In this newsletter you will find articles on stress related illness, stretches to combat the effects of sitting and some important information on youth sports injuries and some insights on how to prevent them.

1. Health-Fit ChiropracTIPS
CAN STRESS MAKE YOU SICK?
When you are stressed out, your body
will respond with physical warning
signs. Too much stress may trigger
headaches, muscle tension, neck or
back pain, and sleep problems. When
stress is left unchecked, your risk for
disease is higher. Chronic stress may
lead to high blood pressure, heart
disease, obesity and diabetes. Please
be aware how stress that we deal with
on a daily basis can be detrimental.
Stress can affect your body in a number of surprising ways:
Can Stress Make You Sick?
1. You are more likely to get sick. Research suggests that people with
high stress levels have lower immune response when exposed to cold
viruses. When you are stressed out, your body’s inflammation levels
elevate, thus making is easier for you to develop cold symptoms.
2. Wounds may take longer to heal. Women under chronic stress of
caregiving for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or dementia took nine days
longer to heal from a small skin wound. Dental students healed more
slowly during exam time than when they were on vacation. And for
couples, a half-hour marital dispute slowed the healing of blisters.
3. You may gain weight. The body releases a hormone called cortisol
from your adrenal glands when you are under stress. High levels of
cortisol can lead to a thicker waistline.
BREUGGER’S STRETCH:
HOW YOU CAN COMBAT THE
EFFECTS OF SITTING
The majority of America works sitting at a desk. The human
body was designed to move and we now know that prolonged
inactivity such as sitting at a desk all day increases your morbidity
for many diseases. Fortunately there’s a way for you to relieve
tight and sore muscles and improve your posture without leaving
your desk.
The stretch is called
Breugger’s Stretch or
Breugger’s Posture. The
purpose of the posture is to
activate the muscles that
are turned off during sitting
and as a result, the overly
tight muscles can relax. To
perform this stretch, stand
up straight with your arms at
your sides. Turn your hands
so that your palms face
forward and your shoulders
are pulled back slightly and
brings your arms slightly out
to the side, at a 20 degree
angle. This will open up the chest area and stretch the pectoral
muscles. Once in position, practice deep diaphragmatic
breathing from deep within the belly instead of shallow breaths
with the chest (which many of us are accustomed to). You hold
this position while practicing deep breathing for 30 seconds to a
minute.
Vladamir Janda, a famous physiotherapist first came up with
the idea of tonic and phasic muscles: tonic muscles tend to
become tight and phasic muscles tend to become loose
and weak. Sometimes we need to stretch the tonic muscles
and strengthen the phasic muscles and that is the aim of the
Breugger’s posture, to stretch the right pectoral muscles and
muscles in the back of the neck while strengthening the deep
neck flexors and the muscles that extend and externally rotate
the shoulders. With this new information you can help yourself
reach a more beneficial posture and reduce painful syndromes
caused by prolonged sitting.
December 2015
Fun Facts
• Each year, about 1.76 billion candy canes are made in the
United States alone, enough for each U.S. resident to enjoy
more than five a piece.
• Estimates of 2015 U.S. holiday spending sit at $630.5 billion.
That’s higher than the GDP of 181 countries.
•Spinning the dreidel during Hanukkah dates back to the time of the
Greek-Syrian rule over the Holy Land. Learning Torah was outlawed and
a “crime” punishable by death. The Jewish children resorted to hiding
in caves in order to study and if a Greek patrol would approach, the
children would pull out their dreidel tops and pretend to be playing
a game.
• The world’s largest Christmas gift ever was the the Statue of Liberty. The
people of France gave it to the United States of America in 1886.
• The most popular Christmas Song ever is We Wish You a Merry
Christmas. The song can be traced back to England, but its author
and composer remains unknown.

2. Presort Standard
U.S.Postage
PAID
Boca Raton,FL
Permit No.1767
Design • Print • Mail, Taylor Printing 561.654.4445
Health-Fit® Chiropractic
Sports Medicine
Kevin Christie, DC • Larry Masarsky DC
Alex Wasserman DC
2900 N. Military Trail
Suite 220
Boca Raton, FL 33431
561-997-8898
eters even more significantly.
The Corporate Chiropractor®
program will fully implement
a chiropractic physician into
your corporation to provide
chiropractic care, soft tissue
therapy, ergonomics/work sta-
tion consultations and strain/
sprain preventative pro-grams.
Our on-site care program
reduces recordable rates and
worker’s compensation claims
by focusing on soft tissue
discomforts and injury preven-
tion. In 2006, OSHA provided
a ruling and documentation
in a prevention format, A.R.T.
is considered First Aid, not a
recordable treatment. If the
employee also receives med-
ical treatment, a job transfer,
restricted work activity, or days
away from work, it would then
be considered a recordable
injury. The A.R.T. provider
and the safety manager/human
resources department work
in conjunction to follow the
correct care path for each em-
ployee. This will decrease the
company’s worker’s compensa-
tion costs considerably.
IS IT WISE FOR KIDS TO
SPECIALIZE IN ONE SPORT?
An underlying belief of some parents today is that the key to their child
achieving an athletic scholarship or even playing professional sports
someday, is to have them specialize in one sport and one sport only. Sports
specialization is defined as training intensely for one sport all year round.
Often times parents believe the earlier their child begins to focus on one
activity, the better their chances are to excel in that activity.
Is this really the case? There is absolutely a positive correlation between
the number of hours spent training in a specialized area and achieving
success, but research is showing there are also risks involved with early
sports specialization.
The biggest risk associated with early sports specialization is injury.
In a study of 1200 youth athletes, Dr Neeru Jayanthi of Loyola University
found that early specialization in a single sport is one of the strongest
predictors of injury. Athletes in the study who specialized were 70% to 93%
more likely to be injured than children who played multiple sports!
When a child plays one sport all year round, they never give their body
a break. If the body does not have time to heal after intense training
sessions, the small micro-traumas will add up leading to over-use injuries.
It is tenderness for the past,
courage for the present,
hope for the future. It is
a fervent wish that every
cup may overflow with
blessings rich and eternal,
and that every path may
lead to peace.
- Agnes M. Pharo
“
”
162 NE 25th Street
Suite 103
Miami, FL 33137
305-770-6393
Health-Fit Book of the Month
BE THE MIRACLE
Want to live your dreams--or even surpass them?
Want the world to change for the better? Want to
see a miracle? What are we waiting for? Why not
be the miracle?
That’s the challenge Regina Brett sets forth in BE
THE MIRACLE. To be a miracle doesn’t necessarily
mean tackling problems across the globe. It
means making a difference, believing change is
possible, even in your own living room, cubicle,
neighborhood, or family.
Something else to
consider, is while the
same muscle groups
are trained year round
focusing on one
specific activity, other
important muscles and
basic movements that
are necessary to be an
elite athlete never have the chance to develop.
Research shows that children who play more than one
sport develop varying motor patterns and skills that later
will be more beneficial for success in their activity of
choice.
The last thing to consider when pushing your child
toward a specific sport is the psychological stress.
Children who play one sport get burnt out sooner and
are more likely to quit than those encouraged to play
multiple sports throughout their childhood.
While the idea behind early specialization seems
logical, be cautious of these risks when encouraging
your little athlete to participate in sports specific training.
Quote of the Month