Relieve Back Pain Utilizing an Anti-Burst Core Exercise Ball Or Swiss Ball Chair

I work from home in my home office at my computer. I used to have a sore back at the end of the day even though I would get up periodically to move around and get up and out to run errands. Now, I am more productive during the times I am sitting and working at my computer and have virtually eliminated my back pain! I also find that I am more aware of my posture and no longer slouch over my keyboard.

One of the causes of back pain, according to Dr. Oz, is being sedentary for long periods of time. He said "On average, the body can tolerate being in one position for about 20 minutes before you need to adjust.". This got me thinking about how thankful I was that I no longer use a traditional office chair. I use a big yellow 75cm anti burst core exercise ball. I am 5' 5/12 " tall and feel that this is a good height for me to sit comfortably and work at my computer. I also tried to 65 cm size and found that to be a little too low for me to type comfortably. The stability ball or core exercise ball has a dual purpose. You will improve your posture and stability as well as improve and tone your core, abdominal muscles. There are a multitude of yoga poses and exercises you can also perform on the stability ball. Stability ball exercises include but, are not limited to, the Pelvic Tilt, crunches, push ups, V-ups, Supine Bridge, Russian twist, the Plank, hip extensions and squats. As a more practical alternative, you can also work your core at your computer by using the Health Mark Swiss Ball Chair. Simply rocking side-to-side and rolling the ball in little circles is a perfect solution for exercising at the office on your breaks! Using the ball or the ball chair will not only prevent you from slumping over your desk but will work your core muscles, leg muscles, arm and chest muscles as well.

I also use the wobble disk when I know I am going out will be sitting waiting for longs periods of time for my doctor or office appointments. The Wobble Disk fits neatly on any chair and is easy to pack up and take with me. The nice thing about the wobble disk is that it is not too big or too heavy to take along. I have a variety of purses I use depending on where I am going. Dr. Oz said that "Carrying a handbag that's more than 10 percent of your body weight poses serious health risks for your back..." So I only take what I need depending on where I am going! When used from a sitting position, the Wobble Disk helps activate your back muscles and work your core and may also help prevent yourself from slouching while you sit. I feel good knowing that by sitting on the Wobble Disk may help correct my posture because Dr. Oz said "Slouching Puts 100 Extra Pounds of Stress on the Lower Back". - which may help alleviate prolonged stress on the lower back. The Wobble Disk can be used for a wide range of applications ranging from active sitting, muscle strengthening, joint stabilization, to post natal care. It truly is a 3 in 1 piece of equipment that can benefit anyone from children to the elder generation by combining the advantages of a Gym (Swiss) Ball, Sitting wedge, Wobble Board and Foot Massage. Five minutes on a wobble cushion is approximately equal to a half hour of any other physical activity that involves instability. The recommended usage of the Wobble Disk is to be intermittent; use it for about half an hour at a time, put it aside for a while, and then put it back on the chair. Take it on and off at regular intervals through the day. A variety of positions is the only truly ergonomic occupational posture.

Whether you choose to use the Health Mark Swiss Ball Chair or core exercise ball daily or the Wobble Disk at various times through your day or week the important fact to remember is that either one will help alleviate your lower back pain, strengthen your core muscles and keep you active while you sit. This is also a great idea for a youth or teen bedroom desk area. They may even enjoy sitting down to do their homework! Offering a core ball or swiss ball chair for you child will also help your kids work on rhythm, coordination and balance! Ball therapy is great for any age level and very therapeutic!

Can an Ergonomic Chair Help Reduce Low Back Pain?

Ergonomic chairs are designed to support the sitting pose in a comfortable position for performing activity or work-based tasks.

They are important to use, because they will support the posture of your spine correctly, while you concentrate on performing the task required in the sitting position.

Low back pain is one of the most common ailments in our skeletal body, which is mainly caused by incorrect lifting of an object, poor sitting and standing posture, or a rapid increase in body weight. Any of these causes will put strain on the surrounding muscles and tissues of the spine, whose main purpose is predominantly protective.

An ergonomic chair will help to support your spine when sitting, so that you can concentrate on the productive task at hand, but also include some small movements in your spinal joints.

This may seem like a contradiction to move while sitting, but as a qualified Occupational Therapist, my advice is simple: you need to maintain small simple movements in your spine, for preventing your skeletal joints from "seizing up".

The human skeleton is a well designed machine, which operates on the principles of a mechanical object such as a bicycle. If any parts of the bicycle are not used, then components will stiffen and movement then becomes difficult.

Similarly skeletal joints will lose mobility without adequate movement, because muscles start losing their activation response linked through nerves and the blood supply that connect to associating joints within the spinal column.

An ergonomic chair will help support your back in the correct position, while the surrounding back muscles relax; you will feel safe and supported in a comfortable position.

However, the key to remaining comfortable when sitting in an ergonomic chair is not to remain still in one place.

If you position your body weight over your pelvic bones, when sitting in an ergonomic chair and let your vertebrae remain vertically aligned above the pelvic region. Then your back will remain erect, balanced and comfortable, plus free from pain; because there is no muscular tension used to support the spine in this position.

You can still create movement while sitting in this position.

There are three areas to consider:

1) Your legs - from placing them firmly on the ground, to tucking them behind the seat base (which changes your weight distribution).
2) Your pelvic bones - by lifting one pelvic bone and then the other (which alters the spinal weight distribution).
3) Your upper body - by breathing in and arching your spine, to breathing out and returning to the relaxed position (by stretching your spinal muscles and then relaxing them).

In essence, you have not moved your sitting position, but have created movement in your skeletal joints, simply by modifying the position of sitting on the chair.

In this way your skeletal joints are stimulated by movement through the surrounding muscles. Oxygen flows freely to the tissues, the joints are lubricated and your body continues to feel relaxed and comfortable, for continuing your productive activity.

Ergonomic chairs are therefore necessary for continuing provide safe activity in comfort. Purchasing an ergonomic chair is important, but only part of the equation, as a chair alone will not relieve your back pain. By questioning why you have back pain will help you understand how it can be resolved.

My background as an Occupational Therapist will help correct functional movements through the mission statements of:

• Protect your Joints
• Preserve your Energy &
• Promote your Safety, when using my ergonomic products.

In addition, to purchasing an ergonomic chair, I am offering a free 'Therapeutic Active Living Plan' that will empower safe functional movement through a therapeutic process for active living in daily life.

Cat Litter Dust and Your Health

Cat litter that clumps together around the pet's feces and urine has been a welcome advancement for most pet owners. However, there are those who claim that the litter--particularly its dust--is harmful to their or their pets' health. As with most consumer products, the advancements far outpace our ability to properly gauge their effects on our health; so while we do not definitively understand cat litter's effects on our health, we may still draw conclusions from a fair analysis.

The question of cat litter dust's effects on health revolve particularly around several of its constituents. A type of clay, similar to American bentonite, forms the bulk of the product. When wet, it clumps together to form a solid mass. Its absorbent qualities come partly from this clay, but mostly from an additive, silica dust.

It is thought that breathing in or ingesting these materials could be harmful. The cat will undoubtedly unintentionally ingest some of the cat litter or dust. It is thought that the product could swell inside the cat's digestive system, absorbing its fluids. But others argue that cats are perfectly able to deal with soil, and even clay, within their digestive systems. But breathing in the dust could cause more pronounced problems. If a fine dust were breathed in, it would instantly stick to the inside of the lungs of either a cat or human. Gathering size as it absorbed water, it may become trapped in the lungs, unable to be freed even from the action of violent coughing.

There are some who feel that the dust produces an acute allergic reaction, in addition to the complications described above. Indeed, it is common for people who suffer from allergies to be overly sensitive to every sort of thing, however inert, and so it is very likely that the allergies of some could flare from cat litter dust.

The allergy question aside, it would seem that breathing in the fine dust of the clay and silica is not healthy, and should be avoided. Since the advent of clumping cat litter, a new kind of litter has been introduced that has even better qualities: silica gel litter. It would be advised that this, or another, safer, product, be used instead.

New Study Confirms Vitamin D Benefits For Seasonal Allergy Sufferers

Are there vitamin D benefits for seasonal allergy sufferers? New preliminary studies by Pittsburgh's Allegheny General Hospital say the answer is yes.

The study, which monitored inner city children between six and 12 years of age, indicated that those who experienced allergy and asthma symptoms also had low levels of vitamin D. The key allergy-related benefits of the vitamin are in the way it effects the immune system, the researchers said.

Exposure to allergens and irritants can trigger the immune system to produce chemicals called cytokines, which cause inflammatory allergy symptoms like sneezing, runny nose, and itchy, watery eyes. D vitamin, which has substantial anti-inflammatory properties, helps regulate the production of these chemicals.

The study is slated to continue with clinical trials in Pittsburgh and other cities, in which inner city children will be given supplemental vitamin D. The Pittsburgh researchers said that as yet no therapeutic dosage has been established, and noted that age is only one of several factors that could influence the amount of supplementation needed.

The Pittsburgh study is the latest of many to confirm the connection between D vitamin deficiency and allergies, asthma, and related conditions. A 2008 Harvard Medical School study that included more than 600 asthmatic children concluded that low levels of the vitamin were definitely tied to the frequency and severity of asthma attacks. The Harvard study also showed that children who were deficient in vitamin D were many times more likely to have allergies.

Vitamin D deficiency has been recognized as a serious health problem all over the world. In 2004 the US Federal Government's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicated that only 23% of adults and teens in the US had sufficient blood levels of the vitamin, which is crucial to many aspects of health including bone strength, heart health, and immune function. The deficiency was most pronounced in the African American population, only three percent of whom had adequate blood levels of the vitamin.

In 2008 the American Academy of Pediatrics literally doubled the amount recommended for children from 200 IU to 400 IU per day, starting with the first day of life. Studies by The Center for Global Child Health, headquartered at at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, indicate that more than half of all infants are born with a D vitamin deficiency, and more than a third of all mothers are deficient in the vitamin when they give birth.

Vitamin D in known as the sunshine vitamin because even relatively brief exposure to sun triggers the body to manufacture its own supply. It is found naturally in relatively few foods (primarily oily fish and egg yolks) but a number of food products including milk and other dairy products are fortified with the vitamin.

Some Common Facts About Colds

What Is A Cold?

A cold is often caused by rhinoviruses, this virus name comes from the Greek word Rhin, which means nose. These rhinoviruses are invisible germs that live in the air or on surfaces and basically any of the things you touch. There are more than 100 different rhinoviruses that can slip through your immune system and cause a cold.

How Do You Catch Colds?

Rhinoviruses can live on surfaces or in the air for more than 3 hours. If you wipe or touch your nose or mouth after touching something or someone that is contaminated, you are more likely to catch a cold. Dry air can lower your resistance to colds. So can stress, allergies, not getting enough sleep, and not eating right. People that smoke or people that live with anyone that smokes, have more chance of catching a cold than people that don't smoke. A smoker's cold usually lasts longer, is much worse, and can turn into bronchitis or pneumonia.

Spreading Colds:

People with colds can spread it to other people, if they sneeze, cough, or don't wash their hands. So if you go around people at work, school, etc. you can spread your cold to them. Cold symptoms will normally occur 2 to 3 days when someone gets exposed to it. Someone with a cold is most contagious during the first 3 to 4 days when the cold symptoms have occurred, and can be contagious up to 3 weeks. Most colds clear up after a week.