Issue 21September 11, 20264 min read

Nobody Brags About a Colonoscopy

We are all very good at fearing the wrong thing.

By Jianna Bustamante, DPTWhole Health Weekly

Whole Health Weekly issue 21 cover: Nobody Brags About a Colonoscopy

Happy Friday and Happy Newsletter Day!

This week in the clinic was, and I am not exaggerating, colonoscopy week.

I heard about more scheduled screenings in five days than I usually hear about in a year.

Honestly? It made me happy. Nobody posts about their colonoscopy. Nobody gets congratulated for it. People just quietly go do it, and it is one of the most protective things they will do all year.

Weekly perspective

We Worry About the Wrong Things

On this week’s episode, Gary and Peter took on the old belief that lifting weights stunts a kid’s growth.

Here is the part that stuck with me. The fear traces back to a handful of old cases that got repeated so many times they became common knowledge. Meanwhile a kid can play the same sport year round, same movements, thousands of reps, no offseason, and nobody blinks. That is the pattern that actually shows up in our clinic as elbow pain, knee pain, and heel pain.

So the scary sounding thing, a coached and appropriately loaded lift, is one of the safer things a young athlete can do. The normal sounding thing, one sport all twelve months, is where the real risk lives.

We do this as adults too. We are nervous about the deadlift and totally relaxed about sitting for eleven hours. We put off the screening because we feel fine, then treat a tweaked back like an emergency.

Risk rarely announces itself. It is usually boring, repetitive, and easy to ignore.

Worth asking yourself this week: what am I afraid of that is actually fine, and what am I comfortable with that probably is not?

Exercise of the week

360 Breathing

What is it?

Lying on your back and breathing so your ribs expand out to the sides and into the floor, not just your chest rising.

Why is it beneficial?

Your diaphragm is part of your core. When you only breathe up into your chest, your neck and shoulders pick up the work and your deep core never really turns on.

Retraining your ribs to move in all directions calms your system down and gives your trunk a real foundation to brace from.

Who’s it for?

Anyone with neck and shoulder tension, low back pain, or pelvic floor symptoms. Anybody who feels like they cannot get a full breath. And anybody who wants to actually recover between hard training days.

How to perform it:

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
Place your hands on the sides of your lower ribs.
Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds and feel your ribs widen out into your hands and back into the floor.
Exhale slowly through your mouth for 6 to 8 seconds and let your ribs come back down.
Repeat for 5 to 10 breaths.

Common mistakes:

Shoulders shrugging up toward your ears. Only the belly popping up while the ribs stay still. Yanking a huge fast breath in. Slow and quiet wins here.

Healthy tip of the week

Keep a Medical Journal

Most of us cannot answer a simple question: when was my last physical?

Or my last bloodwork, eye exam, dermatology check, dental cleaning, mammogram, colonoscopy.

So screenings get skipped, not because we decided against them, but because nobody was keeping track.

Here is the fix, and it takes about fifteen minutes.

Start a medical journal. A notes app, a spreadsheet, or an actual notebook in a drawer. For each appointment write down three things: what it was, the date, and when they told you to come back.

Then put that return date in your calendar with a reminder, even if it is two years out.

That is it. Now the decision is already made and future you just shows up.

It is also incredibly useful information to hand a new provider, and it makes the “has anything changed?” question a lot easier to answer honestly. Bring it to your PT visits too. I would rather see your real history than your best guess.

This week in the clinic

Apparently It Was Colonoscopy Week

I lost count of how many people mentioned a screening or a physical this week. Colonoscopies, bloodwork, annual visits, the appointments that had been sitting on the to do list for a while.

None of it is exciting. Nobody is thrilled about the prep. But that is exactly the point of this week’s issue.

Preventative care is quiet, unglamorous, and easy to postpone forever. The people who keep up with it are not braver than everybody else. They just decided ahead of time and put it on the calendar.

Physical therapy works the same way. Most of what we do is not dramatic. It is small, boring, repeatable things done consistently, which is why they work.

Upcoming Events

Prenatal Yoga + Pelvic Health Evening
- Tuesday, September 22, 5:30-7pm
- Location: Whole Health Solutions
- Click to Sign-Up Below!

Fall GrotonFest
- Saturday, September 26, 10am-4pm
- Location: Legion Field Common
- Click Below for More Info!

One More Thing

In addition to being your PT, I also write a column called Living Well for The Shirley Local.

This week’s article was about bowel movements, which apparently makes this the most on theme newsletter I have ever written.

The Shirley Local is a great little paper. Subscribing supports local news, and you get my column every week.

Jianna mentioned this week's Different Life podcast episode. Want to hear it?