Sports Medicine, #92

Dr. John Herzog:

It's hard to get motivated to exercise, but make yourself turn pink three times a week for 20 minutes. That regrows all these blood vessels in your body and also it gives you more endorphins and it decreases inflammation by 600% by just doing it 20 minutes three days a week.

Mike Chapman:

You know, I felt like promoting these products and seeing how well they do work. At the end of the day you feel good about helping people.

Stan Skolfield:

The most rewarding thing is actually just working with your everyday common athlete. All of a sudden that kid's going from riding the bench to now they're making varsity, you know, and just the feeling and the reward you get from seeing them accomplish that, that's what makes me happy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 92, Sports Medicine, airing for the first time on Sunday, June 16, 2013. Today's guests include orthopedic surgeon Dr. John Herzog, Mike Chapman and Jim Greidericks of Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical and Jared Buzzel and Stan Schofield of Orthopedic Associates Performance center in Saco. Before we talk about our guests, I'd like to remind you of a couple events coming up that I will be going to and I hope you'll consider going to as well. The first is Taste of the Nation Maine which will be taking place on June 13, 2013 at Wolfs Neck Farm in Freeport. The 8th annual Taste of the Nation Maine at Wolfskneck Farm will include food for more than 30 of Maine's most well respected chefs. Spend the evening eating, drinking, bidding on fantastic items at the live and silent auction. 2012 Taste of the Nation Maine was a sold out event featuring two dozen of the state's top chefs on Great diamond island and Casco Bay. With the support of local chefs and restaurants, sponsors donors and attendees share our strength. Maine raised a record amount of money and granted more than $150,000 to local beneficiaries whose mission it is to end hunger in Maine. The second event is the Maine Home and Design show, which will take place on June 29th and 30th, 2013 in Rockport. The Maine Home and Design show will bring the pages of Maine Home and Design Magazine to life. The show features more than 150 exhibitors, the AIA Pavilion and a pop up gallery of works from art collector Maine. Join us from June 29th to June 30th for an experience like no other and feel as though you're walking into a living version of the magazine. For more information on the 2013 Taste of the Nation and the Maine Home Design show, visit themainmag.com Today's show is airing on Father's Day and happens to be about sports medicine. My father was one of my earliest sports heroes. Dad is a humble man and rarely speaks of his athletic prowess. However, those who knew him when have shared stories of his baseball skills while at St. Louis High School in Biddeford and his football team captaincy while at the University of Maine. Dad's skill in the playing field and love of physical pursuits has been passed down to his children and grandchildren. We have become marathoners and yoga instructors, Little League All Stars and nationally ranked swimming competitors. For most of us, it is less about the win than it is about the game. We like being part of the action. It is important for each of us to find a way to be part of the action. Some people naturally gravitate towards group sports, while others prefer more solo pursuits. There is no one cookie cutter approach to physical activity that can be easily applied to all people. This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour, we acknowledge this reality through our conversations with Dr. John Herzog, Mike Chapman, Jim Greatorex, Stan Scholfield and Jared Buzzel. Each of our guests has a slightly different take on how individuals can best achieve optimal physical health. They are all similar, however, in their view that optimal physical health is entirely possible no matter what our genetic makeup or family background. My father was one of my earliest sports heroes, not because he was good at what he did, but because he loved what he did. He still does. He loves to work and he loves to play. Above all, he loves to share his life with his family. Happy Father's Day to Charlie Belisle, the best dad a girl could hope for. Thank you for being my hero in every way and thank you for listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour this week. We hope you enjoy our conversations with Dr. John Herzog, Jared Buzzel and Stan Schofield, Mike Chapman and Jim Greatorex.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When you think about orthopedic surgery and vegan and vegetarian eating, there's really only

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

one doctor in the area whose name comes up, and that is our very own Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

right here in the Portland area.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

He's coming in to talk to us

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

today about sports medicine and vegetarian and vegan eating. Thanks for coming in.

Dr. John Herzog:

You're very welcome. It's always a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've been an orthopedic surgeon for almost 30 years.

Dr. John Herzog:

Hard to believe, but yes, yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you've seen a lot of sports injuries and you've seen a lot of people who aren't injured but just want to maintain good health?

Dr. John Herzog:

Yes, I've seen the whole gamut from the horrific crash to the little child with an ankle sprain.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what part does vegan eating or even just vegetarian eating, minimizing meat, what part does that have in maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle and even excelling in sports?

Dr. John Herzog:

Well, I think it all comes down to when you consider food as the fuel that fuels our bodies. We would like to put in the best, highest octane fuel you can get. And I believe truly that the plant based diet gives us that. It's a higher quality of food because it's easier for us to absorb it. And when we have a good clean running system, we don't produce a lot of residue. Just like a car with good gasoline. There's not a lot of soot building up in the tailpipe and there's not a lot of cavitating. So that would be akin to having good circulation. If you have good circulation, that helps your muscles grow bigger, get stronger, have more endurance, and when they get hurt, you repair them much faster. That's the whole basis of the whole eating thing, in my opinion.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Does it also help people to stay leaner?

Dr. John Herzog:

Definitely helps you to stay leaner. Eating a complex carbohydrate, which is in the plant world very commonly when you eat that food, your intestines have to kind of break that down. And it takes energy to break down the food that you're eating. And that in turn burns calories, which in fact can lose a little weight while you're eating. Doesn't make sense, but that's how it works.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So let's talk about protein.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is something that comes up a lot whenever we discuss vegetarianism, veganism. We've had people on the show, we bring this question up a lot because this seems to be the primary concern. If I'm going to be a vegetarian or a vegan, I won't get enough protein and I won't get enough iron. Is that true?

Dr. John Herzog:

I don't believe that to be true at all. I think that there is more of a bent on people being concerned about protein than there is an actual protein shortage in the food world. You should not eat a high protein diet. It slows down your athletic performance. It creates more of an acidity in your body, not an alkaline environment, which is good for metabolism by eating high protein. So I stick with the 10-10-80 rule. 10% protein of your calories, 10% fat, and 80% carbohydrates, which are mostly complex carbohydrates. Protein shortage is not an issue.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So as you're doing this 10-10-80 rule, how are you getting protein into your diet if you're just doing this from plants?

Dr. John Herzog:

Well, as it would happen, plants are designed that way. They're about 10% protein and 10% fat, and the rest are complex carbohydrates. So it's very easy. You don't have to concoct all kinds of potions and pills and oils and, you know, incense and crystals or whatever to have a good diet. You can basically eat 10 different plants and you get all you need except maybe a little vitamin B12, which is always the big question. I'm sure that's coming.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, let's talk about vitamin B12. You've set up the question nicely, so go ahead.

Dr. John Herzog:

Vitamin B12 is really high in meats that have a lot of blood because blood has a lot of vitamin B12 in it. You do need to supplement a little bit of vitamin B12, which you can do in a pill. But most of the vegetarian foods that are fortified, let's say like cereal, yogurt, soy milks, they're full of vitamin B12. So you really don't need to get it by eating a piece of cow liver.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You yourself are vegetarian. You've been vegan. Are you still vegan?

Dr. John Herzog:

I'm vegan, but, you know, I will admit, and I can't, you know, march the party line 100%. Something about squid I really like, and that would be considered non vegan to eat that. So I say I'm mostly vegan.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So we'll call you a squid eating vegan.

Dr. John Herzog:

Squiditarian.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

A squiditarian. All right. I know there's actually, there's. It's funny because I know people who are also bacon vegetarians. They eat all vegetables and they eat bacon. So it's a thing that people crave. And I think that this is a very normal part of being human, is you crave things. And sometimes you crave them because maybe you need the nutrients that are actually in them.

Dr. John Herzog:

It could be, but that crunchy sweetness or that fresh squid, I'll tell you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Okay, so it's also a texture thing, it's a sensory thing. So how do you yourself, because you also, you are a cyclist and you're very active in your own life. Describe to me what your diet looks like.

Dr. John Herzog:

My diet is a very simple diet. I eat the same breakfast every morning. I have a bowl of granola with fresh fruit and either rice milk, soy milk or almond milk, because I can put it in a bowl and get out the door in about five minutes. It's very efficient for me. I don't do any cooking in the morning. Lunchtime varies. I eat a lot of hummus. I love hummus. I love pasta, I love fresh breads and I love pestos and I like nuts and have all kinds of little creative recipes where I can put those things together. I tend to bake in large batches or cook in large batches. And I'll have some kind of a bean casserole or rice already in the refrigerator and I'll just kind of plop it all on a plate and put it in the oven. So lots of beans and rice and pasta, tomato sauce, breads probably. I get my 80% carb diet, that's for sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So it sounds like one of the things that you do is to cook things in large batches, which is sort of an old fashioned notion we're very much into. Take something out of the freezer, put it in the microwave, small portions. But this is something that you are able to use as a tool to keep yourself eating healthy.

Dr. John Herzog:

Yes. And it keeps it simple. I love to cook. It's a passion of mine. But why not cook enough that you could have, you know, another five meals and use your freezer. And growing up in a family where there was 10 of us in the family, so we always cooked in large batches anyway. And economically, when you go to the store, a 10 pound bag of potatoes is, you know, sometimes three or four dollars. And why not cook them all up and put some curry spice and onions and mushrooms and whatever you like, put it out in little portions and eat on that one energy filled pot for the next, you know, five weeks. You know, stuff freezes really well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are Some of your favorite vegetarian or vegan foods besides hummus, I like

Dr. John Herzog:

to make my own vegetarian pizzas. And I already mentioned pesto. I've got a passion for pesto because I grow a bunch of basil in the summer and I freeze it and it's good all year. So I have pesto a lot. I also like to cheat and go out to the local restaurants in town, like the Green Elephant and eat their tiki marsala. I like Thai food. I always ask them, keep the egg out of the Thai, but pad Thai, although that would have a little bit of fish sauce in it, it wouldn't be a pure vegan food, but it's pretty close. Basically any type of stir fry, Mexican bean burritos with rice and salsas and jalapeno, whatever. I'm not a lack of not having something to eat.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how did you learn how to cook for yourself?

Dr. John Herzog:

Well, it was kind of a family thing. My dad was a foodie and he traveled a lot to Europe and he knew all about the latest, what was going on in the fields. He'd go to pick the grapes to help. He was into winery and enology and whatever the Europeans were making in their cassoulets or how they made their bread or their bagels or what region had this and that food, he'd bring that home to us. And as children, we had a huge more or less industrial kitchen with an eight burner stove and four ovens. So we were always cooking as part of like keeping the family together and had huge gardens. And it was always considered like a sacrament food. It was a blessing to have and

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

fun to prepare for people who don't have that sort of background. And it isn't part of the family culture. They don't garden who come to see you as patients and you're trying to encourage them. Maybe you should eat more vegetarian foods. What types of resources do you offer them or where do you send them to learn how to do this?

Dr. John Herzog:

Well, there's, you know, the couple of those popular magazines, the Vegetarian Times or Veg News. I have a favorite cookbook called the Veganomicon by Chandra Isadora. I'm gonna mess her last name up, but it's a beautiful book and it's written with humor and it tells you how to start a kitchen. You know, what kind of strainer to buy, what kind of garlic press works the best, what kind of spices you put in your pantry, how you saute, how you braise, how you fry, how to not be a heavy vegan. Because vegans can get very heavy. Those little cookies and cupcakes we know how to make can get quite fattening, but it goes through the whole process with a little tongue in cheek, more or less trying to fool people that, hey, they didn't realize this was really good for them and they didn't pick up any animal products when they ate it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And what about people who are specifically interested in being athletes? Are there things that you tell them to do as far as eating ahead of time, eating after, how to structure their diet over the long term?

Dr. John Herzog:

Well, before you have a long endurance run, you want to have a lot of fuel built up in your liver called glycogen. You want a carbohydrate load generally 6 to 12 hours before you compete. And if you're an ultra athlete, you have to, you know, consume products while you're on the run if you're doing one of those hundred mile races. But the average person can just load up on a nice high fiber, high carbohydrate, you know, the 10% protein and with some oils in their diet. And there's no real specific magic formula that I have. I know there's all the powders out there at Whole Foods. And I've met Brendan Brazier. He has his own line of special stuff. And I've bought it and tried it. I just didn't like the taste of it. I'm a soy and potato guy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Brendan Fraser is the author of Thrive, I think Thrive, right? Yeah. So he is himself an endurance athlete who has embraced veganism.

Dr. John Herzog:

Yes, he has. And he has his own protein powders and he believes in the smoothies, which is nothing wrong with that. I just haven't. I don't have one of those machines, so I haven't gotten into it yet, but perhaps I will one day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We'll return to our program in a

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Moment on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast. We've long understood the important link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the subject is Tom shepherd of Shepherd Financial.

[Unidentified voice]:

Why do pro athletes go bankrupt? I was reading an article with this title, but to me it missed the mark. Pro athletes lose big when they let drama and excitement constantly overtake balance and enjoyment. Is it the same for us amateurs? Most athletes have an inkling about what motivates them. They spend time trying to understand the ebb and flow of energy and learn to control that energy to achieve their desired outcomes. The same thing is true of managing our money. If we understand what scares us, what excites us and what bores us, we can keep the pace and the plan from blowing up. Making it to race day involves avoiding injury, getting up when we're feeling down, eating well, getting enough rest, putting in the miles, and for most of us, finding others to share the journey. We might not like a particular workout, but we know how to psych ourselves up to get it done anyways. It's like that with money. Avoiding losses, not getting too excited when the markets are up or down, having a strategy that occasionally allows our money to rest, investing enough and doing it for a purpose are all ways that money can be coached to better prepare you for race day. So congratulations. If you finished this year's trek, send us an email to tomphepherdfinancialmaine.com and let us help you prepare for the big race. Happy Father's Day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've got an interest in a lot of different areas, and that's what's fascinating. As a physician, you could have decided early on I'm just going to deal with this specific segment of medicine. I'm going to be an orthopedic surgeon. I'm going to do this. But you've decided to branch out and not only have you branched out into vegan foods and vegan and vegetarian eating and feeding people in other parts of the world, but you're also doing a lot of work with stem cells and you're doing different things in your practice. And actually, it's been so successful. You've expanded. You're expanding your practice or talking about you're expanding your practice into New Hampshire, correct?

Mike Chapman:

Yeah.

Dr. John Herzog:

I've been on board with trying to keep things efficient in orthopedics and more or less in this region, pioneered the use of an ultrasound machine instead of using MRIs and X rays. And you can have that machine in your office and show patients their rotator cuff, their Achilles tendinitis, where the brake is you can look at it and that really helps lighten people up. Say, wow, that's what it looks like. And also having that technology where you can see in real time, that means while we're both looking at it, I can numb something up and put a very small needle in it and we can inject it with a standard cortisone if need be, or we can spin down. That would be taking some of your own blood out, putting it in a centrifuge and concentrating the stem cells and the platelets and injecting it into an area that gets very poor blood supply and cause it to grow new tissue like new muscle and tendons, like for plantar fasciitis, etc. Type problem. It's like tilling the garden a little bit with a teeny needle, putting in some seeds and then a little fertilizer. And as opposed to doing what I would normally have done with a knife, a chisel and a mallet. If I can do it with a little needle in my office, it makes great sense. It's maybe 5% the cost of surgery and it works very well. So gaming that up a notch, I'm in negotiations right now to open a stem cell clinic in New Hampshire which is going to be a bit more potent than the PRP I just spoke of. You centrifuge the blood. We actually use bone marrow and some belly fat with stem cells in it to inject. Here again, a real long answer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this is used for tendonitis, actual

Dr. John Herzog:

tearing and rotator cuffs. Rotator cuffs, tendinitis, muscle ruptures. Of course, the, you know, problems in the joint where people's joints are wearing out. With stem cells in the appropriate environment injected into your joints, you can prevent arthritis of the knee. If you have the fear of having a total joint, hip, knee, ankle. I do because I have quite amount of arthritis in my body. You can prevent it by feeding your cartilage just like you feed your skin and your muscles with PRP and stem cell injections. So it prevents arthritis. That's going to be the new rage.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, you've always been on the forefront. You were a vegan before anybody else was a vegan. And you were one of the first doctors to really be doing that in this area. And you've been networking with doctors nationally and internationally who have been especially espousing the idea of veganism and plant based eating. So I have every faith in that, that what you're saying is. So that stem cells and PRP is, that's the Forefront of medicine.

Dr. John Herzog:

Right. Non invasive. And it's actually fun to do for me. So it keeps me technically in the game doing interesting things and I'm a blessed man.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's good to know that you really enjoy doing what you're doing because it's important that people go to see a doctor who really wants to help them heal because he's enjoying his own life.

Dr. John Herzog:

Right. And coming out of that just to expound, you know, sitting around the doctor's lounge in between surgeries, it's hard these days to see anybody with a smile on their face. There are always, you know, 25% of everybody's, you know, happy. And just no matter what, you can't make them sad, you can't make them stay awake for three days and they still would be smiling. A lot of us get burned out and I see that in our profession quite a bit. And it takes a toll on the doctor personally and, you know, patient care too, to a minor degree.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, since we know that you're a very fulfilled doctor and you offer all of these therapies for things, physical things, emotional, how can people find out about you, Dr. John Herzog, and your practice?

Dr. John Herzog:

Well, the best way would be to go to my website, which is Ortho Care Me. You know, like me, like for the state of Maine, Ortho Care Me, I think that's www.orthocareme.com. or they could look in the phone book under Dr. John P. Herzog and pick the guy in Maine. There's another one in New York and one in Michigan with the same name.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we appreciate you coming in and talking to us today as we're finishing up. I think it's interesting for people who are listening that you not only are you an orthopedic surgeon, you are an Eagle Boy Scout.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've performed over 10,000 surgeries, seen over 150,000 patient visits, treated over 5,000 fractures.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're a professor at the University of New England School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've performed more than 3,000 musculoskeletal ultrasounds

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

and you're the first orthopedic surgeon to use ultrasound guided PRP treatment on the east coast in addition to being a proponent of vegan eating and part of the Little Dad's Bakery and sending food across the ocean. So thank you so much for doing all that you do and for having done all that you've done.

Dr. John Herzog:

Well, thank you very much and I sure hope I get a copy of this to my mother. She'll be so proud.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've been talking with Dr. John Herzog

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

of Orthopedic Specialists right here in the Portland area.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We appreciate your coming in.

Dr. John Herzog:

Oh, thank you. It's always fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast hope that our listeners enjoy

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

their own work lives to the same

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

extent we do and fully embrace every day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a physician and small business owner,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth, Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcy

[Unidentified voice]:

While it is true that the first Father's Day was celebrated on July 19, 1910 because the governor of Washington State declared it a holiday, it wasn't actually until 1972 that 58 years after mother's Day was made official by President Woodrow Wilson did President Nixon sign a decree giving the day official holiday status. It took a long time for people to recognize that fathers, like mothers, should have a day of their own to celebrate. But of course, we all know that when it comes to parenting, fathers and mothers deserve credit for child rearing. And not just one day a year. Each day we are juggling schedules, making plans, and in doing what we have to do to make certain our children are happy, healthy and prepared for the future. It's really the same thing with our personal finances. We can't just take one day a year to sort everything out and think our job is done. We must stay on top of budgets and plan expenses and savings on a daily basis in order to be prepared for the future. But like the stressed parent who has so many balls up in the air with their kids, sometimes a little help can make a huge difference. To take the pressure off, that's when Booth can help. If you find that you want to spend a little less time managing your personal finances and a little more time enjoying life. We're here. And to all the dads out there, Happy Father's Day. I'm Marcie Booth. Let's talk about the changes you need. Boothmaine.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a doctor in the community, I've

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

known about Black Bear Medical for many years.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And when I heard that they were

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

starting to do something new and innovated, I got very excited because I know

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

that people who are interested in the health of the people of Maine are.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, they're an innovative group.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So today we have with us in

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

the studio Mike Chapman who is the director of marketing and sales and Jim Greatorex who is the president of of

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Premier Sports Health which is a division of Black Bear Medical.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thanks so much for coming in here today and having a conversation with me about this exciting new work that you're doing at your store.

Jim Greatorex:

We're very excited to be here. Dr. Lisa yeah, thank you for having us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you're wearing these great shirts. You know the Black Bear Medical, I was in your store and this whole idea of the Black Bear, I mean it's very Maine. You've been in the business 25 years here in Maine. So talk to me about that.

Jim Greatorex:

Well, Black Bear Medical started out as a little tiny store in Forest Ave. And through the years we've grown to now our third location which is down on Marginal Way, we have 13,000 square feet, a 5,500 square foot showroom which is full of lots of innovative health related products. We have certainly we're known for, for

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

being

Jim Greatorex:

there for the seniors to stay at home and be safe. And then we now have our new division which is our Premier Sports Health, I think we might have made up that word. We're pretty excited about that. And in that division we have products for people who are active athletes. They are people who want to get back into the game. Maybe they have some pain related issues that are keeping them from doing it. And we have some holistic pain products which we're also very excited about that work and they help people get back in the game.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what you've had to offer before and you still offer this is still big part of what you do were ways to help people stay in their homes longer, help older people, maybe sicker people, people who had needs like wheelchairs and you know, durable medical equipment they would call it. Now you're getting towards people who they're out and about. You want to keep them out and about, out of their homes, doing active things. And it's a slightly younger group in

Mike Chapman:

general, I would think it Is the demographic, you know, I think prior to bringing in some of these new products was 55 plus. And now we're looking to focus on the 25 to 55 market as well. Staying active. Products that will help people stay pain free and support their well being.

Jim Greatorex:

One of the new product lines that we're very excited about is sports compression products. And you may have seen in the Olympics, many of the athletes wearing sleeves and what compression can do. And a compression product is basically, basically a sleeve that is tight and you wear it. Generally it's used on your lower extremities. And what it does is it helps your body get the fluids to go through it at a 40% more efficient rate. So if you're in an athletic event that has some endurance involved, you may see your endurance increase due to your. The compression helping your body with the blood flow and the fluids going through, getting all the way back up to your heart from your legs.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this is something that as a physician I've used for many years is this RICE algorithm, which was always rest, ice, compression, elevation for an injured body part. And so you're talking about this compression element that's to help healing, but also to help people's performances.

Jim Greatorex:

It helps performance. There are actually products that help people before they are in an athletic event during and recovery afterwards. There's a lot of, especially socks that you can wear afterwards that will make your recovery period be probably twice as quick as it might be without. And quite frankly, in Europe, you know, compression stockings are used from birth. I mean, they put their children into the long colored black socks. That's why you see the Europeans walking around. We make fun of them with their long black socks and their shorts and their sneakers. And quite frankly, if you really take a look, they got healthier legs than we do. So they may know something we don't.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You brought with you some of these products. I think you've talked about some of them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have some strength tape also.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

In addition, it looks like. Is that a triathlete suit?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are some of the things that you're carrying that you'd like to tell the people who are listening about? Because I think they might find it useful given the number of really fit and well individuals who like to listen to our show.

Mike Chapman:

Yeah. So one of the things that we've started to carry is, which most folks may have heard of going to PT is Kinesiology Tape. And this actually is through a company called LifeStrength, and it's called Strength Tape. And we have started carrying this it's good for any type of injuries on the knee, shoulder, things where you may have pulled a muscle. And what it does is it helps keep your muscles in place and help have the memory to heal in that place place rather than to be out and strained and irritated. So this is a cheap way, inexpensive way, I should say, to help support strains and pulls and things that could need physical therapy. But this is a way to manage it at home and keep you doing the things that you want to do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Or if people have been to physical therapy and they've had it taped before and they know generally where it needs to go, then it's something that they could continue doing on their own. And that's another thing that we saw in the Olympics. I remember seeing the volleyball players with all the stuff all over their shoulders and wondering what that was. And it was the kinesiology tape, right?

Mike Chapman:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And so what else do you have?

Mike Chapman:

So we did bring in some of our compression apparel. So we think of compression oftentimes and we've mentioned stockings, but we also have full suits for folks that are doing endurance and marathons or triathlons. We have cycling shorts.

Jim Greatorex:

There's also ski socks, which. Having good blood flow through your feet when you ski. A lot of people are cold with their feet. And actually I've used them. I just started using them this year. And it's a big difference in how comfortable your feet are. And it helps keep them warmer with the compression socks for your ski boots.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's good to hear, because my feet always get cold when I'm skiing, and sometimes it keeps me from skiing. So maybe that's the. The idea is not to stop doing what I'm doing, but to change it and to add in something that might be helpful.

Mike Chapman:

Well, we had one of our first purchases. They wrote a testimonial, the gentleman oftentimes or pretty much always will have cold feet, and they don't warm up until the afternoon and never can get a good fellow fit in his boot. And he purchased a pair of the skiing compression socks and made sure to write us a testimonial the next Monday and told us that he did not have the same reaction. His feet were warm, he felt comfortable in his boot, felt refreshed at the end of the day. So it's nice to hear testimonials that folks are actually using the products and getting the results that they're intended to. So we also have cycling shorts, which are obviously, you know, there's a lot of that going on out there. Folks that are Cycling, staying active again. We want to be able to be the place where they come to get the expertise they need and the products that they're looking for.

Jim Greatorex:

We are competitively priced and generally speaking, with cycle shorts or with any of these garments, you can get them at a local sporting goods, but they're not compression. And graduated compression means that it's like tighter at the bottom and it gradually gets less compression as it goes up your body. A lot of the brand name products that are out there now are just one compression and they're okay. But this is actually taking it a step further to the next step up and the next quality.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this is something that in medicine we use all the time. After surgery, we'll use compression socks on a patient because we don't want them to get a blood clot. And now they're actually taking this information and they're moving it from helping sick or post surgical patients get well to let's help well people be even more well or, you know, improve their performance.

Jim Greatorex:

As you've talked about, I actually wear the, I mean, most people think about compression socks, they think about their grandmother with the big seam going up the back and, and that, oh my goodness, I never want to wear that, have to wear that. Well, from a general health standpoint, it's great for your legs. I'm still active. I'm in my early 50s and I still run, I still play sports. And I'll tell you a day that I'm going to run, I'll always wear my compression socks beforehand. And there's a big difference in the, and how great my legs feel during the run. So it's, you know, they help your performance and they're comfortable and now they're even stylish, which is very important. You got to make the colors match.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You know, I think that is really important because I know when I was pregnant quite a while ago, they would have me wear these stockings to prevent just swollen feet because I was being a doctor and on my feet a lot. They were not stylish. They were not stylish stockings at all. And it really kind of cut down on my clothing choices. So I think for people who are wanting, who are young and active and want to stay healthy, to have these sort of options available now is really great. What else do you have there?

Mike Chapman:

So we also, we have carried bracing products all along, so thinking ankle, knee bracing, back brace. But what we've discussed, decided to do is up the quality level of the bracing that we carry. So when folks are looking for that brace that they want because their ACL is torn and they don't want to get surgery or they can't afford to get surgery. We have braces available for that type of injury that can support the knee, continue the activity. We have a gentleman that purchased a knee brace because he does not have an ACL and he continues to ski. So he needs a high end knee brace. But we also even have the, you know, the knee braces for folks that stay active, they don't have osteoarthritis, they don't have, you know, the ACL injury, but it's for prevention of that. So if you're playing basketball, you're playing football or baseball, you know, high impact potential sports where you could, you know, face an injury. This is helping to protect the ACL and other ligaments within the knee. So we've gone from just more of a good brace to a good, better best lineup. And we feel pretty happy about the quality of products that we have in the bracing department.

Jim Greatorex:

Ankles is also a key joint that is frequently injured and the, the level of product available is somewhat limited in the low end. And so we've really got some nice new technology for ankle bracing that we're excited about also.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How can people find out about what you're doing at Premier Sports Health and Black Bear Medical?

Mike Chapman:

Well, we currently have everything on our black bearmedical.com website. We do have a website in process specifically for Premier Sports Health and it will be premiersportshealth.com where we will have all of our sports medicine products on there as well as a shopping cart. So folks that come in get measured for what they need and they want to buy recurring orders, they would be able to do that right through our shopping cart. And we also are doing, getting out there and promoting it through all different forms of media, making sure folks know that we're not serving just the elderly demographic now. We're opening up to a new younger demographic. And our brand is not just for, you know, stay at home products. It's about getting out and being active. So, you know, you'll see us, you'll see us on the radio, hear us on the radio, you'll see us on tv, you'll see us on the website. I'm sure print media, you'll see us out there, but you're welcome to come in anytime. We'd love to show folks around the store. And it's very common when folks come in the store, they either don't know about us because they haven't needed our products or they only think of us as, you know, the elderly, stay at home type products. So it's fun to bring people in the store and show them the new products.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And your store is right off of Marginal?

Mike Chapman:

Yeah, we're located right next to World Gym on 275 Marginal Way. We also have a store in Bangor as well that's carrying these products. And then eventually we're hoping to bring it down to our New Hampshire store and open up a retail location down there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we've been speaking with Mike Chapman,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

who is the director of marketing and sales, and Jim Greatorex, who is the

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

president of Premier Sports Health, a division

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

of Black Bear Medical.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thanks for coming in on our Father's Day show and talking to us about the ways that we can use some of your products to stay healthy and be out there in the world.

Jim Greatorex:

Thanks for having us.

Mike Chapman:

Yeah, thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hour is to help make connections between the health of the individual and the health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.

[Unidentified voice]:

There was a time that I spent about a four year period of my life I spent in the desert in the Sonoran Desert. And I would fly out there three or four times a year and spend about a week with my shaman. I had a shaman at that time and he taught me how to see nature. He taught me everything that I wasn't seeing. I'm going to read to you something out of the Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram. And I think it's very profound and speaks to us what a shaman really is and what a shaman actually does. The shaman acts as an intermediary between the human community and the larger ecological field, ensuring that there is an appropriate flow of nourishment not just from the landscape to the human inhabitants, but from the human community back to the local earth. The relationship between human society and the larger society of beings is balanced and reciprocal. This is essentially what a shaman does, sort of a midwife, I guess you might say, between land and community. And it's important to know that we all have a little shaman in all of us and be aware of that wisdom and that piece of us that really can understand and meld with nature and understand nature. I'm Ted Carter and if you'd like to contact me, I can be reached@tedcarterdesign.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

At the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we believe we are helping to

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

build a better world with the help of many. We like to bring to you people who are examples of those building a

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

better world in the areas of wellness, health and fitness.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

To talk to you today about one of these fitness is Jim Greaterix, the president of Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here's Jim.

Jim Greatorex:

I want to invite you into Black Bear Medical to see the latest new pain relief product out there called the Laser Touch one. This is a two minute device which works on muscle, tissue and nerve pain with tremendous results. After two minutes, 93% of the people receive decreased pain and in some instances no pain. Come on in and see for yourself. I'm Jim Greatorex, President of Black Bear Medical. Come on in and see our trained staff down at 275 Marginal Way and at www.blackbearmedical.com.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I really love the fact that here

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

in Maine we have high quality, high caliber people trying to make sure that we keep our athletes in shape and

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

also keep the people of Maine in shape so that we're able to go out and enjoy healthy, active lives. And two such individuals who are participating in this are Jared Buzzel who is the Physical therapy manager at the OA Performance center and Stan Schofield who is the manager of the Parisi Speed School,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

also in the OA Performance Center. And I know you're going to tell me a little bit about what the OA Performance center and the OA Sports center really are all about. So thanks for coming in and talking to me today. And let's start with you Stan. Tell me what it is that you do and, and what is the OA Performance Center?

Stan Skolfield:

So the OA Performance center was actually created as a way for OA Centers for Orthopedics to really round out the sports medicine continuum. OA Centers for Orthopaedics as you may or may not know, we are a one stop shop when it comes to orthopedics and sports medicine. We have the ability to, you know, if you need orthopedic care, we have physicians for that. If you need surgery, we have that we have casting, bracing, mri, we have sports physical therapy. But one of the things that we were lacking was a way to prevent those injuries from happening as well as a way to really help athletes reach the next level. So a few years back we decided, hey, let's open up this sports center to really address some of the injury prevention needs, some of the youth obesity problem going on, and a way to really bring athletes to a higher level. So I actually run the performance part of that center.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Jared, what do you do over at the OA Sports Center?

Jared Buzell:

I am the manager of the physical therapy center. Within the sports complex we see a wide gamut of patients from the very young, 5, 6, 7 year old athletes just getting into sports all the way through adults. And it's not just your typical what you think of an athlete. As we are seeing, yes, we're seeing the high caliber college professional athletes, but we're also seeing kind of the everyday walker that just wants to get out there, wants to pick their grandchild up and may have a sore shoulder and can't do that. So we want to run a broad gamut of, we have a broad gamut of clientele that we see. And so I manage the staff there. We have six therapists within that building and I also have a pretty stay pretty involved in treating as well within the building.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You both come at athletic performance from a slightly different angle. Stan, you have a background as an athletic trainer and Jared, you have a background in physical therapy. What are the differences between those two fields and what are the similarities?

Jared Buzell:

Physical therapy and athletic trainers work very closely together in the profession. In the state of Maine, physical therapists typically are the ones that will, in a clinic type setting, do the evaluation and kind of set the treatment plan. Whereas athletic trainers, they can be very well versed in evaluative techniques and carry out those treatment plans. And a lot of times the athletic trainers are more kind of the first responders with injury. They may be on the field dealing with that initial injury and whatnot.

Stan Skolfield:

Yeah, the best way I describe it is usually athletic trainer like myself. I deal everything from emergency on field management of an injury to the prevention of injury to assessments where I'm going to help them, weave them through kind of the medical system. Who do you need to see for a physician if you need to see one, help coordinate the rehabilitation all the way to preventing the injury, maybe some nutrition, all the way up to performance aspect, you know, and the physical therapist, they're more specialized. Hey, when somebody needs some specialized rehabilitation, that's where they're the expert. So it's, I'm a little bit more of a broad spectrum but these guys are really dived down into, hey, here's what they need to do to get back from their injury.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Stan, you've worked not only with the University of Southern Maine, but also with the Boston Red Sox organization. And now you've come back to something which I think is more of the common person. What sort of prompted that decision to go back to really be more, I don't know, in the weeds with this?

Stan Skolfield:

Well, like you said, I've worked at a number of different levels. I've worked from the professional athlete all the way to collegiate, all the way to the high school setting. And you know, one thing I've realized over the years being an athletic trainer is, you know, obviously getting into it. I really enjoy helping people, you know, and while the professional athlete, you know, everybody sees that, hey, that's the really sexy thing to do, the most rewarding thing is actually just working with your everyday common athlete. Some conversations I've had with different parents, I think one of the biggest gifts that you can give somebody is to help their child, you know, either overcome an injury or actually take them from somebody who's not really that great of an athlete to all of a sudden that kid's going from riding the bench to now they're making varsity, you know, and just the feeling and the reward you get from seeing them accomplish that, that's what makes me happy. And that's why I think I've really kind of gone into the field and in this performance center.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And what would you offer to parents as far as perspective when it comes to this? Let's start the kids early. Let's get them in on their, you know, this Malcolm Gladwell's idea of having to have 10,000 hours to be amazing by the time you're to trying 20.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What can you offer as perspective?

Stan Skolfield:

I would say, you know, when it, you know, that book is kind of double edged sword, you know, I like to say because while that book says one thing, a lot of the evidence, if you really read into the research, actually contradicts that, you know, and one of the things that I say to parents like, you know, for every Tiger woods you see out there, there's a hundred kids that didn't make that, that are really upset with their parents, that they actually pushed them and drove them and made them do all those golf lessons or really pushed them to stay with one sport and they're totally burned out by the time they're 1617 years old, and they want nothing to do with it. So be very careful with that. Make sure you allow these kids, expose them to different sports. We know just from the research that some of the best athletes, and if you remember when you were growing up, some of the best athletes in your school, they weren't just great at one sport, they were great at two or three sports. Let's not forget, hey, Tom Brady. Tom Brady was a great football player, but he was at Michigan State for a baseball scholarship too. You know, Michael Jordan, not just a great basketball player, good golfer and played a little baseball. So remember, when it comes to being a great athlete, just don't specialize in a singular sport too early because you'll burn those kids out.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's interesting to me that we have the OA Performance center and the Sports center here in Saco, Maine. I mean, we're really interested in helping people perform at the highest level possible. And whether that's as an athlete or whether just as an individual. Why is this so important to have this here in Maine?

Jared Buzell:

I think location kind of where we, when we looked around and kind of saw where there was a need for this location, really worked in regards to OA's mission. You know, our home office here is here in Portland on Sewell street, where we have physical therapy, we have physician services, we have surgery center, mri, X ray, all that. And then we've tried to really reach out. So Saco was our first satellite clinic, basically. And as Stan mentioned earlier, this is where we really wanted to encompass that performance aspect that we were missing. And having it there lets us reach out to athletes kind of in the southern Maine area, still get the athletes from the greater Portland area. We have athletes that come up from New Hampshire to train at the center. We've even seen some folks travel from New Hampshire, Massachusetts to have physical therapy with us. So it lets us reach out to those athletes or that population. We've also since opened sites in Wyndham and in Brunswick. We don't have that performance model at those sites, but same thing. Our goal was to kind of reach to the south, reach to the west, reach to the north so that

[Unidentified voice]:

it

Jared Buzell:

would make it easier access for folks that get injured and need help.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I appreciate all that you're doing. As the mother of three children who do three seasons worth of sports and one who's in college now and has made it through in a healthy way. And also as a runner myself, I know how important it is that this prevention aspect and the high performance aspect is being brought to the State of Maine. So we've been speaking with Jared Buzzel, who is the Physical Therapy Manager at the OA Performance center, and Stan Schofield, who is the manager of the Parisi Speed School at the OA Performance Center. Thank you so much for all the work you're doing and for coming in and talking to us today.

Jared Buzell:

Thanks for having us.

Stan Skolfield:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 92, Sports Medicine, airing on Father's Day. Our guests have included Dr. John Herzog, Jim Greatorex and Mike Chapman, Jared Buzzel and Stan Schofield. For more information on our guests, visit drlisabelisle.com for more information on the events I mentioned earlier, the 2013 Taste of the Nation or the Maine Home + Design show, visit themainmag.com the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our E. Newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and read my take on health and well being on the Bountiful Blog. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also, let us put that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle hoping that you have enjoyed our show on Sports medicine. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day and happy Father's Day to my father and all fathers and father figures out there. May you have a bountiful life.

[Unidentified voice]:

Sam.

Dr. John Herzog:

Sa.