We only had one take for this shot, because my legs were too tired to jump twice!

As some of you know (because I am chatty), last month I competed in the Kirkland Half-Marathon.  And I wasn’t the only one—several other MCM patients hit the pavement that day: a special shout-out to Michael Miller and Craig Beck for pulling down some blazing fast times on that 13.1-mile course!  Woot woot!  It was an incredible event: the day was warm and sunny, the course was beautiful (albeit a tad hillier than I’d expected…), and I smashed my previous personal record by 4 minutes.  Plus they gave us free Jamba Juice at the finish line!  FREE JAMBA JUICE!  And while I didn’t quite beat Josh’s time (insert eye roll here), this race was still an important milestone for me in my journey from injury to fitness.

In 2009, I injured my knee while training for a full marathon.  I rehabbed it all winter and trained for the same marathon in 2010—only to re-injure both knees halfway through the actual race.  It was my own darn fault—I overtrained for both events—but I kept thinking, “Hey, I’m young, I’ll bounce right back.”  And then I didn’t bounce back.  To say I was frustrated would have been the understatement of the century.  When I came to work for Magnolia Chiropractic & Massage in 2011, I had been to see a physical therapist, two personal trainers, and a sports medicine doc to try and fix my knee problem once and for all—but to no avail.  And what I’m going to say next will make me sound like the biggest brown-noser on the face of the earth, but I truly believe that chiropractic and massage has helped me reach “pre-injury status”  (as Josh would say), and turned my running career around.

Don’t stop reading!  I’m not just kissing up to my boss here!  Since last year, I’ve successfully completed a 12k, three 5ks, and three half-marathons—and all without injury.  The way I see it, chiropractic has helped me recover from my injury in two important ways: 1) It addressed the structural issues that impeded my performance, and 2) It emphasized that there was no “quick fix” for my problem.

I am a lucky duck because the perks of my job at MCM include free massage and chiropractic adjustments.  I have been getting routinely adjusted—usually once a week, but as frequently as three times a week when I was working through a back issue—for the past 12 months, and it has made A HUGE DIFFERNCE in how I feel while running.  Dr. Penner is a veritable textbook of knowledge on the musculoskeletal system, and has helped confirm the diagnosis I got from my sports doctor, recommend rehab exercises and stretches, and address the issues surrounding my isolated injury (e.g., adjusting my low-back helped my knees feel better).  And there aren’t enough positive adjectives to describe how incredible Tai and Allison are at their jobs. 

But adjustments and massage alone were not enough to take care of my injury.  This is something I’ve learned from sitting behind the front desk, watching patients come and go: the people who actually do their “homework” exercises get better faster than those who don’t.  Simple.  I’ve seen the data in our appointment tallies!  I realized that all the sports doctors and physical therapists in the world couldn’t help fix my knee if I didn’t do my part.  It’s not their fault that I didn’t do the rehab exercises at the frequency or intensity they prescribed—it was mine!  Every time I went out for a long run instead of listening to my body and resting, I made my injury worse.  Every time I skipped my exercises altogether, I made my injury worse.  What I wanted was a magic Band-Aid fix—and what I got was disappointment.

Chiropractic has increased my awareness of my body—and when you pay more attention to what’s going on in your body, I think you naturally take better care of it.  So as much as I wanted Dr. Penner to just Snap-Crackle-Pop my knee out of pain, I’m actually glad it’s been a long road to recovery.  Because it’s taught me that I can take an active role in taking charge of my health.  My body is my body, and no one else’s: I can become aware of it, I can listen to it, and I can discern (within limits) what it needs.  Even if it needs me to slow down.

So, thanks to my crack medical team here at MCM, and some very careful and conservative training plans on my part, this past year has been the most fun and successful year of running I’ve had yet.  Culminating in my 1:40 time at the Kirkland Half, and a 1:39 P.R. a few weeks later (just 3 minutes shy of Josh’s best time, so he better watch his back!). 

Now my biggest problem is just figuring out how the race folks lost track of my bib number and didn’t record my time…but one thing at a time.

Dr. Penner is a proud member of ProSport Chiropractic, a nationwide network of highly skilled chiropractic doctors who provide on-site treatment and support for professional athletes.  ProSport Chiropractic is a leader in chiropractic sports education, and Dr. Penner is extremely excited to be participating in a three-part certification process on the treatment of common golf injuries taught by the renowned Dr. Jeff Blanchard, founder of www.golfinjuryseminar.com.

The first seminar will be held in early June, and in addition to world-class instruction on the diagnosis and treatment of common golf injuries, teaching will be presented by Dr. Dan Murphy on the history, symptoms, signs, diagnostic tests, special imaging (MRI, CT scan, etc.) and management of patients who have sustained dramatic brain injury.  Dr. Mark Charette will also be presenting on lower extremity adjusting (the concept of "the noisy joint," and adjusting protocols that achieve excellent results with feet, knees, and hips).

Here at Magnolia Chiropractic & Massage, we are constantly striving to grow and improve.  Dr. Penner sees this series of seminars as an excellent opportunity to hone his clinical skills in order to be of better service to his patients.  And when asked how he felt about honing his clinical skills, Dr. Penner said, "Oooooo I'm giddy with excitement!!!"

Every once in a while, I sit down and give myself what I like to call a "talking-to."  

I am not anti-medication, but I am anti-overmedication. Before you take a drug (for which you may need another drug to deal with the harmful side effects of the first one, etc., etc.), explore all possible conservative methods (diet and exercise usually does the trick) that will actually fix the problem. Pharmaceutical methods often mask symptoms and create new problems. Even though 'tis the Christmas Season, when sleighbells and snowmen dance in our heads, we aught to avoid pharmaceutical snowballing. 

More to come...

Check out this interesting article from the NY Times Wellness blog.

Last week I found myself singing in the shower for the third day in a row. I asked myself why I was feeling so happy and realized the answer is that I started running regularly again. So when it comes down to it, regardless of what the "literature" says the lab rats are doing, I know that for me, exercise is good for mind and body. I've ran that experiment in my own life many times, and although the study population size is small at only one, that one happens to be me so I weigh the results pretty heavily.
Another point; never base anything you think or do off the results of a single study. Wait for a solid consensus to be formed from a body of high quality research studies. Otherwise you will go crazy trying to keep up with the latest study and end up wandering down rabbit trails, or lab rat trails as the case may be.

Take care and keep moving!

Josh Penner, D.C.

I was driving down the interstate recently when I saw what is wrong with health care in America written on a giant billboard.  Beneath a picture of a forty something year old woman reclining on a beach and staring serenely off in to the distance, the sign read “Wouldn’t it be nice to never have to think about your health again.” Hmmm.

I could understand if the sign read “worry” instead of “think.” Worrying is never healthy, even if it is your health you’re worrying about! But is the major health insurance company that paid for this ad campaign really suggesting that people shouldn’t even have to think about their health?

Before we go blaming insurance companies for all our woes, it’s befitting to note that ads tell us a lot about the people being advertized to. After all, a good marketing director is one who’s able to tap into motivations that already exist. So is it true, do we choose to shirk personal responsibility and rely too much on doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies to take care of our health? If I took a poll that asked “Who’s in charge of your health; your doctor, your insurance company, your hospital, or you?” what would be the prevailing answer?

Decades of not thinking about health until after we get sick and then believing it’s the doctor’s job to fix us have taken their toll. This “fix me up doc” kind of health care just doesn’t work anymore. It might have worked better for our grandparents when infectious diseases like small pox, influenza, and tuberculosis were toping the mortality charts. But today, we struggle with chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and obesity, which are very difficult to get rid of. In fact, according to a study published in the Journal of American Medicine in 2008, if you get diagnosed with a disease today, there is a 75% chance that you will never, ever get rid of that disease. It’s yours for life and may even be the cause of your death. Clearly, the time to think about health is before you get sick and not after.

But here’s the good news: There’s something YOU can do! What’s going to either kill you or keep you healthy is a choice you make about what you put in your pantry. It’s how much you decide to use the bicycle hanging up in the garage. It’s how long it takes you to find that missing ball glove or tennis racquet. The next time you hear the words “health care reform,” think more about going for a run in the morning than about insurance companies. 

Health is complicated. At least that's what they tell you at grad school when you are studying to be a health care professional. What makes us sick? Is it genetics? Environmental toxins? Stress? What's the epidemiology of pathophysiology? Pathophysi- what?!!

In the recent best-seller Outliers, Malcom Gladwell reminds us of a powerful example that illustrates something we all know but tend to forget: that very often, happy is healthy.

In the 1950s, heart attacks were to blame for one out of every two deaths in our country. Heart disease was epidemic all over America, with the exception of a little Italian immigrant town in Pennsylvania called Roseto.

Roseto caught the attention of a nearby medical doctor who noticed that the small town was bucking the national trend when it came to heart health. Astonishingly, further investigation revealed that as far as they could tell virtually nobody under the age of 55 in the town had ever died from heart problems, nor did they show any sign of the disease upon EKG and blood testing. But hearts weren't the only healthy thing in Roseto; there was no alcoholism, suicide, or drug addiction. There was very little crime and nobody was on welfare. They couldn't even find a single peptic ulcer in the whole town! It seemed the good citizens of Roseto, Penn., were dying from one thing and one thing only: old age.

So what was their secret? It couldn't be diet since a surprising 41% of calories consumed in Roseto came from fat (think pizza and biscotti). Genetics couldn't explain the mystery either, since the health benefits of living in Roseto did not follow its citizens if they chose to move to another town. People in Roseto were not particularly physically fit either. So what was the cause of all this health and happiness?

Researchers began to notice something else about Roseto. They saw people stopping on the street to talk to each other. They saw three generations of family gathering together around a table to share a meal. They saw people greeting each other by name, and inviting each other into their homes to share food and life. In short, they saw community. And with that, they saw happiness.

So the next time you visit with someone on the sidewalk, volunteer some time at a community event, or help a stranger in need, know that you are doing your heart some good, in more ways than one.