Turf Toe

By Dr. Ciro Errico

In sports like soccer, football, lacrosse, track, and even gymnastics turf toe can be an injury that can occur. Though commonly seen on turf fields it can be seen in a variety of sports due to the mechanism of injury. All these sports include the need to jump, run, ‘cut’ or quickly turn; often times it occurs while the player is on his or her toes. This action causes injuries like turf toe.  

So, what is turf toe?

Turf toe is an injury in which the big toe is hyperextend causing a sprain of the ligaments surrounding the big toe. It is often times caused by jamming the big toe, or repeatedly pushing off the big toe during running or jumping.

What are a few signs and symptoms?

When a player has a possible turf toe injury there will be swelling, pain, and limited range of motion in the big toe. The player will have a hard time placing his or her foot on the floor due to the pain of trying to push off while walking.

What can a player do to help treat turf toe?

To treat turf toe the first thing to do is RICE method which includes: rest, ice, compression of the area, and elevating the foot to help reduce the swelling. Receiving professional care like chiropractic care is beneficial; there are many things that a chiropractor can do. Laser treatments help the cells of the damaged ligaments and tendons to reproduce ATP in the body, and allows for a faster recovery. Myofacial release is beneficial: the injured muscles need treatment to reduce inflammation, and also allows the surrounding muscle to not over compensate and cause more problems. MarcPro helps the muscles to flush out the inflammation, and the allows to bring more blood flow to the damaged area; this process of bringing blood to the area of damage allowing oxygen to get to the muscles and help heal the damaged muscle fibers (www.marcpro.com promo code: GOTCSI). Taping the area of damage allows a reduction of inflammation, and provides support to the tendons and ligaments. Adjustments of the foot, ankle, and the spine allow the body to stay aligned, and continue to provide optimal innate care in body.

How to prevent turf toe?

One of the best ways to prevent turf toe is to wear shoes that do not allow a significant amount of bend in the shoe to prevent excess amount of hyperextension and pushing off with the big toe. Working on gait patterns, and finding optimal foot positioning can help prevent more turf toe injuries. Also, exercises, such as the one on www.gotcsi.com youtube channel for big toe work well in strengthening the joint.

Dr. Ciro was a Doctor at Chiropractic Sports Institute, in Westlake Village, Ca. For more info go to their website: www.gotcsi.com

Are Supplements a waste of Money?

By Dr. Ciro Errico

In a recent study medical doctors have announced supplements are a waste of money. How can that be true? For years doctors of different fields have given patients vitamins and mineral supplements, because it is ‘healthy’ or ‘good nutritional advice’. In my opinion the best nutritional advice any doctor can give is explaining to a patient the importance of eating fresh organic, grass-fed, non-processed, non-GMO foods. The importance of allowing the body to eat clean, and not to allow genetically modified, hormonal, or pesticide infected foods- whether vegetables, meats, or fruits.

But, it seems in the new recent study that doctors are trying to possible promote better eating, and lifestyle- hence, doing away with vitamins forces a person to take control of food, and not rely on supplements. So, here is another view. How many can honestly and truly shop at a Farmers Market daily, prepare and cook meals everyday, exercise- both mentally and physically, do chores, errands, spend time with family, enjoy alone time, and enjoy life?

Supplements are good for people when they know they are lacking a specific vitamin or mineral. A simple example would be Vitamin D and winter. During the winter less people are willing to go outside to sunbathe for twenty minutes to help increase his or her own Vitamin D production- sun light increases the body’s production of Vitamin D naturally- along side taking Vitamin K which allows the uptake of Vitamin D to increase as well. So, what does Vitamin D actually do in the body? Vitamin D helps strengthen bones, allows nerve impulses to travel optimally, and helps the immune system fight off bacteria and viruses. Now, aside from the sunbathing Vitamin D can also be found in beef liver and fatty fishes like salmon- make sure the beef liver is from a grass-fed cow and the salmon is wild caught from USA. Too much to ask for? Not sure of the source of food? Not sure about sunbathing in the winter? These may be a time when a vitamin D (along with Vitamin K) supplement may be helpful and useful until spring or summer. 

A simple and honest way of explaining why supplements should still be taken Is because not many people take the time to research his or her food, have time to prepare and cook meals every day and night, not many people can afford to spend the extra money at the local Farmers Market, and not many people enjoy cooking. Another simple and honest reason is because a person may eat two servings of fruit and four servings of vegetables a day, but is that fruit or vegetable organic or has it been genetically modified in some way? Result: ingesting a fruit or vegetable that has no quality because it may have been modified to produce quantity on an orchard or farm. Ultimately these modified fruits and vegetables contain no proper quality nutrition that can give the body vitamins and minerals it may need.     

Supplements are just that. They SUPPLEMENT the diet when nutrients are missing. How can that be a waste of money?!

Dr. Ciro Errico is the Team Chiropractor for Club Sports at CSUN and is also the Lacrosse Team Chiropractor at CSUCI and Newbury Park HighSchool. He is a treating Physician at CSI. For more info go to www.gotcsi.com

Going through a time of STRESS?

By. Terry Weyman

Stress is part of life, its just the way it is. HOWEVER, when the flood waters get a little high, sometimes we need a little help. Stress comes in many forms. And its effects are so strong that even the stress of others can have an impact on your well-being. The American Psychological Association reports that "only 37 percent of Americans feel they are actually doing an excellent of very good job of managing their stress". Not only can Stress be emotional, it can also be caused by over training!

What are you doing to help your stress? We all have read about stress relieving techniques, from mediation, positive self talk, breathing and changing your environment. However, what are you doing during the stressful times to just get by until the light at the end of the tunnel appears? Here are some quick tips to help.

Supplements to take: 

Supplements are just that. They SUPPLEMENT the diet when more is needed. If you are building a house and its time to put on the roof, do you want a few tiles to show up at a time or do you want truck loads to show up when they are needed? The average American diet is CRAP. We are not getting the nutrients necessary for daily survival most of the time, let alone in times of stress. So, when the body needs more, give it more. The basics are:

1. Vitamin C
2. B-Complex
3. Omega #
4. Valerian (if sleep is a problem)
5. Passion Flower

Get your supplements from your Doctor of Chiropractic. They carry only top quality, Professional strength Supplements that come from Companies that watch for cross contamination and purity/potency. Most top companies even have a "Stress formula" that has most of the above ingredients in one pill.

Exercises:

Talk to your Doctor of Chiropractic, Your MD, your PT or your personal trainer for basic stretches that can be done at your desk and place of work. Change blood flow and get things moving better.

Therapeutic devises:

There are battery powered devices on the market such as the Marc Pro (www.marcpro.com) that are FDA proven for tissue recovery! Recover tissue mean increased blood flow. Increased blood flow, means good nutrients in, waist products out. (use the promo code: GOTCSI to save some money-even more stress reduction)

Chiropractic Care

Muscle attaches to bone. When the muscles get tight, they pull on the joints they are attached to, plain and simple. By getting adjusted, the fixated joints are moved and loosened. By decreasing the joint fixation in a proper, non rotational manner, the tension on the muscle is relieved, increasing blood flow and decreasing internal stress.

All these simple tips can be done on the busiest of schedules. Take time to take care of yourself. God only gave you one body and our time on this Earth is limited so live life to the Max.

Dr.Terry Weyman is the Clinic Director at CSI. for more info go to www.gotcsi.com

Treatment of Stenosis- A quick analysis

By Dr. Terry Weyman

I got this quick tip from the American Chiropractic Association and I felt it was worth sharing.

TREATMENT OF STENOSIS

"Spinal stenosis is created by the narrowing of the Spinal Canal. There are three BASIC treatment approaches to spinal stenosis: The conservative medical approach, which often involves bed rest, analgesics, local moist heat and muscle relaxants; The conservative Chiropractic approach, which includes non rotational manipulation to decrease tension of posterior facet joints, exercise, decompression and self-care techniques; and surgery. The source of the stenosis often dictates the treatment.

Ultimately, stenosis is a chronic condition that cannot be "cured", but it often can be improved and maintained over the long term."

By working with the fixation of the posterior joints, decompressing the spine and providing proper exercises to strengthen the weakened core WITHOUT adding further stress, can and has been shown to decrease the symptoms dramatically. Thus, increasing the quality of your life.

Dr.Terry Weyman is the clinic director of CSI. For more info, you can visit their website at www.gotcsi.com

Concussions- what you need to know!

By: Dr. Ciro Errico and Dr. Terry Weyman

Concussions are a big part of every sport. Being on the sidelines of different sports, I see many injuries including concussions. But, what exactly is a concussion?

Before I begin to explain concussions, let me cross out the myth about a concussion being only a direct trauma or hit to the head, and/or a complete loss of consciousness. Another big myth is that a concussion is a bruise to the brain. Both statements are incorrect.

A concussion is a physiological change in the brain induced by a biomechanical force. A force can be applied anywhere on the body causing an ‘impulsive’ force transmitted to the head.  This transmitted ‘impulse’ to the head causes a short lived impairment of neurological functions that can resolve spontaneously, but some neurological functions can come on immediately, after several minutes, or hours after a trauma.[1]

Signs and symptoms of a concussion that often go unnoticed are: feeling ‘foggy’, headaches, feeling overly emotional, unexplained sadness, irritability, forgetfulness, slow reaction time, sleepy, and insomnia. When someone is having one of these symptoms (and there is a mechanism of injury that could dictate the reasons), a concussion must be suspected and a proper assessment must be made by a MD, DO or DC. On the sidelines, an ATC or medic can also evaluate an athlete.

What if the symptoms get worse? If a headache becomes worse, if slurred speech occurs, seizure or convulsion, decrease in coordination - the patient should receive immediate medical attention due to the possibility of a deeper cerebral injury.

Concussions also have different degrees of severity. According to the Cantu guidelines, concussions have several grading scales: Grades I, II, and III. Grade I concussions are not associated with loss of consciousness, and post-traumatic amnesia is either absent or less than 30 minutes in duration. Athletes may return to play if no symptoms are present for one week. Grade II is a loss of consciousness for less than five minutes or exhibit post-traumatic amnesia between 30 minutes and 24 hours in duration. They also may return to play after one week of being asymptomatic. Grade III concussions involve post-traumatic amnesia for more than 24 hours or unconsciousness for more than five minutes. Players who sustain this grade of brain injury should be sidelined for at least one month, after which they can return to play if they are asymptomatic for one week.[2] The week begins the day after all symptoms have dissipated.

The reason for the athlete to rest more and be reevaluated is due to the dangers of a possible second concussion also known as Second Impact Syndrome, which is highly dangerous. Here is why: When someone suffers a first concussion, there is a physiological change occurring in the brain that does not allow proper signaling between the synapses. When a second concussion occurs, the brain may lose the ability to properly regulate blood flow causing the brain to swell due to increase pooling in brain. The pooling does not allow the blood to drain causing pressure build-up in the brain ultimately resulting in brain damage and/or death.  

So, how do we prevent concussions? Preventing a concussion is hard. There is no real way to prevent a concussion predominantly due to the fact that a concussion does not need to be a direct blow to the head. Concussions can be caused by shoulder charges in soccer, tackling in football, bumping your head on a cabinet door, getting rear-ended in a motor vehicle accident, or even texting while walking and walking into a lamp pole. Concussions, again, are physiological changes in the brain. Headgear and helmets are great for general protection against skull fractures. Mouth guards are also good for preventing an athlete to bite off his tongue, however be aware that when wearing mouth guards, they can cause an athlete to clench his jaw allowing the muscles in the neck and head to tighten up before an impact. This allows less chance of a neck sprain/ strain, but because a concussion is a physiological change in the brain, an athlete may still suffer a concussion. All studies, and including the International Conference on Concussions in Sports, show there are no studies conclusive against protection for concussion.

When managing a concussion, first thing first: parents, coaches, teachers, and teammates need to be aware of the symptoms and get the person properly evaluated. Concussions are difficult to manage due to the severity and, more importantly, due to the physiological changes that occur in the brain. First of all, the athlete or patient should rest. Rest is going to be the key to begin the healing process: this includes resting from training and playing. For young adults, teens, and children resting also means staying home and/or limiting school activities; the information can cause the brain to overwork and as a result decrease healing. Another rest is from technology including video games, TV, computer, phones, and texting because the stimuli that the brain needs to function can overwork the brain resulting in decrease healing time. Secondly, water! Drink plenty of water. Drinking water allows an athlete to stay hydrated, and allows the body to increase healing potential.

What else is available for management? Chiropractic care and adjustments are great with concussions. When someone suffers a concussion there is also a whiplash injury that occurs simultaneously at the upper cervical (neck) area. This causes a physiological change in the muscles surrounding the spine often times causes tightens. It’s putting an extra strain on the neck which in turn will put an extra strain on the healing process for the concussion. Getting adjusted allows less interference on the central nervous system which helps the body change physiologically back to its normal state. Mild Hyperbaric Chamber is another great tool that can be utilized. The hyperbaric chamber increases the oxygen, and pressurizes the body allowing the oxygen to absorb in the body to allow healing to happen at a faster pace.  

Concussions affect everyone from the parent to the athlete. For proper healing, it is imperative to understand the first steps to recovery which are understanding what a concussion is and being knowledgable of the best ways for a concussion to heal. When a concussion occurs, it becomes a full effort by everyone to help the athlete reach full recovery.  

Dr. Ciro Errico is the Team Chiropractor for California State University-Channel Islands (CSUCI) Lacrosse Team and Newbury Park HighSchool Lacrosse. He is also the Team Chiropractor for Club Sports at California State University-Northridge (CSUN). He is a treating Chiropractor at Chiropractic Sports Institute (CSI)

Dr. Terry Weyman is the Chiropractor for Pepperdine University and works with Extreme Athletes in both Motocross and Mountain bike racing. He is the clinic director of Chiropractic Sports Institute

More info on CSI visit their website www.gotcsi.com

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[1] International Conference on Concussion in Sport (Zurich; Nov. 2012)

[2] American Association of Neurological Surgeons