Blue Christmas


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Back hurting this holiday season? You may be forgetting about this one significant cause.

Oh, the holidays…. Sigh.  Remember when you were a kid and how much you looked forward to Christmas?  It seemed like it took forever to come, and when it did you were so excited for all those new toys!  Fast forward to adulthood and now it seems that Christmas arrives faster than you can prepare for it, you don’t have a 2 week Christmas Break and instead you have to work, you’re responsible financially for everything, and you have to do all the shopping/planning/coordinating/ect. Sound familiar? To some, it may seem more of a hassle than joy with all the stress that comes with the holidays. Many of you probably notice that your back or neck gets tight and starts hurting during this season due to stress.  We like to categorize stress into three groups: physical, chemical, and emotional.  Physical stress is usually obvious; like lifting the Christmas tree or going up and down on the ladder all day to put up lights. Chemical stress is also noticeable this time o...
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Scroll no further for these fun facts about your spine

Here are some fun facts that you didn’t know about your spine -As we get older, it’s not uncommon to lose about an inch in height.  This is due to the discs in your spine wearing down and “shrinking”. -Most humans are born with 33 vertebrae (“backbones”).   However, some naturally fuse together as we grow and we end up with 26 as adults. -Both humans and giraffes have 7 cervical vertebrae (neck bones).  However, a giraffe’s neck is about as long as a full grown human is tall. -A newborn human spine is C-shaped.  The S-shape develops as the baby learns to hold their head up, crawl, and ultimately walk.  It’s the S-Shape that allows us to walk upright with two legs. -You wake up in the morning slightly taller than when you went to bed.  This is because your discs (essentially your shock absorbers) tend to lose water throughout the day due to supporting your bodyweight.  Sleeping at night gives the discs a chance to rest, rehydrate, and ...
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Sciatica- It's a thing!

Hi all, This past year I’ve been teaching both human biology and general biology to students at Clark College.  Thus you haven’t seen a new blog from me in quite some time.  I thought now would be a great time to get started again by blogging about an all too common aliment known as sciatica (sciatica= irritation to the sciatic nerve causing leg pain). Before I get started on that, note that the word doctor comes from the Latin word doc ēre, meaning “to teach”.   I’ve been busy lately teaching college student’s complex neurological pathways.  The sciatic nerve pathway, like many others, is fairly complex.  If I were teaching my college students I would explain how the sciatic nerve originates from anterior and posterior divisions of the lumbosacral plexus (L4-5 and S1-3), the nerve roots then join together forming the sciatic nerve,  pass through the sciatic notch, down the thigh to the popliteal fossa, and then split into the tibial and common ...
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