Finding the Perfect Pillow

Neck pain is a real problem for many people. Unfortunately for many people, their pillow is a main contributing factor. Also unfortunate is the fact that pillows are confusing. In desperation, many people will pay ridiculous amounts for a “perfect” pillow that promises to miraculously reduce their neck pain, improve sleep, and allow them to move their neck better throughout the day. All you need to do is spend $80-$200. However, many of the designs behind these pillows are flawed.

What should you look for in a pillow? You want a pillow that helps to keep your neck in neutral position. What is neutral position? Neutral position is a position that reduces the stress on your joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Each joint has this ideal position. For your neck this means that when you lie on your pillow you shouldn't feel like your head is dropping down, or rotating, or getting forced up.

Find Neutral Position

This woman pictured has too much pillow & is straining her neck as she sleeps. The midline of your head should be straight with the midline of your torso to reduce stress on your body and prevent neck pain or arm numbness/pins & needles.

I suggest getting an inexpensive, soft, yet supportive pillow. Soft, yet supportive, is tricky. You want soft, but sufficiently full so that it gives support. Get a pillow too fully packed and it's no longer soft and adaptable to your head and your body position. Get a pillow that's too flat and it will not be appropriate for lying on your side. To get your neck and corresponding joints into their neutral position, you need the pillow to be just right, so do not be surprised if it takes time to find the right pillow for the size and weight of your head and the proportion of your body. For example, when lying on your side, you need the pillow to be the right size to take up the space between your head and the bed, created by your shoulder and torso. Too big relative to your body and your head will get pushed up, compressing the top side of your neck and pulling the lower side. Too small and your head will dip down, similarly causing strain to your neck but in the opposite pattern of too big a pillow.

I have a little trick for how to take any garden variety pillow from your favorite inexpensive store and make a winner, comfortable, soft, yet supportive pillow and look forward to sharing that with you in a future post and possibly even in video format. In the meantime, please save your money and don't buy that expensive pillow promising to save the world, starting with curing your neck pain and insomnia.

Questions? Comments? I'd love to hear them.

Liz

Why Does My Foot Hurt in the Morning?

"Why does my arch hurt?" 

"I get a sharp pain in my heel every morning I get out of bed.

"When I've been on my feet too long, the bottom of my foot hurts so bad."

Do you say these things? You may have plantar fasciitis.

The plantar fascia is a ligament that helps support the arch of your foot and gets stretched when you put weight on it and every step you take.

"Itis" is Latin for inflammation, so plantar fasciitis is a diagnosis of inflammation of the plantar fascia. Inflammation takes place when you have an injury and the body is trying to heal. Research is showing that most cases of plantar fasciitis is not an "itis" but is instead an "-osis" which reflects degeneration. This is why rolling on a frozen bottle might not make your symptoms go away.

At Artisan Physical Therapy, your PT will try to figure out a few distinct things in your evaluation - what tissue is injured or irritated and then the why it is injured/irritated/painful. Often both need to be treated the sore tissue needs to be calmed down and then that factors that led to the injury need to be changed and/or alleviated otherwise it will be perpetually irritated.

Common factors that lead to plantar fasciitis or fasciosis include:

• Insufficient arch support - going barefoot, wearing flip flops, or shoes without arch support or very flexible soles
• Tight ankles and calve muscles
• Weak hip (gluteal muscles)
• Excessive body weight
• Increasing activity too quickly (deciding to train for a marathon or get in shape drastically from prior level of activity)
• Weak foot muscles or inappropriate muscle use/activation

Just because you have arch or heel pain, it doesn't mean you have plantar fasciitis. It could be a tendinitis or tendinopathy of a foot or ankle muscle or an issue in the joints of your foot. A quality physical therapy exam will clarify this for you.  As mentioned above knowing which tissue is irritated allows for specific, targeted treatment to get rid of your pain and get you back to pain free walking, running and whatever else you love and need to do.

Think you might have plantar fasciitis? Take the first step towards health and get a PT evaluation to get quality manual therapy to temporarily decrease the pain in your foot and learn exercises to keep it away by learning how to reduce the stress to the plantar fascia and learn what activities to avoid a do instead to allow it to begin healing today.

Let's Get to the Source - and TOGETHER - Let's Get Moving!

Is What You Are Eating Keeping You Hurting?

What you eat has a big influence in how you feel. Not too many people will disagree with this statement, however many are not aware the extent that this is true.

Your diet could be perpetuating your back pain, our contributing to your achy knees, or be prolonging that car accident our recent injury pain.

What do we know?

AVOID eating refined carbohydrates, french fries and other fried foods, soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages, red meat (burgers, steaks) and processed meat (hot dogs, sausage), and margarine/lard.

EAT MORE tomatoes; olive oil; green leafy vegetables - spinach, kale, and collards; nuts like almonds and walnuts; fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, tuna, and sardines; fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and oranges.

Eating this way helps reduce diseases associated with inflammation: e.g. heart disease and cancer. You can read more about this at http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/foods-that-fight-inflammation.

But eating this way will also contribute time reduce your musculoskeletal and orthopedic pain. (Read -  less pain in your muscles, discs, joints, fascia, and ligaments). Sounds great, right?

If you're not seeing the consistent pain reduction you want from changes in posture, strength, stiffness, and flexibility, consider taking that next step to reduce what my be stagnant inflammation in your body and change your diet to tips towards anti-inflammatory in addition to all the good work your doing with exercise, position, rest, icing, etc.

Every little step towards healthier living counts!