chiropractic wilmington nc

Chiropractic Wilmington NC: Are Stand-Up Desks Really Any Healthier for Office Workers?

Standing desks or stand-up desks are not a new fad. They’ve been around since at least the time of Benjamin Franklin, the founding father who used one over two hundred years ago. However, there remains a great deal of controversy regarding the benefits and drawbacks of stand-up desks. Our provider of Chiropractic Wilmington NC explains more.

A number of sources agree that standing up while you work gives you more energy and keeps you more alert. The University of Chester performed a study in 2013 that showed heartbeats rose by ten beats per minute because of standing. This increased the number of calories burned each day. In addition, blood glucose levels after lunch returned to normal far faster in those study subjects who stood as they worked.

Others have found that standing helps reduce lower back pain. Users of stand-up desks found that they engaged more fully with their colleagues and felt more ready for action if something called them away from their desk. They felt their minds wandered far less and they stayed more focused. Some users even found that stand-up desks lent themselves to certain “power poses” that benefited physiology, increasing testosterone and decreasing cortisol, the stress hormone.

Stand-up desk users seemed to agree, though, that leg and foot soreness can be a problem. This may be a particular problem for individuals who are just starting to use a stand-up desk user and whose bodies aren’t yet accustomed to the new way of working. More comfortable shoes and an anti-fatigue mat can help reduce this problem. Gradually building up the amount of time spent at a stand-up desk can also help.
If you do opt for a stand-up desk, it’s important to get one at the right height. Because each person is different, getting a custom desk built can be prohibitively expensive. A better alternative is to get an adjustable desk. One with hydraulic power can be lowered for occasional sitting and increased to a custom height to suit your individual needs.

Sitting for long periods each day can lead to all manner of illnesses—heart disease, diabetes, vein disease and more. But standing for long periods can also create health risks, especially vein disease.

A Cornell University ergonomics team found that the real solution was simply to move around regularly. If you’re sitting at a desk, stand up every 20–30 minutes and move around for two minutes. The movement gets the blood pumping, increases calorie burn, and decreases the risks for heart disease, diabetes and other ailments. This doesn’t require vigorous exercise. Simply pacing for a couple of minutes will be enough to undo the damage of sitting for half an hour. This, of course, requires an awareness of the time and a measure of discipline to move when the appointed time arrives. Adding some moderate exercise to your daily routine can do wonders for your health, even without the use of a stand-up desk.

Has sitting for long periods of time taken a toll on your body? Contact our chiropractic Wilmington NC care provider today!

chiropractor wilmington nc

Anatomy of the Foot

Imagine for a moment how your life would change if each of your feet were made up of a single, rigid bone rather than several smaller ones. To begin with, the way we carry our weight while standing and the way we walk would be quite different and much less elegant. Our feet are designed to provide a strong, stable foundation to keep our bodies upright, while at the same time being flexible enough to allow for changes in shape that permit balance and agility.

The human foot is a remarkable example of nature’s gift for engineering complex structures with functional finesse. Amazingly, the feet contain a quarter of all the body’s bones in a very compact area!
At the bottom of the lower leg, the tibia and fibula are connected to the foot at the ankle bone, called the talus. The ankle joint is thus formed by the junction of the lower leg’s tibia and fibula with the foot’s talus. The talus is the second-largest bone in the foot and supports all of the body’s weight.

The calcaneus, or heel bone, resides underneath and behind the talus at an angle, completing the arch at the back of the foot. The forward part of the arch is formed by rows of bones, starting with the small navicular bone in front of the talus. In front of the navicular are the three cuneiform bones. From the inside of the foot, they are the medial cuneiform, intermediate cuneiform and the lateral cuneiform. Adjacent to these two rows and overlapping them resides the cuboid bone on the exterior side of the foot. The cuboid starts below the front of the talus, but is also adjacent to the front end of the calcaneus. All of these bones of the foot form what is call the tarsus or tarsal bones.

The remaining rows of bones are the metatarsals and phalanges. Directly in front of the three cuneiforms reside the five long metatarsals. Directly in front of these are the proximal phalanges of the toes. Next are the middle phalanges and finally the distal phalanges. The big toe does not have a middle phalange.

Over a hundred tendons, ligaments and muscles connect all of these and allow a great deal of freedom of movement and control over the bones. These are critical for maintaining balance, and for allowing fine degrees of control in movement for walking, running and jumping. The more energetic movements are driven by muscles in the legs, but there are other muscles in the foot that allow for the finer degrees of movement needed for balance.

The foot arch acts as a shock absorber to keep each stride in walking and running from transferring too much of a jolt to the rest of the body. Without it (as well as shock absorption from the ankles and knees), the spine would be especially vulnerable to stress from repeated impacts.

Our chiropractor Wilmington NC explains that problems in the feet can create trouble farther up the body. Poor footwear, poor lateral angle of the foot during walking, and other difficulties with the feet can place extra stress on the ankle, knee, hip and spine, throwing your entire body out of alignment. The bad news is that this misalignment can have a variety of negative effects on your health and wellbeing. But the good news is that addressing problems with the feet can often alleviate these other issues.
Remember—good musculoskeletal health starts from the ground up! If you have any questions or concerns, please call or visit our office.

If you are experiencing back pain, neck pain, or foot pain, call us today.