Just Another Day

Today is just another day, as it will be tomorrow and the next day from now on until life's door has closed.

What of interest is going on? In Oregon, citizens protesting are being arrested by the government; ISIS continues to be the Islamic demon, the worst of all evil entities; floods in the east and south are and will be raging havoc over the land; horrible criminals have escaped their captivity and are now on the run; politicians are acting like juveniles in a quest for narcissist glory. What a wonderful record to start the day in this so-called modern, enlightened age. We are told that man is God's masterpiece created in His own image. Then, pray tell, why does man do such things?

Why the floods? It can be accounted for. Natural causes produce natural results and subsequent events. Man built his town in a hazardous place and the rain fell in super abundance moving everything in its path which accounted for the disasters. But why the man-produced tragedies? Why do some men regard life so cheaply as to destroy his own kind without cause? No other animal does so; they may kill for food to eat, but not as a game with little purpose or reason.

Somewhere in the Bible a psalmist exclaimed, "What is man that thou art mindful of Him?" What indeed!

We must consider God the creator of the universe including the plants, the Milky Way, the moon and stars, and all forms of life. Man being supreme in nature also does wonders. Even God would be without meaning if it were not for man and his intellect. Yet what a question mark when we consider His shortcoming on so many occasions.

"Remember when charity was a virtue, and not an organization.?"

Trouble To Yourself

Are you too much trouble to yourself? Do you take yourself too seriously, or do you just drift along the easy way with little concern?

There are different ways to consider yourself. You may be motivated by personal pride or just by ordinary habits, doing things that arouse the interest of others, or out of curiosity concerning the way you have of doing things that have a bearing on other people's lives.

Visualize if you will, a ragged hillbilly watching a man at a tourist court making use of a comb and brush, a toothbrush and nail file, and a whisk broom and shoe polish. The hillbilly boy finally, as he scratched his head, asked, "Hey Mister, are you always that much trouble to yourself?"

How much trouble are you to yourself? It is wise to have concern about appearance, all the while knowing there is a time and/or place for all things. Try to look your best on all occasions without too much public display. Be of service to others in a helpful manner without becoming subject to criticism.

Your body is "fearfully and wonderfully made" the Bible tells us; so you do not need to exercise too much trouble about yourself.

Have you thought of how wonderful your body really is? You become hungry and your appetite calls for food. You supply food of various kinds according to your taste. At once, the chemistry of your body begins to prepare the food for immediate use, exercising little thought on your part. In the process of time, common food is converted into flesh and bones, hair, skin, and nails; including blood, lymph glands, organs, and nerves with NO real trouble to yourself. It's nature's way of doing things, simple as that.

Be good to yourself without being too personal and others will love you as much as you love yourself.

Pain In The Forecast

Obviously, the most accurate method of predicting storms is to see how full the waiting room is. But why do some people seem to be able to predict coming rains based on their aches and pains?

It's true that many people with back pain, neck pain or other joint complaints are often surprisingly accurate in predicting when storms are approaching, and believe it or not, there is some validity to their weather forecasting abilities.

The phenomenon is nothing new. As early as the 5th century B.C., Hippocrates suggested many illnesses were related to changes in the weather. Since then, a number of musculoskeletal disorders have been identified as being especially sensitive to changing weather conditions, including osteoarthritis, tension headaches, back pain and fibromyalgia.

A variety of meteorologic factors have been suggested as the culprit, including temperature, precipitation, humidity, thunderstorms and increased ionization of the air. But while reliable conclusions about the link between weather and musculoskeletal pain have yet to be established due to the lack of controlled studies, most research points to the lowered atmospheric barometric pressure that often precedes storms and other weather changes.

In one of the first empirical studies on the effect of weather on joint pain, published in 2010 by the International Journal of Biometeorology, researchers established a direct connection between low barometric pressure, inflammation and joint pain in rats. For the study, scientists artificially produced a state of chronic inflammation in the feet of lab rats, mimicking the clinical features of neuropathic pain in humans. When the rats were placed in a low-pressure environment, they exhibited signs of exacerbated foot joint pain not seen in their control counterparts.

Additional research has demonstrated the same phenomenon occurs in humans. For instance, a 2002 study from the Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques concluded that "back pain may be aggravated by atmosphere depression in patients with lumbar disc disease." And a 2007 study from the American Journal of Medicine determined that "changes in barometric pressure are independently associated with osteoarthritis knee pain severity."

Various mechanisms have been proposed to account for this relationship, but the most likely explanation involves the expansion of fluid in swollen joints following fluctuations in barometric pressure. Inflammation due to dysfunction, disease or injury will lead to swelling in and surrounding a joint. Because materials of varying densities are affected differently by pressure changes, drops in barometric pressure expand this extra fluid more than the muscle, ligaments and connective tissue that make up the joint capsule, stretching sensitized tissues and activating a nociceptive (pain) response.

A good illustration for the layperson is a balloon in a barometric chamber. If the pressure outside the balloon drops, the air on the inside expands and stretches the walls of the balloon. When the same happens to a swollen joint, the expansion stretches soft tissue, irritates nerve endings and causes pain.

It's important to note that this contraction and expansion of excess fluid in joints is happening on such a small scale that it cannot be quantified by any scientific means and the process is therefore entirely theoretical. But whatever the mechanism, the takeaway is that some degree of inflammation must already exist, whether we are aware of it or not, for barometric pressure changes to lead to joint pain. Weather changes can't cause pain by themselves; they can only exacerbate inflammation that's already there. After all, not everyone experiences pain when a storm is brewing, and those who do don't experience pain in every joint.

It really drives home what chiropractors have been saying for decades: The absence of pain isn't the same as good health! So while there's validity to the idea of "aches and pains mean coming rains," anticipation of weather changes shouldn't interfere with patients' motivation to decrease underlying inflammation with the things they actually can control. Sunny days ahead are no substitution for proper exercise, good diet and supplementation, and regular chiropractic care.