Are you like me and can smell out a freshly baked cupcake or chocolate chip cookie faster than a drug smelling dog at the airport? Ok my confession is out there, I am a sugar addict. I am the guy who used to have chocolate bars in my desk at work, in a drawer at home and maybe a couple in my car too. I used to treat Costco like I was going to a drug house and the candy aisle was my crack shop. What I realized over time was that my sugar addiction was causing my body significant harm. You see sugar has an inflammatory effect in the body. It makes your cells angrier than an Alanis Morissette song and that is just the start!

What you talking about Willis?

There was a study that was put out in the April 2010 edition of the “Journal of The American Medical Association” that showed individuals who consumed excess sugar were much more likely to show significant inflammation markers in the body. The scary part of chronic inflammation is that it has been associated with many diseases including: Read the rest of this entry »

Sports Medicine Scams

Many people are familiar with and use alternative medical therapies. Most of these therapies have little research to support their use, yet remain popular with the general public. At COAST Rehab Services, we consider it a priority and part of our mission to provide our patients and the public with accurate and up to date information, especially as it pertains to health and sports medicine. We understand that conventional medicine doesn’t appeal to everyone and that alternative therapies can be very beneficial. The more accurate the information made available, the better able people are to make decisions regarding their physical therapy.

A recent article in The Sporting News discussed the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber therapy. Some professional teams and training centers use these devices in the belief that healing time (of an injury) can be significantly shortened. Several professional hockey teams used hyperbaric oxygen therapy (pregame doses) a decade ago, with near disastrous results, because they believed it would enhance performance. Hyperbaric oxygen is a mode of therapy in which the patient breathes 100% oxygen at pressures greater than normal atmospheric (sea level) pressure.

During treatment a patient sits in a closed chamber that is filled with pure oxygen at high pressure, usually for several hours. The healing power of pressurized oxygen has long been acknowledged for deep sea divers suffering from “the bends” and for other emergency infections and injuries treated in a hospital. But, the FDA has not approved the use of hyperbaric oxygen for the treatment of sports injuries, neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy, MS, migraine and strokes, or other illnesses such as cancer and AIDS – the targeted patient population of these sports medicine scam artists. In fact, there are no sound, valid scientific studies that support that use. Beyond the questionable therapeutic value, there are potentially deadly dangers in hyperbaric therapy (seizure, fire). Read the rest of this entry »