performance. “Over the years, I’ve worked with every kind of person, from hundreds of pro athletes to regular people who wouldn’t remotely refer to themselves as athletes,” he says. What Pete has noticed among all of his clients is that when they’re having fun with their workouts, their performance actually improves. Furthermore, the recovery time from that performance decreases. Even the pro athletes, when engaged in conditioning they don’t enjoy, tire more easily and think they are not in good shape.

“They’re constantly paranoid about what they’re doing because they intuitively sense they should be doing more,” he says. “They’re right, but not in the way they think. What they should be doing more of is trusting themselves, trusting their instincts, and migrating toward fitness that they find more fun.” When they do that, they get in better shape.

To date, there have been no studies measuring how much the enjoyment of exercise impacts the body as opposed to conditioning that’s less exhilarating, but relying on his 40 years of observation, Pete knows it to be true. Joy matters. Which is what Manuel at the resort in Baja intuitively knew and what Pete unfailingly remembers every time he puts together another Patch Fitness routine.

Photo by Hailey Wist

The post The Most Important Element Missing From Your Workout appeared first on Sonima.

The question came as a bit of a revelation to Egoscue. Instinctively, he knew he could improve their conditioning. Years of experience studying all of the body’s joints and muscles and how they’re interconnected had long prepared him to create the exact fitness plan they needed. Yet, it hadn’t occurred to him to devise an exercise program using his extensive knowledge of the anatomy until right then. Without much hesitation, he responded, “I think I could. Follow me.”

They walked about three-quarters of a mile from Egoscue’s first clinic in San Diego (he now has 26 clinics worldwide) to a horse show park, an outdoor space where equestrian and dressage riders practiced hurdling over both permanent and temporary obstacles with their horses. A former Marine, Egoscue was well-versed in how obstacle-course training can make you fit and strong. So to him, this place was perfect for what he had in mind, especially since it was set outside (nothing like fresh air and mother nature to inspire you to move).

Related: 25 Beautiful Places in the World to Find Peace of Mind

“It was very challenging, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. You felt good when you were done. And no matter how tired you felt going through it, you felt energized, too,” Egoscue recalls of his fitness regimen for the military.  Back then, however, Egoscue didn’t see the obstacle course as much more than a means to an end. It took him a few more years to connect the dots—combining his later acquired knowledge of the anatomy and unique insights on the role posture plays in our health—to fully understand why those courses were so effective.

“It’s all about negotiating obstacles in various positions and circumstances. It’s an inclusive, holistic way of conditioning that compels the body to work in the way it was designed to work. Bicycling, jogging—these are beneficial, but they don’t promote balance and strength in a varied array of positions. They don’t promote the health of joints and full range of motion, and therefore, don’t boost the metabolism as much. That’s what makes people feel energized—that metabolism boost,” Egoscue explains. That experience maneuvering obstacle courses as a Marine was exactly what Egoscue aimed to replicate with those high school students at the equestrian show park. And he hit a bullseye.

Watching the boys, Egoscue realized he had stumbled upon an ideal means of exercise: An enjoyable way to produce balance, strength and endurance. Of course, he knew he had discovered nothing new. After all, he was only harking back to fitness techniques he had learned in the military.  But during a time when so much fitness had turned (and continues to turn) to the specialization of skills, isolation of muscles, repetition of routines and reduced range of motion, he had been reawakened to the importance of full functional movement in our conditioning.

“Word spread about what I was teaching these kids,” Egoscue remembers. Soon enough, he started training others in the show park, devising exercises and arranging them in a specified order—and people were loving it. Some even asked him to design and build a unit of obstacles that they could do anywhere, anytime. For those who couldn’t meet in the San Diego park, Egoscue created a structure—a series of bases and beams (pictured above)—that people could go over, under and around anywhere.

Over, under and around make up a key concept for functional movement, which is the element that makes the Patch—as Egoscue’s new exercise program later became called—such an effective workout. The young boys had come up with the name for the stretch of commercial tomato patches dividing Egoscue’s clinic from the show park.

“Functional means allowing the human body to fall into its natural groove of movement. If you get on the ground, go over things, under things and around things, you’re eventually going to get more functional. You coax the body to perform natural movement patterns,” says Brian Bradley, postural alignment specialist and vice president of Egoscue. These are the same patterns that may have been lost or neglected due to a sedentary lifestyle.

It all harks back to one of Egoscue’s earliest claims, fully explored in his first book, The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion: The more we move our bodies in ways that promote full range of motion, the healthier those bodies will be. Even folks who hit the gym regularly are often not as healthy as they could be.

“So much of what we do in the gym is about trying to be perfect in our form,” Bradley says. “First, that’s just not natural. Second, and ironically, by striving to be ‘perfect’ and even symmetrical, people in gyms are losing their natural balance. They’re inadvertently strengthening and working one side harder than the other. With the Patch, people naturally achieve balance through their bodies working as a unit.”

It’s that whole-body aspect that makes the Patch so efficient. Many forms of exercise, especially in the gym (think bench pressing, squats, even lunges or rowing) utilize just parts or peripheries of the body.

“Every single exercise we use in the Patch tires every muscle,” Bradley says. “That’s why a 15- or 20-minute routine from the Patch is worth two days of normal training. It’s also a great warm-up for any type of training you might do afterward. It centers your balance and makes you a hip-driven mover. By using your hips, your body gets twice the result with half the effort.”

And it doesn’t stop there.  “As your day unfolds and you do the activities of normal daily living, your body continues to get more functionally strong and balanced because of the changes that occurred in the Patch workout that you did earlier that day or a couple days prior. Every step you take after the Patch enhances the effects of the Patch.”

While there is an actual Patch apparatus, a series of plastic, portable bases and beams that Egoscue designed and that can be moved inside or out if you happen to own one, the fact is, a Patch routine can be done anywhere. It does not require a specific space or a specific setting. “It just requires you, your imagination and your surroundings,” says Egoscue. “Any outdoor setting with a bench or stairs or playground becomes a Patch. Any indoor setting for that matter, with tables or benches or chairs.”

The cherry on top: Doing the Patch is actually fun—though you won’t catch Bradley using that word to describe it. Making the program sound too playful has its disadvantages. People might be less inclined to take it seriously. But Egoscue is often quick to point out that originally, all forms of what we have come to call exercise were predicated on the notion of play and fun. It’s only in recent decades, and largely in America, fitness has become an obligation more than a joy—for adults, that is, not kids.

“Watch a group of kids running around a playground. They’re exercising like crazy, but they don’t know it. They just think they’re playing and having fun,” notes Egoscue. “Same with the Patch. It’s a hell of a workout, but it’s all disguised as pure, unadulterated, childlike fun.”

Photo by Hailey Wist

The post Unlock Your Body’s Fullest Potential with Patch Fitness appeared first on Sonima.

The answer, according to experienced yoga teachers and scientific research, is no. But that doesn’t mean the breath isn’t helpful, or that what you’re experiencing isn’t real. Your breath is causing a change. What you are doing is becoming more aware of it.

“We are not literally breathing into that area, but focusing on our breathing more attentively (more evenly and deeply) while bringing attention to the area where we feel tightness,” says Andrew Hillam, Sonima yoga advisor and director at Jois Yoga in Encinitas, California. “Deep, smooth breathing has a direct effect of calming the nervous system and brings the mind to a state of attention, to what we are doing in the present moment. The result is that tension held within the body can be more easily released.”

A dive into the physiology of stretching further supports this idea, and explains why deep breathing is such an essential healing tool.

The Science of Stretching

There’s a popular notion that stretching is a calming activity, but from a physiological perspective, what’s happening within our body is anything but relaxing.

“Stretching has been shown to decrease parasympathetic input,” says Arnold Nelson, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at Louisiana State University. The parasympathetic nervous system initiates the “rest and digest” functions within our body, and serves as the “yin” to the “yang” of the sympathetic “fight or flight” nervous system. They are both always on to some degree, but when activity of one goes down, signals from the other are stronger. Studies back this, showing that blood pressure and heart rate both increase during stretching. The body’s demand for oxygen also increases. Oxygen consumption also goes up at the stretched muscle itself, producing heat and carbon dioxide.

In short: stretching is a lot more “fight” than it is “rest.” But in most yoga postures, our goal is to release tension, not create it. How do we push back against this physiological urge to “fight”? Enter the breath.

Related: The Power of Breath for Physical and Emotional Balance

“By modifying our breathing we are able to effect the nervous system, which has a direct effect on our ability to relax the muscles,” Hillam says. In other words, slow deep breaths increase parasympathetic activity. You calm yourself down even when your body is signaling to do otherwise. And then you can turn your attention to what’s happening within the muscle itself.

Bohr’s Effect, in Effect?

Let’s take a moment to dispel the popular myth that you take in “more” oxygen when you breathe deeply. If you were to take a tool that measures the oxygen saturation in blood called a pulse oximeter and test people on the street, nearly everyone would score between 95 to 99 percent. Even shallow mouth breathers. The exceptions would be people suffering from serious disorders, like COPD.

So even people who breathe very poorly have a lot of oxygen in their system thanks to the body’s remarkable ability to adapt and recruit extra muscles (like the serratus, low back and hips) to do extra work when a main muscle (the diapragm) isn’t doing it’s job. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work on diaphragmatic breathing. You should, because doing so will use more of your lung tissue and allow the ancillary muscles being forced to work by inefficient breathing to take a rest. But the issue really isn’t oxygen intake. It’s oxygen transport.

Here’s where it’s helpful to understand a rule governing our circulation and respiratory systems that’s known as Bohr’s Effect. Named by Danish physician Christian Bohr, M.D., Ph.D., (and father to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr), the effect describes how the hemoglobin in our bloodstream release the oxygen they carry in the presence of carbon dioxide. Where there is an increase of carbon dioxide, such as working muscles, more oxygen will be released.

Since we know that muscles undergoing a static stretch produce more carbon dioxide, Bohr’s Effect would explain how more oxygen gets into those working tissues. So in a sense, we are “directing” the oxygen within our body by holding a position that puts a specific muscle to work. And as Hillam stated above, we are bringing more of our awareness to the process, becoming better able to notice the changes that take place.

“Breathing plus holding a position is very powerful,” says Sonima pain and healing advisor Pete Egoscue, who teaches diaphragmatic breathing as part of his postural restoration techniques.

Bring More Awareness to Your Breath Now

Hillam cautions that breathing practices are best performed with a knowledgable teacher.

“The breath is very powerful, and breathing practices can bring great benefit,” Hillam says. “But done incorrectly, [they] can also cause harm to the practitioner.”

A safe starting point, Hillam says, is to try breathing in and out through your nose only, focusing on making the breath deep and smooth without straining.

“The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali state that ‘yoga’ is bringing the mind under control and directing our attention in a sustained way, and that control of the breathing is necessary before being able to control of the mind,” Hillam says. “So a focus on breathing is very important.”

The post Why Does the Breath Heal? appeared first on Sonima.

Historically, sulfites have been used since ancient Roman times to sanitize wine vessels and were introduced as a food preservative in the 1600s. Sulfites are often added to wines to protect them against oxidation and microbial growth. “Without them, [long-term] preservation of wine would be impossible,” says Jeremy Fisher, sommelier at The Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick, NJ. “A 1961 Bordeaux would taste like vinegar.” The fermentation process produces small amounts of sulfites—not enough to preserve wine indefinitely. “Transporting wines around the world without sulfites would be impossible, according to most winemakers,” says Fisher.

In addition to wine and dried fruit, you’ll find sulfites added to many foods, such as some canned seafood and white potatoes meant for frying. You might also see them in dried vegetables, pickled onions, fruit juice, vinegar, lemon and lime juice, fruit bars, gravy, pizza dough, deli meat, shrimp, lobster, and gelatin. In cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, they may turn up in hair dye, tanning lotion, anti-aging cream, bath gel, perfume, blush, and certain medication such as anti-fungal and corticosteroid creams and some antibiotics. Some people say that sulfites impart a bitter taste to food and drink, but that’s up for debate.

Sulfites occur naturally at low concentrations in some foods, such as grapes. If the sulfites occur or are added in excess of 10 or more parts per million (ppm) in a finished product, you’ll see a “contains sulfites” label on the package—a mandate by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because sulfites are a known allergen.

How Do Sulfites Affect Your Health?

You may have heard that the sulfites in red wine can make your head pound. But there’s no verdict on whether red-wine-related headaches are due to sulfites or other compounds. What we do know: Sulfites can cause itchy skin, low blood pressure, abdominal pain, and diarrhea—as well as life-threatening anaphylactic shock and asthma attacks.

However, you have to be sensitive to sulfites to see these reactions. About 1 percent of people have a sulfite sensitivity. “This sounds like a little—but in the U.S. alone, this would amount to more than 3 million people,” says Vincent Pedre, M.D., author of Happy Gut and an internist at Concierge Choice Physicians in Rockville Centre, New York. When you’re considering asthma suffers, between three and 10 percent are sensitive. “Sulfites are only bad for people that have a known sensitivity, because of the uncomfortable feelings they will develop,” says Pedre.

Related: What Does It Mean to Have Food Sensitivities?

Aren’t sure if you’re sensitive to sulfites? You can visit an allergist for a skin prick test or blood test. The Mediator Release Test is one recommended blood test that can determine food sensitivities. If you’re not an asthmatic, you can try the DIY test. Pedre suggests avoiding wine for a month, then having wine with a significant amount of sulfites. If you notice any unusual symptoms after drinking the wine, you might have a sulfite sensitivity.

Measuring Your Exposure to Sulfites

Sulfite-free wine doesn’t actually exist, since all wines contain at least some sulfites. If you see a “contains no detectable sulfites” on the label, that means it has less than 10 ppm sulfites. In this case, “there are still some sulfites present, although in minimal amounts that are deemed incapable of causing an allergic reaction of any kind,” notes Fisher.

How many sulfites does your glass of wine contain? U.S. wine isn’t allowed to contain more than 350 ppm, and most wines end up with less than 150 ppm. Italian and French varieties tend to contain fewer sulfites and typically max out at 250 parts per million.

Red wines generally contain fewer sulfites than whites and roses. While sulfites help preserve light colors, the natural tannins in red wines also do this. Sweet dessert wines have a much higher sulfite level, up to 500 ppm, to stop the sugars from continuing to ferment in the bottle.

Organic wines contain fewer sulfites than conventional, but the distinction in labeling is important: U.S. labeled organic wine must contain less than 10 ppm added sulfites—and wine labeled “made with organic grapes” needs to have 100 ppm or less sulfites. Estate-bottled wines and biodynamic ones are likely to have lower sulfite levels, too.

Even though wine gets a bad rap when it comes to sulfites, many foods have much higher levels. “Sulfite levels are much higher in food than wine, up to ten times higher,” says Fisher. Foods that have more than 100 ppm sulfites include bottled lemon juice, dried fruit other than raisins and prunes, sauerkraut, and molasses. If you’re sensitive to sulfites, you might be better off dehydrating your own fruit and squeezing fresh lemon juice.

While fresh green and fruit salads are no longer allowed to contain added sulfites, all grapes contain some naturally occurring sulfites. The organic version should contain less, as conventional ones are treated with sulfites to prevent fungus growth.

You can also reduce sulfites by filtering them out. Products like Ullo act as a wine purifier to remove sulfites from drinks (but aren’t recommended for champagne, since they remove some carbonation, too). They’re expensive, running around $80 for a purifier and four single-use filters. “That seems like a lot of money to spend,” says Fisher. When it comes to removing sulfites from produce, you can attempt this yourself: Soak vegetables or fruit that might contain sulfites in electrolyzed water that has a pH between 9 and 11, such as AQUAhydrate. “Alkaline water is very effective in removing pesticides and additives,” says Pedre.

The post Are Sulfites Bad for Your Health? appeared first on Sonima.

If you haven’t tried any kind of alternative treatment or medicine before, you might be skeptical. It’s worth exploring, though, if you have a serious OTC habit. In fact, 38 percent of American adults use some kind of complementary alternative medicine according to the National Center For Complementary and Integrative Health. Janet Zand, O.M.D., notes that once people figure out the alternative remedy that’s best for them and their specific type of pain, it’s sometimes possible over time “to move for example to half the dose of conventional OTC pain reliever after adding in a natural one.” Ideally, after awhile you might even be able to skip your OTC medicine altogether. Plus, there are often positive side effects from natural pain relievers, since many of them have more than one use. Before starting any new pain relief regimen (natural or otherwise), Zand recommends checking in with your health practitioner first about appropriate substances for your symptoms, potential drug interactions and correct dosage.

Here are some natural remedies that will help soothe your pain that are both tried-and-true by health practitioners and scientific studies.

1. Ice and Heat

Best for: Muscle and joint pain, cramping pain
Why it works: While this might not be the most surprising treatment, ice and heat are nature’s most intrinsic treatments for pain. Heat is ideal for chronic pain, while ice is better for inflammation or a relatively recent injury. This is because heat increases blood flow to the painful area, which relaxes tight muscles and joints, and ice constricts blood vessels which numbs pain. Check out this handy infographic from the Cleveland Clinic, which explains when to use heat versus ice.
How to use it: Apply an ice pack, damp cloth, heating pad or heat wrap for 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.

2. Curcumin

Best for: Any kind of inflammation, especially arthritis
Why it works: Found in turmeric, curcumin is one of the more well-researched natural pain relievers. While larger-scale studies are still needed to completely understand all of its uses, it’s been confirmed that it does help alleviate inflammation and some pain. A 2016 study found that the supplement was effective in combatting exercise-induced muscle soreness, and a 2012 study found it effective as part of treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Curcumin is also currently being studied for several other purposes, notably as part of treatment for and prevention of colorectal cancer.
How to use it: Some people wonder whether eating food with turmeric is enough to get curcurmin’s benefits. According to Zand, “food seasoned with turmeric is healthy but is most likely not a therapeutic dose. It is a good healthy habit to eat it, but if you are experiencing pain don’t expect a bowl of curry to make your pain go away.” She recommends looking for a pill supplement that contains 95 percent curcuminoids. “Generally, the products are standardized,” she notes, and it’s easy to tell from the label exactly how much you’re supposed to take. It should also be added that you should not take more than the recommended dose of this (or any) supplement, as it can cause digestive issues like nausea and diarrhea.

3. Arnica

Best for: Bruising, swelling, and inflammation
Why it works: While arnica is one of the most well-known homeopathic methods, there is conflicting research on its effectiveness. Despite this, many people continue to use it. Zand explains that while most of the evidence around arnica’s effectiveness is anecdotal, if it works for you there’s no reason to rule it out. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to use, so it’s worth a shot — especially for bruising and light swelling.
How to use it: Arnica generally comes in an ointment form, but can also be taken as an oral supplement.

4. Proteolytic Enzymes

Best for: Inflammation, digestive issues
Why it works: These enzymes are naturally made by your pancreas to help digest food, but they can also be ingested as a supplement for additional benefits. Though they’re generally thought of as supplement used to treat inflammation, they are true multi-taskers. In addition to treating pain caused by inflammation in joints they can also help lessen the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other digestive issues.
How to use it: These are taken as an oral supplement. Zand particularly recommends a supplement called Wobenzym. “It works best when taken between meals,” she says, “and you should definitely consult your healthcare practitioner before you start taking it.” Certain types of enzymes are not appropriate for everyone.

5. Willow Bark Extract

Best for: Musculoskeletal pain, back pain
Why it works: Willow bark extract contains salicylic acid, which Zand likes to call “the original aspirin,” since the chemical makeup of the extract is similar to the active ingredients in the OTC drug. This substance has been proven effective in long-term treatment of musculoskeletal disorders as well as back pain, both with and without the aid of OTC pain relievers and other pain management medications. In fact, many people prefer willow bark extract to aspirin because of aspirin’s digestive side effects.
How to use it: Just like aspirin, willow bark comes in pill form, and you should follow the dosage instructions on the packaging.

Related: A Closer Look at How Acupuncture Works

6. Acupuncture

Best for: All kinds of pain
Why it works: A recent study conducted in the emergency department of a hospital showed promising results of the ancient practice of pricking needles into the skin at specific pressure points. The researchers showed that acupuncture treatments reduced both the pain and anxiety of patients in the emergency room. Additionally, acupuncture boasts the advantage of being one of the most versatile natural pain treatments, as it can help alleviate many different types of pain.
How to use it: The first step to getting pain relief from acupuncture is finding an experienced practitioner. Zand recommends the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine’s database as an amazing resource to find someone highly qualified.

7. Corydalis yanhusuo

Best for: Acute pain, inflammation and nerve pain
Why it works: Corydalis yanhuso is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. In 2014, it was discovered that the plant, traditionally used for pain relief, contains an analgesic called DHCB. The study calls this discovery a “promising lead in pain management” and more research is being done on exactly how to harness this ancient herb’s powers.
How to use it: This pain reliever can be taken in oral supplement form.

The post 7 Natural Pain Relievers That Really Work appeared first on Sonima.

Food sensitivities are different from food allergies and intolerances. Both food allergies and sensitivities are overreactions of the body’s immune system. “But that’s where the similarities end and the differences begin,” says Ryan Whitcomb, R.D., C.L.T., a dietitian in Jersey City, New Jersey. Whereas food allergies involve immunoglobin E (IgE) antibodies, which your body produces in excess when it overreacts to an allergen, food sensitivities involve overreactions to several types of antibodies, including immunoglobin G (igG) and/or immunoglobin M (igM). The immune system’s T cells or complement proteins may be involved. When an overreaction happens, it can cause inflammation in your body and symptoms such as migraines, congestion, or diarrhea. And food intolerances have nothing to do with the immune system—they happen when your body is missing a specific enzyme needed to process a food.

Food sensitivities are typically caused by exposure—often overexposure—to a food or chemical. But it could have nothing to do with what you eat. “It may be caused by the mother’s microbiotia during pregnancy,” says Patenaude. Some experts believe that certain cases of infant eczema may be caused by food sensitivities.

While food allergies may be life threatening, food sensitivities aren’t. They are, on the other hand, annoying and can significantly decrease quality of life by causing symptoms like headaches, abdominal pain, and brain fog. “Over time, people learn to cope with their issues—whether a stuffy nose, a funny stomach, or fatigue—because they’ve had them for as long as they can remember,” notes Whitcomb. These symptoms can take anywhere from 45 minutes to three days to show up. And then there’s the chance that you might not have any symptoms if you eat a small amount of a food. “If you’re sensitive to apples, the apple juice in the granola bar you eat might not cause an adverse reaction, but eating an entire apple might,” says Whitcomb.

Food sensitivities may be to blame, at least partially, on technology. “The technical and agricultural revolution is definitely [moving] too fast for our body’s evolution,” says Mark Pasula, Ph.D., an immunologist who created two of the major food sensitivity tests. “Our immune system is not evolving as fast as technology.”

How to Get Tested for Food Sensitivities

There are a handful of food sensitivity blood tests out there, including the IgG Food Antibodies Assessment, the Antigen Leukocyte Antibody Test (ALCAT), and the MRT. The latter is considered the best of these tests.

Several decades ago, Pasula moved from Poland to the United States. “After a few years of living here, I developed very strange allergy-like symptoms that were very, very difficult for me to cope with,” he says. “I decided to help myself and create a test that would identify my problems.” After years of experimentation, Pasula patented his first test, the ALCAT, in 1982. That test worked by identifying white cell reactions to food extracts. But Pasula calls it a “first attempt,” noting it worked decently but not as well as the next generation, the MRT, which tests not just if the blood reacts to a food or chemical—but how and to what degree the body dislikes the food. “The ALCAT test is still around, but it represents very old technology, versus today’s test,” says Pasula.

As for the IgG test, Pasula says it shouldn’t even be on your radar. “The IgG test is generally tells you which foods you consume,” he says. “If you, for instance, eat beef every day, the test very likely will show a high level of IgG to beef.” Authors of a position paper in the journal Allergy agree with this, stating that IgG testing is not helpful for determining food sensitivities.

Related: Is Personalized Nutrition the Future of Dieting?

Depending on where you live, testing with nutritional counseling could cost a few hundred dollars or more—and sometimes will be covered partially or fully by insurance. Anyone who can order blood tests, including doctors and some dietitians, can order the MRT test.

The MRT test assesses 120 common foods and 30 chemicals. It might grow to include more foods and chemicals—but adding an item will cost at least $30,000 on the development side, says Patenaude, so growth will be slow. If you’re looking to get tested, you can search the database on HealthProfs.com to find a dietitian licensed to treat sensitivities.

However, some health professionals have doubts about the accuracy of food sensitivity testing. “There is no validated test for food sensitivities,” says Julie Kuriakose, M.D., founder of Hudson Allergy in New York City. “By validated, I mean the test should have documented evidence that provides a high degree of assurance that a specific test will consistently produce a result. The tests can yield false negatives and false positives.”

If you decide to get tested, Patenaude suggests doing so through a certified LEAP therapist (CLT), as anyone with this credential has gone through advanced training on managing adverse food reactions and sensitivities. LEAP is an acronym for Lifestyle, Eating, and Performance, a nutrition therapy that involves eating a restricted diet sans any foods the MRT test shows you’re sensitive to. “[Other professionals] will not understand the diet protocol based on the results,” says Patenaude.

If you don’t want to get tested, you can try a simpler, much slower road. “Food diaries are useful to narrow a list of offending foods,” says Sezelle Gereau M.D., an integrative otolaryngologist at the Blum Center for Health in Rye Brook, New York. “The best and gold standard way to determine if one has a food allergy or sensitivity is to eliminate the foods strictly for three to six weeks and then reintroduce them in small amounts, one by one over a series of days and observe for reactivity.”

How to Treat Food Sensitivities

Because food sensitivities develop slowly over time, it also takes time for them to resolve. And not all of them do resolve. With nutrition therapy based on the MRT test, dietitians help patients with food sensitivities lose their defenses to certain sensitivities. “Think of the immune system as the bouncer at a swanky night club,” says Whitcomb. “Overexposure to a food or chemical can cause the bouncer to think that a food or food chemical is no longer safe, which is what causes the symptoms.”

Using the LEAP protocol, a dietitian will create an elimination diet based on your test results. You’ll start with a small number of foods, then add new foods slowly to make sure you don’t react to foods for which you didn’t get tested. Such elimination diets are shown to be helpful with conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), found a review study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Several months down the road, you’ll be able to reintroduce foods you test sensitive to back into your diet. If you have a reaction, you might need to avoid the food for several more months—or much longer. “The immune system has memory, and each white blood cell has a different span of memory,” says Whitcomb. “Depending on the cell or cells that are reacting, you might be able to get one food back in a few months, a few years, or never.”  Whitcomb, for example, tested sensitive to wheat, chocolate, and peanuts. By avoiding those foods for a year, he was able to get them all back. But his sensitivity to soy and chicken remained unchanged. “With chronic sensitivities, specific types of cells called lymphocytes get involved that are long-living cells and can cause sensitivities that can last for years,” explains Pasula.

While you may outgrow a food allergy, you won’t outgrow a food sensitivity. You might, however, regain tolerance to some of the foods you’re sensitive to—meaning you can have some, but you run the risk of having symptoms when eating the food if you overdo it.

The post What Does It Mean to Have Food Sensitivities? appeared first on Sonima.

Your Diaphragm

“The average person at rest takes around 23,040 breaths per day,” says Matt Delaney, C.S.C.S., a licensed massage therapist and Tier X Health Coach at Equinox Columbus Circle. “Our diaphragm initiates every single one of them.” That’s not all that this dome-shaped muscle at your ribs does: Along with other core muscles, it helps stabilize your trunk, which is key for efficient, pain-free movement, says Delaney. When there’s dysfunction? You’re susceptible to injury and pain.

Massage it: Sit in a chair and curl the tips of your fingers under your rib cage, says Delaney. Take a deep breath into your belly and on the exhale, flex forward trying to bring your head to your lap; allow your fingers to move further under your ribs. Make sure to exhale fully — this allows the diaphragm to reach its end range under the contact of your fingers. Repeat three to five times.

Your Gut

Many scientists consider the gut the second brain, says Scott Weiss, C.S.C.S., a New York-based physical therapist. That’s because more and more research suggests that a healthy gut (filled with beneficial bacteria) creates a healthy body (and mind). “A mechanical massage aids in moving digestion along,” Weiss says. It also eases muscle tension and relieves air and gas from the system, he says.

Massage it: With firm pressure, make circles to the left on the stomach’s surface. “This circular pattern mimics the normal digestive movements,” says Weiss. Then place one palm on your upper abdomen and overlap it with your other hand (consider this 12 o’clock). Start pressing inward, applying pressure in a clockwise fashion. Slowly go from 12 to 3 to 6 to 9 and back again, he says. This can be done 20 to 30 times with strong, firm pressure.

Your Face and Jaw

Whether you realize it or not, you hold a lot of tension in your face and jaw. Emotions, thoughts, and an internal dialogue can lead you to clench your jaw and facial muscles, says Weiss. “Eating, speaking, and reacting all day can stress these muscles, too.” Yet, most massages leave these stressed out muscles alone.

Massage them: Use the palms of your hands and and pads of the fingertips to apply pressure to the face, forehead, and jaw. Clench you jaw a few times. You’ll find the muscles that need work. Apply pressure where needed. Make your way around the ears, too.

RELATED: 6 Self-Massage Tools to Restore Your Body at Home

Your Thumbs

There are three muscles that sit at the base of your thumb — they make up what’s called the thenar eminence, explains Delaney. And these muscles take a beating all day long as you text and scroll, impacting your grip strength and fine motor control, he says. “It may not sound like a big deal, but grip strength is vital to our longevity,” says Delaney. So much so, in fact, that it’s one of the measurements cardiologists use to predict the outcomes of surgical patients.

Massage them: Start with your thumb flexed into your palm with your palm facing down. With the pointer and middle finger of the other hand, reach under the middle of the palm just below the thenar muscles and draw some tension toward the thumb knuckle. Maintain this tension as you slowly move the thumb away from the palm and allow your fingers to glide up toward its base. Repeat 3 to 5 times per hand.

Your Wrists

In a world of tablets and laptops, your hands and wrist muscles are used more than any other major body part, says Weiss. The best news: Maladies like carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis can be kept at bay with some simple massage, he says.

Massage them: Clasp your hands together and make figure eights. Use the prayer position to open and stretch the wrists. Push your fingers to the left and right while together to further stretch the deeper muscles of the wrist, he says.

Your Feet

Most of us take our feet for granted until problems crop up. Here’s why that needs to change: “They are the most dynamic part of our structure,” says Delaney. “Our feet are our first point of contact with the ground and are constantly providing the brain valuable information about where we are.” Plus, a sedentary lifestyle can leave them craving stimulation and too-tight shoes can constrict them, impeding blood flow.

Massage them: Place a golf ball under your foot at the base of the heel, says Delaney. Sitting or standing, trace a line from the front of your heel to each one of the toes and back. Be sure to work across the foot, too, paying special attention to trace the cup of the heel and ball of the foot, he says. Repeat three to five times per foot.

The post 6 Often-Ignored Body Parts That Benefit from Massage appeared first on Sonima.

The Point of the Practice

Needle phobes are likely familiar with acupuncture’s main tool: fine, disposable needles no thicker than a few strands of hair. Practitioners use them to stimulate so-called acupoints all over the body, says Alexandra Vander Baan, a doctor of acupuncture, and owner of Yintuition Wellness in Boston, Massachusetts. These acupoints, which total 361 across the skin’s surface according to the WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region, are used to bring energy back throughout the body where it might be imbalanced.

Break a bone or burst an appendix, there’s no better choice than allopathic (or mainstream) medicine, says Vander Baan. But when it comes to some common conditions such as respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, and chronic pain, acupuncture is incredibly effective—and arguably more successful in delivering results, she says. A key difference between conventional medicine and a holistic treatment like acupuncture is that the latter addresses those interconnected systems of the body, plus the underlying causes of concerns, including inflammation or hormonal imbalances, she says. “Today, the overwhelming majority of symptoms we experience are systemic—affecting the whole body, not just a single organ or tissue,” she adds.

Related: The Magic of Dry Needling for Pain Relief

How does acupuncture work? In a typical session, a patient will discuss their concerns with the acupuncturist who will then insert needles in strategic areas of the body, depending on the patient’s needs. Once the needles are in place, the patient will continue to lie comfortably on the treatment table for anywhere from five minutes to an hour. Most people report to feel very relaxed during treatment, and generally experience no discomfort from the needles. Research suggests acupuncture encourages the body to release feel-good endorphins. Other studies find the practice improves circulation, which can help the body repair itself and mitigate both pain and perception of pain, says Vander Baan. More studies are needed on the topic.

While some science suggests acupuncture can fend off low back pain or headaches, other research shows that these outcomes are minimal—nothing more than a placebo effect. However, many current clinical guidelines for chronic pain, chemotherapy, anxiety and depression, and labor pain do feature acupuncture as a recommended treatment, and that means something, Vander Baan says. The World Health Organization even lists 28 different medical conditions that can be treated, at least in part, by acupuncture. The National Institutes of Health agrees, stating that the needles are a therapeutic intervention for everything from menstrual cramps to nausea brought about by pregnancy or chemotherapy.

Is Acupuncture Worth Trying?

Acupuncture’s devotees range from dedicated yogis and weekend warriors to athletes and stressed-out 9-to-5ers. The clientele is diverse because so, too, are the uses for acupuncture. Fatigue, anxiety, headaches, low back pain, constipation—all of these can be signs of an underlying imbalance in your body, Vander Baan says. “One of the advantages of the TCM is that we can detect and treat sub-clinical symptoms before they become full-blown medical conditions,” she says.

Being receptive to the medicine is key to success. “This isn’t to say those who ‘don’t believe in it’ won’t benefit,” says Vander Baan. But the placebo effect plays a role in all therapeutic interventions—not just acupuncture, she says. One 2014 study published in Science Translational Medicine found that half of a migraine drug’s power came from simply thinking it would work, even when people were taking a placebo. In addition to embracing positive results, it’s important to keep your overall well-being in check, too. Those who take an active role in their health will likely see the most boons from the practice. After all, a healthy diet and lifestyle help support and sustain progress, Vander Baan says.

Paying for the Pinch

Complementary treatments like acupuncture used to be far from complimentary. Data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey found that 83 million Americans spent $33.9 million on alternative medicine in just one year. Ouch. But Vander Baan says that today she sees more insurance companies footing the bill for time on the table.

“The landscape of insurance coverage is changing because of an increasing demand for complementary therapies,” she says. In fact, research from consumer insights firm Nielson found millennials are more likely to use acupuncture and herbal remedies than other generations. An estimated 3 million Americans have signed up for acupuncture, especially since emerging research has demonstrated it’s safe and cost-effective. And more are welcome to try it: About 54 million Americans are eligible for acupuncture covered by the Affordable Care Act, reports the Journal of Integrative Medicine, published in 2014.

Not sure if you’re covered? Ask your insurance provider, and get the scoop (here’s a list of go-to questions to ask) before you book an appointment. Some companies may cover your session if you have a prescription and the treatment is pre-approved, or only if you go to a doctor in-network. If you’re not covered, you’re looking at fees from $60 to $120 per session, according to AcuFinder.com. Also worth noting: If the practice works for you, it could help you cut costs down the road if you can avoid other expensive and invasive interventions (i.e., surgeries or long-term prescriptions), Vander Baan says. Find a trained acupuncturist through the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.

The post A Closer Look at How Acupuncture Works appeared first on Sonima.

“The rear-end should act as support for the entire body and as a shock absorber for stress during exercise, but if it’s too weak, other parts of the body take up the slack and it often causes injury,” says Chris Kolba, Ph.D., a physical therapist who specializes in orthopedic and sports medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Sitting is a great way to weaken those butt muscles, the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius. Kolba calls the condition that results “dormant butt syndrome.” Stuart McGill, Ph.D., the director of the Spine Biomechanics Laboratory at Waterloo University, describes it as “gluteal amnesia” because people afflicted with it seem to “forget” to use their glutes when they perform tasks like squatting or hinging at the hips. Whatever you want to call it, when the glutes are effectively out to lunch, a host of extra strain winds up on the hamstrings and lower back. That can kick off a vicious cycle that leads to chronic back pain.

Related: Understanding the Source of Back Pain

McGill’s research has conclusively shown that pain, whether it stems from the back or the hips (another common trouble spot), inhibits the glutes. When the glutes are restricted somehow, more stress winds up on the back. You end up in a chicken-or-egg situation where it’s no longer clear whether the back pain is shutting down the glutes or vice versa. What is clear is that the two issues often go together.

The good news? McGill’s work also shows that when someone manages to get his or her glutes back in working order, the pain they had experienced in their lower back subsides or disappears entirely. Follow his three steps below to unlock your buttocks’ full potential and live a more pain-free life.

Step 1: Rebuild the mind-muscle connection.

Try this simple technique to check whether you’re still in touch with your bottom half. Lie back on the floor and place your hands underneath each of your butt cheeks. Take turns contracting each of your glutes. Your hands are there to notice if those muscles are indeed firing. This may feel a bit silly, but it serves an important purpose. “It’s getting your brain to connect to the muscle,” McGill says.

McGill cautions that this is a self-exam and corrective exercise, not a new way of life. “Some people think that they should walk around with their bottoms clenched all the time. But that’s just silly,” McGill says. “Your glutes are a very phasic muscle, you should use them only as you need.”

Step 2: Get your glutes back in business.

During his more than three decades of research on back pain, McGill tested several many different exercises to see how they affected the glutes. Over and over again, the two moves he found to be the most effective at getting the glutes to work well within a person’s daily movement patterns were clamshells and glute bridges. He suggests performing 3 sets of 10 reps of each move at least once per day. (McGill compiled these exercises and dozens of others in his new book Back Mechanic, a guide to self-assessments you can use to identify and solve your own back pain.)

Clamshells

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Glute Bridge

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Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands under your butt to feel its engagement, then squeeze the cheeks as if you were trying to hold a coin between them. Your goal is for the pelvis to remain neutral and not tilt in any way. From there, bridge up, using your butt to drive the movement. The bridge activates the gluteus maximus, the larger muscle that makes up the bulk of your rear.

Step 3: Keep your body—and your backside—more active throughout the day.

Sonima.com’s pain and anatomy advisor, Pete Egoscue, agrees that inhibited glutes can wreak havoc all over a person’s body. “The idea that a person’s glutes are going to suffer from all of that sitting is correct,” says the creator of the Egoscue Method. So while you’ve probably heard this before, remember you should try to avoid sitting for prolonged periods. When you’re at work, get up and take a break every 20 to 30 minutes. Consider a standing desk—they’ve become a lot more affordable in recent years. Egoscue also has two exercises he suggests people perform to give their booty an occasional wake-up call throughout the day.

Rear-Leg Knee Bends

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Stand up and take one step forward with your right foot. Make sure your feet are hip-width apart and pointing straight ahead (or as close to straight as you can manage). Keeping your torso vertical, bend the knee of your left (rear) leg , then straighten it. When you straighten your rear leg, focus on feeling the line of energy from your butt down to your heel on the ground. If you place your hand on your butt, you should be able to feel your glutes contract as you do this. Perform 10 reps on each side.

Three-Position Toe Raises

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Stand with your big toes touching, your right heel pointing at 5 o’clock and your left heel pointing at 7 o’clock. Engage your quadriceps (the big muscles in the front of your thighs) and rise up onto the balls of your feet then lower. Keep your toes pressed against the floor and focus on keeping the quads tight as you move up and down. You should be able to feel the muscles of your upper thighs and glutes flexing as you rise. Do 10 reps.

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Then switch it up so that your heels touch and your toes are pointing outward (toes pointing to 1 o’clock and 11 o’clock). You should feel even more glute engagement along with a bit more sensation in your quads as you perform 10 more reps in this second variation.

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Lastly, stand with your feet pointing straight ahead and roughly hip-distance apart. Repeat the toe-raise 10 more times, keeping your quads engaged and pelvis neutral (not tilted forward or backward).

The post The Surprising Muscle Weakness Linked to Back Pain appeared first on Sonima.