January 2023 Newsletter
Since January is known for resolutions, I have to admit I struggle with New Year’s resolutions. The problem I have with resolutions is their lack of specificity. Instead, my focus will go to setting personal goals since the mindset and approach to achieving a goal differs from that of a resolution. A resolution is a statement of what you want to change whereas a goal is a statement of what you want to achieve. At the start of 2023, there are 3 goals I want to achieve including being timely in writing my newsletters, staying hydrated on daily basis, and walking at least five days a week.
As far as my newsletters go, I apologize for my tardiness. When I last wrote it was during October 2022 about Myomemory Transformation Advantage or M.A.T. As you recall, M.A.T. is an integrated, general systems approach to evaluating your body’s posture and movement developed by me from over forty years of clinical physical therapy practice and over twenty years of participating in the sport of nordic ski jumping. In short, the methodology I use in my clinic to treat acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain, my specialty in physical therapy.
During the last newsletter, I mentioned I would continue the discussion of M.A.T. with its neuromyofascial patterns which include the side linear, diagonal, spiral, and deep/superficial linear. However, I have decided to postpone that discussion until next month. Instead, I want to bring up the topics of dehydration and walking, two topics I have set goals for in 2023.
It is not until the warmer weather hits that you usually begin to even think of dehydration. Dehydration is the lack of sufficient water in your body more specifically in your cells and blood vessels. Even losing a little bit, as little as 1.5% of your body’s water, can cause symptoms. Those symptoms can be as simple as a slight headache to the extreme of a life-threatening illness like heatstroke or hyperthermia.
Of course, your body’s natural response to inadequate hydration is thirst. Your foremost thought at that time is to respond to thirst right away by drinking fluids and preferably water. Simply, drink enough water to prevent yourself from feeling thirsty with the good news is that water has zero calories.
Why is drinking water so important for your health and well being and managing your acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain? Between 55% to 78% of your body is made up of water. Newborns are about 78% water while a year old baby is 65%. Adult men are about 60% and adult women about 55%. Your brain is made up of 73% water and so is your heart. Your bones are 31%, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and your skin is 64%. A whopping 83% of water makes up your lungs.
In addition, water aids in your digestion, ridding of waste from your body, makes saliva, balances your body chemicals, creates the hormones and neurotransmitters of your brain, delivers oxygen throughout your body, and regulates your body temperature. It even acts as a shock absorber for your brain, your spinal cord, and if you’re pregnant your fetus. But if you are having musculoskeletal pain, it helps provide the cushioning between the weight bearing joints and helps the muscles work efficiently.
You know water is important to you especially in warm weather because it prevents your body from overheating. When you are exercising, your muscles generate heat and to keep you from burning up, your body needs to get rid of that heat. The primary way the body discards heat in warm weather is through your sweat. As your sweat evaporates, it cools the deeper tissues of the body. Lots of sweating will of course reduce the body’s water level and with this loss of fluid it affects your normal bodily functions. Simply, “drink water!”
Dehydration occurs when you don’t drink enough water, or when you lose water too quickly through sweating, vomiting, and/or diarrhea. Keep in mind certain medications such as diuretics often referred to as water pills can result in increased urination and dehydration.
Anyone can become dehydrated if they don’t take care of themselves and drink water. However, infants and children, especially when they’re sick, are at a higher risk because they may be unable to communicate that they’re thirsty. Therefore, it is important to monitor the amount of fluids your kids take in. Older adults are also at a higher risk. Their body’s fluid reserves shrink and their body’s ability to tell them they’re thirsty doesn’t work as effectively. This means they don’t carry as much water in their bodies and they can’t tell as easily when they’re thirsty. Collagen
A reason for this involves the body’s connective tissue. Since it is water that provides the strength and resilience of your tissues, dehydration makes your body more brittle and prone to musculoskeletal injury. In particular, tightness of the fascia is a symptom of dehydration.
Water is the basis for the fluid inside your cells and outside your cells with the blood and fluid lubricating your joints and acting as a shock absorber involving your fascia. After water, collagen makes up most of the connective tissue’s dry weight. Collagen is a long protein with a unique order of amino acids that wind around each other in strands. This design gives your soft tissues stretchiness and rebound. The arrangement of proteins also attracts and holds onto water. That allows your tissues to glide against each other without friction and it helps to distribute the forces generated from gravity and ground reaction force (GRF) from your activities of daily living.
Remember, the fascial web integrates and encapsulates your entire body from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. It creates the body’s craniosacral system at its deepest layer and runs interrupted to the its most superficial layer just below the dermis of the skin. Fascia is unitary in its inherent nature and is considered the body’s organ of form. Therefore, the global fascial web is referred to as the body’s metamembrane a singular container that shapes and forms and directs the flow of all your body’s biological processes that are impeded by dehydration.
Signs of dehydration you should look for include:
•Headache, delirium, confusion.
•Tiredness or fatigue.
•Dizziness, weakness, light-headedness.
•Dry mouth and/or a dry cough.
•High heart rate but low blood pressure.
•Loss of appetite but maybe craving sugar.
•Flushed, red skin. Swollen feet. Muscle cramps.
•Heat intolerance, or chills.
•Constipation.
•Dark colored pee or urine. It should be a pale clear color.
The best way way to beat dehydration is to drink before you get thirsty. If you wait until after you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated and dehydration affects your body more than just physically. It can also affect you mentally and emotionally. If you are dehydrated, you may feel confused, can’t remember, and become cranky and anxious. Severe dehydration shrinks the blood vessels in the brain. When there aren’t enough fluid levels in your brain, that affects your memory and coordination. Your heart has to work harder too when there is less water in your blood. In addition, the average person urinates about six to seven times a day. If you’re dehydrated, you may urinate less. This is because less water in your blood causes your kidneys to hold onto the urine.
Loss of electrolytes which are expelled through perspiration and sweating, like sodium and potassium, can cause cramping. The solution is simple, “drink water!” Also, sports drinks replenish your electrolytes if your fluid losses are extensive from sweating, vomiting, or diarrhea. Keep in mind again that diuretic medications which are prescribed to treat heart failure and high blood pressure can increase your risk of dehydration.
Another aspect of the recent pandemic that I have personally observed is dehydration. I found I became more dehydrated from wearing a mask all day at work. That truly became my motivation for bringing up the topic of dehydration in my first newsletter of 2023.
So the question remains, how much water do you need? That depends on your weight, age, level of activity, the climate of your environment, and other factors. I don’t have to tell you about our weather in New Mexico. You need to drink a lot of water. The standard advice is 15.5 cups or 3.7 liters of fluids a day for men and 11.5 cups or 2.7 liters of fluids a day for women. These recommendations cover fluids from water, other beverages, and food. About 20% of daily fluid intake usually comes from your food and the rest from drinks. You’ve probably heard the advice to drink eight glasses of water a day. That’s easy to remember and it’s a reasonable goal.
My other personal goal for 2023 involves walking. Due to my experience in nordic ski jumping over twenty years, my knees took a beating. Therefore, it can make walking a difficult task for me at times. I want to avoid having total knee surgery so I am working with my M.A.T. exercises to improve my alignment, taking collagen, and setting a goal to walk 30 minutes a day.
As we all know, walking can be a relaxing way to get some exercise without needing any special equipment. It’s not only convenient, but it has been found to boost social and environmental interaction while getting those steps in. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends at least 60 minutes of aerobic exercise daily for children and 2.5 hours a week for adults. For some, that can seem overwhelming, but a good start could be a 30-minute walk every day.
Going for walks has mental and physical benefits, such as reducing stress and lowering blood pressure. Here are some other benefits of walking:
•May lower risk of cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular diseases are a group of heart and blood vessel disorders that still remain the largest cause of death and disability worldwide and especially in this country. A significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease is hypertension, or high blood pressure, which may not produce any symptoms. Walking for 30 minutes a day can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease because it improves your aerobic fitness and blood pressure.
•May lower cholesterol and reduce risk of diabetes. In fact, studies found that walking and running produced similar results for lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and risk of diabetes. Because of my knees, walking is my choice of daily exercise. Nearly 68 million people have high blood pressure, and about half of those people do not have it under control in this country. Similarly, 71 million adults have high cholesterol and two-thirds of those people do not have it under control. This means a high per cent of the population in the U.S. is at risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
•May improve bone density. Bone density becomes a concern as you get older and start to experience bone loss referred to as osteopenia which can lead to osteoporosis and a decrease in bone strength. Walking cannot increase bone mass, but it can preserve bone mass and slow down the process of bone loss.
•May reduce depressive symptoms. Some consider walking the most cost-effective and therapeutic form of exercise, partially because it does not require specific training or skills. It just requires your energy and persistence. A study based on only 15-minute walks in the forest found reduction in depression, sadness, tension, anxiety, anger, hostility, fatigue, and confusion.
•May reduce symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD is a type of depression triggered by seasonal changes. It is a current major depressive disorder, often beginning in the fall and continuing through the winter months. A common treatment for SAD involves light therapy, also known as “getting sun.” Your body produces vitamin D as a response to sun exposure and is essential for bone strength and support your immune system. This means that going on short walks outside can help. SAD is often triggered by decreased daylight hours in the winter months, which lead to shorter days. Going for 30-minute walks in the sun daily can help to counteract seasonal feelings of sadness or lack of energy.
There is not much research on whether it is better to walk faster for short periods or slower for extended periods. However, an increased pace defines power walking. Walk briskly, engaging your arms and taking shorter, quicker steps, rolling from your heel to your toes and pushing off the balls of your feet should be your focus.
Your arms should be at your sides and swing back and forth with each stride. I have started to use “trekking poles” or walking sticks that really increase your focus on your arm swing during your gait. In addition, they can help improve your posture and balance and reduce joint pain. They also work out your core more, burn calories more quickly, tone the upper body, and keep your blood sugar balanced.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, brisk walking is considered an aerobic activity. Cardiovascular activity is any activity that gets your lungs, and larger muscle groups working. So yes, walks counts as cardio.
Well there you have it, my first newsletter of 2023. My goal is to write a newsletter each month. February will again talk about M.A.T. and its side linear pattern. Until then, be well.
Terry