The signs are everywhere you look.  Flu shots are being offered at every pharmacy, clinic and doctor’s office in town.  Reports  are that the 2012/’13 flu season was very bad.  “Flu-related deaths range from 3,000 to 48,600 (average 23,600).”  (www.flufacts.com/know/season.jsp)  Will this year be worse?  It is an exercise in sophisticated prediction projecting information regarding the upcoming season.  Specific information, though, regarding the 2013 – 2014 year can be found on line at: www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/index.htm

The Flu, a nickname for the technical term Influenza, is a respiratory infection that produces fever, chills, sore throat, muscle aches, and cough that lasts a week or more. The flu can be deadly for the elderly, the very young, and those with compromised immune systems (Source:www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/Influenza.aspx)

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Hurray for Summer!  School’s out and the daily grind of books, backpacks, academic schedules and endless extracurricular commitments is on hold for a precious few warm and sunny weeks. Those of us with kids or grandkids in our lives are probably just enjoying the first weeks of vacation. Chances are that very few of us are thinking about back-to-school just yet. You can be sure that retailers are, though! Before you can blink twice, sales, specials and daily deals for every essential item a kid needs in his or her backpack will be everywhere. These items add up. In cost, of course, but also in a more literal sense – the weight of all these items really does add up! The heavy backpacks that our kids lug to school every day can be painful and possibly lead to chronic lower back and or neck/cervical injuries.

Kids shouldn’t carry more than 10 to 15 percent of their weight over their shoulders and on their backs according to Dr. Marvin T. Arnsdorff, co-founder of the Backpack Safety American. (www.backpacksafe.com) This means that your 60 pound 4th grader son should not have more than six to eight pounds in his backpack. An article featured on the website www.about.com has a “backpack weight calculator” function that is worth checking out.

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When you are experiencing chronic pain, no matter the source or the cause, there is nothing you want more then to find relief.  Chronic pain, including neuropathic pain stemming from degenerative disk disease, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, repetitive stress injuries and isolated accident-related injuries are a burden to the daily lives of our patients.

When the pain decreases, the healing can begin.  Pharmacological pain management, including medications like ibuprofen based anti-inflammatories or epidural steroid injections are just part of a valuable set of tools we use today to get you back on your feet.

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