1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,760 Prepare to have your health questions answered here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions 2 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:12,080 with Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center in downtown Ventura. 3 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,400 Now, here's Dr. Todd. 4 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:15,400 Good afternoon. 5 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:21,280 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, doctor of non-force chiropractic and practitioner of functional 6 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:22,280 medicine. 7 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:27,160 Most of the time on this show I talk about functional medicine, how to diagnose and treat 8 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:32,320 conditions with better food, exercise, and supplements instead of becoming dependent 9 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,440 for the rest of your life on pharmaceuticals. 10 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:36,880 But I am also a non-force chiropractor. 11 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:41,720 So today I'm going to talk about neuropathies. 12 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:46,440 Neuropathy simply means disease of a nerve or a problem with a nerve. 13 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:49,880 So damage to nerves can be caused by diabetes. 14 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:54,280 That's one of the most common causes that at least that people are familiar with. 15 00:00:54,280 --> 00:01:00,040 All but also liver disease, nutrient deficiencies, which a lot of people are unaware of, and 16 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:01,220 pressure on nerves. 17 00:01:01,220 --> 00:01:04,240 This is also relatively familiar. 18 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:09,320 People have heard of sciatica, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel syndrome. 19 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:16,520 These are all conditions where pressure on nerves causes the damage, hence a neuropathy. 20 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:22,320 And I've seen thousands of people with conditions like this over the past 30 years. 21 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:23,880 So let's break this down. 22 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:30,600 Diabetes damages nerves because hyperglycemia, excess blood sugar floating around in your 23 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:34,640 bloodstream constantly for far too long damages nerves. 24 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:39,720 And the most common place a diabetic neuropathy shows up is in the feet. 25 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:41,040 You've seen it in the movies. 26 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:43,360 People who just, it's horrific. 27 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:48,960 People just can't even bend over to touch their toes anymore, let alone cut their toenails 28 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:53,640 or take care of their feet, especially if they're really impoverished. 29 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:58,840 End up with so much loss of nerve control to their feet that they can't even feel when 30 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:04,960 they're damaging their feet from something as simple as stubbing their toe or worse. 31 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:13,280 And then they get an injury that creates a traumatic inflammatory response that causes 32 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,440 ultimately necrosis, death of cells. 33 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:25,400 And they end up getting amputations of their toes or even part half or the whole of their 34 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:27,520 foot, which is just horrific. 35 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:32,360 So one of the things that's most important to understand about any kind of neuropathy, 36 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:40,800 any kind of damage or pressure or problem with a nerve is they're very difficult to 37 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:43,160 specifically identify. 38 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:53,200 So if you have pain, burning, tingling, numbness, sense of ants crawling, sensations like this 39 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:59,080 that are difficult to describe, and especially if it's difficult to pinpoint exactly where 40 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:01,360 that sensation is. 41 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:02,360 You know it's there. 42 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:04,200 You can feel it. 43 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:07,040 But is it exactly in your big toe? 44 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,680 Is it exactly in your heel, your calf, the back of your leg, the front of your leg? 45 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:19,000 And it's really hard to identify exactly where the pain, burning, numbness, tingling is, 46 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:23,120 then that is always a problem with a nerve. 47 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:27,920 That is actually one of the ways we diagnose a nerve condition versus a vascular condition 48 00:03:27,920 --> 00:03:31,480 or an infection or a trauma or some other kind of condition. 49 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:38,040 If it's really difficult to identify exactly where the symptoms occur, and if they move 50 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:44,600 around a lot, it's almost always some kind of either pressure on or damage to a nerve. 51 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:51,040 So the damage to nerves with a diabetic occurs because of the damaging effects of excess 52 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:53,000 blood sugar. 53 00:03:53,000 --> 00:04:00,400 And whenever someone starts to feel that effect, they should immediately see some doctor to 54 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:01,600 do something about that. 55 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:06,640 Even if you need to take drugs for a while, you don't want to destroy your nerves. 56 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:12,760 It used to be thought that once you destroy your nerves, they cannot be repaired. 57 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:16,640 We know now that they can, but it is still very difficult. 58 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:22,640 The reason we thought for so long that it was impossible to repair damaged nerves is 59 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:29,160 because repairing them takes months to years, not days, and it's certainly nothing that 60 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:35,600 can be accomplished by taking any kind of medication or even doing physical therapy. 61 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:37,080 Nerves heal very slowly. 62 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:43,480 They're one of the most slowly healing tissues in your body, right up there with joint tissue, 63 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:47,760 because the circulation to them is very poor. 64 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:54,960 Our bodies naturally flood our brains with nutrients and oxygen and the liver and the 65 00:04:54,960 --> 00:05:00,960 kidneys and the hearts and the spleen and all the major organs because they're the ones 66 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:05,480 that mostly need robust circulation to keep us alive. 67 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:12,480 It's rare, relatively rare, for generations and in our current experience to damage a 68 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:17,840 nerve that could pose an existential crisis that could threaten our lives. 69 00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:25,040 So physiologically, it is less important for the heart, for our bodies to supply nutrients 70 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:28,560 to nerves and joints. 71 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:34,280 As a consequence, anytime you damage a nerve or even just begin to stress it by reducing 72 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:40,680 the nutrients needed to heal and repair that damaged nerve tissue or nutrient deficient 73 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:46,720 tissue, it's going to take a long time, weeks to months, to reverse that damage usually. 74 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:54,560 So it's always important if you have any symptoms like pain not caused by some known trauma, 75 00:05:54,560 --> 00:06:01,800 accident, injury, numbness, tingling, burning, in your hands or your feet are the most common 76 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:09,760 spots but any place in your body, seek attention from some qualified doctor that can help you 77 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:12,360 with this as soon as possible. 78 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:17,360 Unfortunately, when most people do this, they go to a neurologist, got a nerve pain, got 79 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:22,440 to go to a neurologist or they go to their GP and the GP refers them to a neurologist 80 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:29,080 and unfortunately the neurologist's standard testing to identify a problem with a nerve 81 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:35,040 are really, really crude testing and nerve conduction velocity tests to see if the wires 82 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:41,920 are damaged, EMG, electromyography to see if the connections between the wires and the 83 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:47,360 muscles are damaged and of course these tests have their purpose or they wouldn't be done 84 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:54,960 but a lot of people end up in an office of a neurologist doing these tests and they, 85 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:58,120 I've seen so many people, but I'm a little bit biased. 86 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:02,840 My experience and opinion is biased because I see the people who've already done that 87 00:07:02,840 --> 00:07:08,080 and the test results are always negative or almost always negative and the other thing 88 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:12,840 to always keep in mind is when you do any test, if the result is positive, what is the 89 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:13,840 treatment going to be? 90 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:19,200 Well, if the result of a nerve conduction velocity test or an EMG, an electromyography 91 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:25,560 test is positive, usually the recommendation is some kind of surgery so if you know you 92 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:34,240 don't want surgery then you're probably, what's the point in doing an NCV or an EMG when you 93 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:39,960 could come to someone like myself or almost any chiropractor really. 94 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:43,520 I'm a non-force chiropractor and I'm going to talk about the difference between what 95 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:46,560 I do and traditional chiropractors. 96 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:51,740 A lot of people are afraid of getting their neck cracked or their back cracked but seriously 97 00:07:51,740 --> 00:07:57,880 if your insurance covers, if you have a situation like this and your insurance covers traditional 98 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:02,640 chiropractic or if you're on Medicare, I'm sorry I don't take any insurance. 99 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:07,280 If you find yourself in a situation where you have one of these conditions that no one 100 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,920 else is helping you with, go see a chiropractor that takes Medicare. 101 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:17,360 You can email me, I have an excellent colleague, Dr. David Packard, an anacapic chiropractor 102 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:21,720 who takes Medicare and he does traditional chiropractic, he does a fine job of it and 103 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:23,240 helps a lot of people. 104 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:28,000 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, you're listening to Safe Effective Natural Solutions to Almost 105 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:29,720 Any Health Challenge. 106 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:35,780 Today we're talking about neuropathies, pressure on or damage to nerves from metabolic conditions 107 00:08:35,780 --> 00:08:40,840 like diabetes and liver disease and most importantly nutrient deficiencies which we're going to 108 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:42,840 talk a lot about. 109 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:48,720 Vitamin B12, magnesium and calcium are the three most common nutrient deficiencies that 110 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:53,560 can cause neuropathies especially in the legs and feet. 111 00:08:53,560 --> 00:08:59,920 Vitamin B6 is also really important for maintaining nerve health and repairing damage from nerve 112 00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:02,400 injuries and pressure on nerves. 113 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:07,200 But before I get into that, I want to talk about, I was talking a lot on the last episode 114 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:13,600 or two about supplements that are really good for dementia, maintaining brain and cardiovascular 115 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:14,600 health. 116 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:18,640 And oftentimes I also like to remind people of things they should avoid. 117 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:24,640 So supplement of the week to avoid, red yeast rice extract. 118 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:31,420 If you've never heard of this, red yeast rice extract is a supplement that is manufactured 119 00:09:31,420 --> 00:09:32,420 for cholesterol. 120 00:09:32,420 --> 00:09:38,320 A lot of people take this and thinking that it's a natural way to control their cholesterol. 121 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:42,480 Well, it does come from a plant but it's not good. 122 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:48,400 You take a red yeast rice supplement, what you're really taking is a statin made by mold 123 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:51,600 that grows on rice. 124 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:59,440 So the idea that you're going to use this as an alternative to taking a statin drug 125 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,000 is specious. 126 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:08,360 You're actually taking just a milder form of a statin that is made by this organism 127 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:10,400 that grows on red yeast rice. 128 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:18,280 If you need another reason to not take red yeast rice products for cholesterol is Kobayashi 129 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:24,880 Pharmacy, pharma in Japan has recalled cholesterol lowering supplements with red yeast rice over 130 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:28,880 a possibility link to kidney disease. 131 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:34,000 Five deaths reported, a hundred hospitalizations, the product's been recalled. 132 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:38,800 You really shouldn't be taking red yeast rice to control your cholesterol. 133 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:45,220 There are much better products like Bergamot BPF from Ortho Molecular Products. 134 00:10:45,220 --> 00:10:47,760 Also niacin and a few other things. 135 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:48,880 Everyone's different. 136 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,320 It's best to get testing to find out what will work best for you. 137 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:54,280 Back to neuropathies. 138 00:10:54,280 --> 00:11:01,880 Neuro means nerve, pathy means disease, so any condition that damages a nerve is a neuropathy. 139 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:06,440 But the neuropathy most people are familiar with is from diabetes. 140 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:12,200 High blood sugar damages nerves throughout your body, everywhere in your body, but the 141 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:17,560 ones most distant from your body are the ones that get hit first or the ones that have the 142 00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:20,280 poorest circulation get hit first. 143 00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:27,360 So most diabetics with high blood sugar get damaged to the nerves in their feet or their 144 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:34,780 eyes, because the nerves to the eyes are distant from the heart and very small blood vessels 145 00:11:34,780 --> 00:11:37,360 supply nutrients to these nerves. 146 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:45,040 So with diabetes, it's both a neurological damage to nerves and damage to blood vessels. 147 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:49,480 Liver disease can also, because of the nutrient deficiencies, damage nerves. 148 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:56,240 So people with hepatitis, people with alcoholism, people with liver disease from diabetes, people 149 00:11:56,240 --> 00:12:02,320 with fatty liver disease from other causes, anything that damages B vitamins in particular 150 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:06,720 are stored in your liver and processed in your liver. 151 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:10,960 So if you have any kind of disease process that is going to cause significant damage 152 00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:19,000 to your liver, you're going to have deficiencies of B vitamins that can result in neuropathies. 153 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:28,560 Because of the insufficient amounts of, especially B12, sometimes folate and B6, vitamin B6, 154 00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:36,160 your nerves are dependent on sufficient levels ongoingly of these B vitamins to heal and 155 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:37,160 repair themselves. 156 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:42,560 So the good news is these things can be identified on tests and you can replace those. 157 00:12:42,560 --> 00:12:45,400 B vitamins are inexpensive. 158 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:50,440 There's a lot of products that I have to recommend to people to do my job that are unfortunately 159 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:55,240 expensive, because you get what you pay for, the good products cost more, the cheap ones 160 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:56,240 often don't work. 161 00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:00,240 But B vitamins, like vitamin C, are kind of an exception. 162 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:08,800 B vitamins are B vitamins, like B12, folate, B6, niacin, the whole other subject. 163 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:10,800 But B vitamins are inexpensive. 164 00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:17,360 So there's really no reason anyone should not be able to have access and take these 165 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:23,280 things when they need them if they have any symptoms of neuropathy. 166 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:30,440 So diabetes, liver disease, nutrient deficiencies, pressure on the nerves also causes damage 167 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:35,140 to the nerves, which is a form of neuropathy. 168 00:13:35,140 --> 00:13:40,400 So if you have burning, tingling, numbness in your feet, in the back of your leg, anywhere 169 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:46,600 from your hip down to the tips of your toes, then you've got pressure on your nerves, especially 170 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:53,240 if you have numbness, tingling, burning pain anywhere between your hips and your toes that's 171 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:54,880 really hard to identify. 172 00:13:54,880 --> 00:13:59,760 Like you're trying to, oh, it feels like it's kind of here, but maybe it's there. 173 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:02,040 Maybe it's in the back of my thigh, the front of my thigh. 174 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:07,200 It's only in my big toe or it moves around constantly. 175 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:13,040 And as almost always damage to a nerve, because if it was a muscle, it's pretty easy to identify. 176 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:16,520 You can push on the muscle, you'll feel the pain in the muscle. 177 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:17,520 That's the problem. 178 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:18,520 It's in the muscle. 179 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:23,480 If you can't find exactly where the pain is or the other symptoms, a lot of times people 180 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:27,200 think, oh, it's loss of circulation and I can't feel my feet. 181 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:28,200 It's numb. 182 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:29,880 I must have my circulation is cut off. 183 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:37,320 If your circulation is cut off, your feet, your hands will turn white first and then 184 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:40,600 eventually blue from lack of oxygen. 185 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:44,360 And that's a totally different thing that people often confuse with damage to nerves. 186 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:48,080 So when you feel numbness, it's not from lack of circulation. 187 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:50,360 It's from pressure on a nerve. 188 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:52,280 And that pressure can be reversed. 189 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:57,080 If you cross your legs a lot, you can, people have felt this before you can, your foot will 190 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:58,240 go numb. 191 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:02,360 It's not because of loss of circulation to the foot when you have your legs crossed. 192 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:09,000 It's because of pressure on the nerves to your feet that can no longer confer, convey 193 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:10,800 sensations to your brain. 194 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:12,840 So you feel numbness. 195 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:20,600 So it's important to distinguish pressure or damage to nerves from pressure on circulation. 196 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:25,800 All the things we're talking about today, if these are your symptoms, numbness, tingling, 197 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:32,040 pain, these are symptoms of pressure on nerves, not loss of circulation. 198 00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:39,080 So sciatica is one of the most famous types of pressure on a nerve. 199 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:44,600 The sciatic nerve is really, is not really a nerve, but a huge bundle of nerves. 200 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:51,600 It's like a telephone cable that forms where several branches of nerves come from the base 201 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:58,840 of your spine and then combine into this huge bundle in your buttock area that travels down 202 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:01,800 the back of your thigh. 203 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:07,940 And then everything below your knee is innervated by branches of this nerve. 204 00:16:07,940 --> 00:16:15,240 So everything you feel or cannot feel from your knee down is either working or not working 205 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:22,620 based primarily on whether or not there is or isn't pressure on the sciatic nerve bundle. 206 00:16:22,620 --> 00:16:26,280 So this sciatic nerve, everyone's heard of it, but what really is that? 207 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,540 Do you know where the sciatic nerve is even? 208 00:16:29,540 --> 00:16:34,600 So at the base of your spine, all the nerves start out in your brain, travel down your 209 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:41,620 spinal cord to your tailbone area at the base of the spine, a half a dozen nerve branches 210 00:16:41,620 --> 00:16:47,480 branch off of the spinal cord and then coalesce to form this sciatic nerve bundle. 211 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:50,840 Your body likes to conserve space. 212 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:57,400 So these nerve branches form this bundle that makes it easy to send the signals down the 213 00:16:57,400 --> 00:16:58,720 leg to the feet. 214 00:16:58,720 --> 00:16:59,960 Our legs are pretty long. 215 00:16:59,960 --> 00:17:04,760 The nerves to your toes are the most distant nerves from your brain. 216 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:11,200 So the sciatic nerve is a way to, it's kind of like a freeway from your butt down to your 217 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:12,200 toes. 218 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:19,480 And one of the problems with this conservation of space in the physical parts of our body 219 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:25,840 is that this sciatic nerve passes through a notch in your pelvis called appropriately 220 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:32,520 enough the sciatic notch, but a muscle also passes through that notch called the piriformis. 221 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:35,440 This is one of the major hip rotators. 222 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:40,000 One of the muscles that if you're a ballet dancer or a soccer player, it's a muscle in 223 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:47,000 your hip that turns powerfully, turns your foot out when you want it to. 224 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:53,120 And the downside of that, the proximity of that muscle is that most people don't use 225 00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:54,120 that muscle. 226 00:17:54,120 --> 00:17:59,520 If you're not a ballet dancer, if you're not a soccer player, you hardly ever forcefully 227 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:00,720 turn your foot out. 228 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:07,200 You hardly ever really use the piriformis muscle and the piriformis muscle passes through 229 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:10,120 this notch in the pelvis right next to the sciatic nerve. 230 00:18:10,120 --> 00:18:17,440 In fact, 15% of the human population, according to Gray's Anatomy, has a split piriformis 231 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:18,440 muscle. 232 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:21,720 They have actually two piriformis muscles that are split. 233 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,160 Instead of one, they have two muscle bellies. 234 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:28,880 And the sciatic nerve, instead of going right underneath that muscle, it passes between 235 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:30,980 the two separate bellies. 236 00:18:30,980 --> 00:18:37,840 So if you have tightness in this muscle, and everyone has tightness in this muscle, it 237 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:40,240 can cause pressure on the sciatic nerve. 238 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:45,920 It can cause pain, burning, numbness, tingling down the back of your leg, down the front 239 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:51,900 of your leg, in your calf, in your heels, in your foot, only in your big toe. 240 00:18:51,900 --> 00:18:58,380 You can have only numbness or only burning or only pain in one toe of your foot. 241 00:18:58,380 --> 00:19:05,280 And it can be coming almost exclusively from pressure on the sciatic bundle of nerves in 242 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:11,360 your hip that are constantly, potentially being pressurized by these muscles. 243 00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:15,600 And the piriformis muscles, and there are several other hip rotator muscles, there are 244 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:19,720 over a dozen and a half muscles that cross your hip joint. 245 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:28,360 And six or eight that can impinge on this sciatic nerve in your hip that can cause or 246 00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:33,520 contribute to pressure on the nerves that exit the base of your spine or traveling down 247 00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:34,520 your leg. 248 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:38,880 And then, you know, most doctors just never even look for these things. 249 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:41,880 So a simple physical exam, a very simple physical exam. 250 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,220 In fact, I'll even tell you how to do it at home. 251 00:19:45,220 --> 00:19:47,080 Lie on the floor. 252 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:52,620 Lie on the floor with your knees bent, have someone try to push on your knee gently and 253 00:19:52,620 --> 00:19:59,120 see without raising your hip off of the floor, will your knee move to the opposite side or 254 00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:00,120 not? 255 00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:02,760 It should go about 45 degrees. 256 00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:09,920 If it doesn't, then you have tight hip rotators of which the piriformis and to a slightly 257 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:17,640 lesser extent the gluteus medius and maximus, the small muscles in the gluteal area just 258 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:22,000 below the famous gluteus maximus, the major butt muscle. 259 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:23,560 And these are so common. 260 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:25,920 These muscles tighten up just from sitting. 261 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:28,120 People always ask me, how did these muscles get so tight? 262 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:31,920 Well, do you ever spend any time sitting in a chair in front of a computer, sitting in 263 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:35,960 a chair, looking at screens, sitting in a car, sitting, reading? 264 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:38,220 We sit all the time. 265 00:20:38,220 --> 00:20:42,480 People in other parts of the world who get up and down off the floor all the time and 266 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:45,960 don't sit in chairs don't have these problems. 267 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:49,800 We do because we sit all the time. 268 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:51,280 And we don't need to stop that. 269 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:56,360 We just need to stretch more and identify pressure on nerves like I'm talking about 270 00:20:56,360 --> 00:21:01,920 right now to release that pressure and then come up with a way to minimize it recurring 271 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:02,920 in the future. 272 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:08,600 I've had so many results over the years with amazing results with people who have various 273 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:11,000 types of neuropathy or pressure on nerves. 274 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,680 It's hard to begin to start. 275 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,920 But here's an example that just comes to mind off the top of my head. 276 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:26,280 I had a teenage girl who was really fit cheerleader and had just this tremendous pain in her left 277 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:30,680 hip and tingling and burning and numbness all the way down her legs. 278 00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:32,560 She is a cheerleader. 279 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:33,760 She was super healthy. 280 00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:39,600 She looked amazing and she had been to physical therapy for a year and no one could help figure 281 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,440 out why she couldn't get rid of this pain. 282 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:49,480 And it was because she had huge ridiculously tight piriformis and small glute muscles, 283 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:50,880 the gluteus medius and minimus. 284 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:57,600 This is these little gluteal muscles that are underneath the big famous gluteus maximus. 285 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:03,280 And it's hard to believe she had been to physical therapy for a year and they hadn't figured 286 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:04,280 that out. 287 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:06,800 But I see that over and over again. 288 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:12,160 The hip rotator muscles, the muscles in your hips that get tight just from sitting in chairs 289 00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:13,800 all the time. 290 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:16,240 Doctors, physical therapists don't check these. 291 00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:17,520 I hope that's different now. 292 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:21,240 I know that some do, but anyway, I've seen it so many times that they don't. 293 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:26,020 So if you're having or you know someone who's having a situation like that, have them give 294 00:22:26,020 --> 00:22:27,020 me a call. 295 00:22:27,020 --> 00:22:32,080 I know a teenage girl who had pain down her left leg, couldn't cheerlead anymore, couldn't 296 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:34,160 walk eventually. 297 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:38,560 She was, her mother brought her in and she was in really dire straits. 298 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:43,400 And the fun thing about treating people who are younger, if you come in earlier, it's 299 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:44,960 always easier to treat. 300 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:50,320 So I worked on her and this was a really bad case and it's always bad if one thing is tight 301 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:53,400 on one side of your body and not tight on the other. 302 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:57,100 It's much better if it's equally tight on both sides. 303 00:22:57,100 --> 00:23:01,360 It's easier to relieve the problem if you have that situation. 304 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:04,840 But she had super tight on one side and I worked on her. 305 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:11,760 I worked on her on the table to do some physical things to help feedback, provide feedback 306 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:15,940 to her brain to figure out how it is not necessary. 307 00:23:15,940 --> 00:23:17,960 Her brain needs to learn. 308 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:24,840 Who has a situation like this, a huge component is always lack of feedback to the brain. 309 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:28,240 The brain is in control of everything. 310 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:34,440 So if something's not working, then you should consider that maybe the brain is not getting 311 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:37,360 the information it needs to fix that. 312 00:23:37,360 --> 00:23:39,720 Because if it does, it will do so. 313 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,280 Automatic, that's the way we're designed. 314 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:48,680 So I helped her brain by doing some physical exercises on the table, helped provide robust 315 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:52,640 feedback to the motor cortex, the part of her brain that controls the part of everyone's 316 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:57,920 brain that controls all muscles so that it could realize, oh my God, this muscle is sitting 317 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:02,280 here tight for no reason and it relaxed. 318 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:06,080 And she very quickly became pain free and went back to doing cheerleading and all the 319 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:10,660 other things any healthy young teenager would want to do. 320 00:24:10,660 --> 00:24:16,520 And there are so many other examples I could cite from a man who fell off of a 50 foot 321 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:23,440 cliff, had to have major back surgery and excruciating pain that I helped him with from 322 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:25,240 releasing pressure from the nerves. 323 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:29,640 A woman who had liposuction with the neck nerve were running out of time. 324 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:31,280 So we'll talk about this next week. 325 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:32,600 Please tune in next Friday. 326 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:33,600 See you then. 327 00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,120 Have a fantastic weekend. 328 00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:40,640 You've been listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. 329 00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:45,160 If you have a health question you want discussed on the show, email your health questions to 330 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:49,720 drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter.com. 331 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:54,440 Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself and for your loved 332 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,400 ones because our health matters. 333 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:04,680 Join him next Friday at 4 p.m. for Safe, Effective Natural Solutions right here on 98.3 The 334 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:06,280 Word KDAR.