Sunday, December 27, 2009

Back Pain


The common perspective amongst individuals in the general public is that Chiropractic treats back pain. Yes! It is true that people who seek chiropractic care for back pain do yield great results. However, the fact of the matter is, their low back pain may have improved without chiropractic intervention. For some, general rest, acupuncture, or hot/cold packs may have had the same positive results. The important thing to know is that there is no cook book recipe or formula that is designed to be effective for every episode of back pain. As research advances so must our thought process in dealing with the condition. For years, the medical community has prescribed weeks of bed rest for the treatment of low back pain. Today however, we know that bed rest may tend to make the pain worse. We now understand that the quicker we get the connecting muscles of the spine active and balanced, the better outcome is expected in the patients.

Recent research has shown that eighty percent of all low back complaints are linked to the muscles, ligaments and disks. All of which leads to an abnormal load being placed on the spine resulting in an inflammatory process and degenerative changes or arthritis. Other conditions causing low back pain include herniated disks as well as unrelated disease in the back area, for example, digestive or kidney problems, or even cancer. From the multitude of causes for low back pain, how can we be sure of what treatment is most effective. No one knows exactly. Individuals take aspirin for relief of low back pain, yet do not know the effects or level of toxicity introduced by doing so. If there is a cheaper and less toxic approach to aspirin and surgery should that not be perused?

As mentioned earlier, chiropractic is not a treatment for low back pain. However, chiropractic patients experience great results in the relief of their low back pain from care. How is that the case? Simple! A healthier body adapts and functions better than a compromised one. When we do something good to maintain our health, the whole body responds as a whole. Such things as a good night's sleep and exercise are effective for decreasing low back pain, not because they are the treatments, but rather they are good things for the whole body. Chiropractic as well is good for the whole body. Get your spine checked regularly for subluxation and express health.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Chiropractic and Kids


It is common in today’s society for individuals to blame an ailment on the effect of a bad night’s sleep, a sudden change in the temperature, or a lack of appropriate nutrients throughout one’s day and so on. With the exception of forceful external encounters, such as a gunshot, sudden falls, car accidents, or a slip off of a ladder, we do not suddenly become ill. Disease is not a spontaneous process; it is the result from long term micro trauma, negligence, and abuse that manifests itself collectively over time. When we began to experience a lapse in health, the fact of the matter is that it has been building up for quite some time.

Because of such a fact is the exact reason while children should receive regular chiropractic care. Recent research has made known that 80% of young children encounter their first subluxation during the birthing process. The sad thing is, many of these children will go well into their young adult years or even their entire lifetime with that same interference impeding normal function of the nervous system. Even for the other 20% who are fortunate enough to have been spared during the birthing process, there are still hurdles that we encounter throughout childhood. How many times does a little one fall while learning to walk? Or older kids, how often do they fall out of bed, off a bike, out of a tree, fight with siblings, or encounter the rigors of early child hood sports?

The result from all of the things mentioned above is inevitable risk for subluxation. When these are not corrected, they will begin to take a negative toll on the body making it difficult to fight off disease, concentrate, and less able to coordinate and harmonize the body. It will make it more challenging to clean and rid the body of toxins, suppressing the body’s function.

Isn’t the adjustment too forceful for children? This is a question that a lot of people have when speaking of pediatric chiropractic care. The answer is NO. Each person is adjusted in accordance to their size, age, health complaint and subluxation. Children, because of their small stature, coupled with time and the fact that the results of negligence and abuse have not yet taken its toll on their young bodies, will benefit more because the problem is being addressed before the results are able to sit in. Kids need chiropractic care.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Consistent Chiropractic Care


When we speak of Chiropractic patients, we divide them into two categories. The first category that we mention is a group of patients who understand that Chiropractic can help facilitate health in an ailing body. These patients initially come into the office with some type of physical problem that has been affecting them for quite sometime. They know that the adjustment will remove any Vertebral Subluxation that may be causing impedance in the function of their bodies. These patients understand that we are not treating a specific symptom, but rather are affecting the overall expression of the nervous system. Often times, they come in to have their Vertebral Subluxations corrected and find that their body is healing and functioning at a higher level than when they initially came. Millions of people have become healthy through the drugless approach of Chiropractic. Unfortunately, there are a number of people who do not make the most of chiropractic care.

The other group understands that the same force that allowed the body to multiply and develop from a union of two cells did not leave the body to be defenseless against its environment. These patients do not seek chiropractic care as merely a means of recovering from a sickness or postural abnormalities, but more importantly as a health maintenance intervention. They understand that pain and symptoms are a process that develops over time and that regular adjustments regardless of how you physical feel is important. These patients pursue a higher level of fulfillment in health, because they understand that these regular adjustments can allow you to deal with stress better, have more energy, coordination, and flexibility. That raises the question, does all of this really happen from regular adjustments. Yes! Each thing mentioned above, every single part of our body (organ, tissue, and cell) is influenced and controlled by our nervous system. The biggest difference is that these patients understand the importance of chiropractic care while being healthy, as opposed to the former, waiting until an ailment has sat in.

As a health care facilitator, we would much rather see the second group of patients. Everyone needs chiropractic care and we clearly would not turn away someone with a medical need for the removal of a vertebral subluxation. My biggest desire is to see hundreds of individuals becoming actively involved in their own health and in addition encouraging family and friends to do the same.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The healthier approach


The prevention of disease seems to be of major concern to many people these days. The public is beginning to exercise to prevent heart problems and cut down on cholesterol to prevent cardiovascular disease. They are quitting their smoking habits to prevent cancer, and on and on. Prevention of disease, however, perpetuates a very serious misconception concerning disease, which is that it has a single cause. If a lack of vitamin C was the cause of the common cold, taking vitamin C would prevent it. While resistance is dependent upon vitamin C, it also depends upon a number of other factors. That is why three children in a family can all drink their orange juice and two will get a cold and one will not. Resistance depends upon how well the body is working, how well it can utilize vitamin C, the amount of rest a person gets and, of course, the frequency of coming in contact with the virus. There are probably a dozen other factors as well, many of which we do not even know and some, like genetics, we cannot control.


If exercise prevented heart attacks, well trained individuals such as Jim Fixx, the guru of running, would not have had a fatal heart attack on one of his daily runs. There are people who smoke two packs of cigarettes a day for thirty years and do not get lung cancer. Conversely, there are people who never smoke a cigarette and die of lung cancer.


The point is this. There is only one thing that is truly effective in preventing disease that is staying healthy! The more things you do to promote your good health, the greater the likelihood of not ending up with a disease. Exercise is important, but it is only one piece of the health picture. Vitamin C and all the other aspects of good nutrition are another piece. Avoiding poisons like cigarette smoke is another. The numbers of aspects in your health that you address are directly related to the probability of being healthy. Of course, maintaining the integrity of your nervous system is a vital part of health. That is where chiropractic comes in. You must correct vertebral subluxations because they interfere with the proper function of the nerve system. Besides directly improving the nerve supply, the removing of subluxations also indirectly affects the other aspects of good health. If there is interference in your nervous system, you may not be able to properly utilize good nutrition or get the maximum benefits from exercise and rest. Your body will be less resistant to the poisons you cannot help but be exposed to, like second-hand cigarette smoke. If you want to prevent disease, the proper attitude is not just doing certain things to prevent certain diseases. That is a futile approach. There are just too many diseases. The proper approach is to do those things necessary to be healthy. Perhaps if everybody was doing everything necessary to promote and maintain health, we would not have to worry about preventing disease. That seems to be the most intelligent idea.


Health is the outcome of making the decision to live a healthy life

Monday, November 9, 2009

The Price of Health


There is an old saying, “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die to get there.” A similar statement could be made concerning health. In almost any survey taken asking people what they wanted most out of life, good health is one of the top three things on the list. The only two things that ever top it are happiness and good family relationships. Yet how many of us allow other less important things to keep us from attaining maximum health. Like happiness, health does not come by luck. It is true that hereditary factors are important to good health but most people can be healthy in spite of hereditary weakness. Conversely, hereditary strengths will not overcome a failure to take care of you.


Most people who come into a chiropractic office indicate a desire to be healthy. Unfortunately, they often do not realize that it will take some effort on their part. The average person’s experience with medicine has led them to believe that they will be made healthy by what the doctor does to them or what he gives them. They can just sit back, do nothing or at most, remember to take their medication every four hours. While this approach may be relatively effective in the treatment of disease, it has virtually nothing to do with health. For the most part, disease treatment is a passive activity. Health maintenance or health restoration is largely an active endeavor. Therein lies the problem. Sitting back and doing nothing will not promote or maintain health. Simply hoping or wishing for health will not make you healthy. It must be actively pursued. A choice must be made. Good, nutritious, health-promoting food is available, but then so is junk food. You must make the decision as to what kind you are going to eat and then make the extra effort to get it. Exercise is not a passive activity. You cannot get it by just watching Jane Fonda videos.


Chiropractic is not a passive activity either. While it is true the patient lies on the table and relaxes, it is the body that makes the adjustment. The chiropractor introduces a force to the spine and the body’s muscles actively move the bone to exactly where it belongs. Further, the benefits of chiropractic care occur after the adjustment, like exercise and eating, they are far reaching and unlike treatments, they are not designed for short-term, immediate effects. It is true you may feel good after eating a good meal or after a good work out. You may also feel good right after a chiropractic adjustment, but the real benefits are the long-term ones. When the body is working better it can actively promote health and well being and add years to life. There is another aspect that makes chiropractic care an active approach. The patient must make the commitment to care. The chiropractor cannot give you a bottle of adjustments and say, “Take one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next six weeks.”The patient must make the willful decision to come in, be regular and follow the program. The chiropractor cannot follow you around or take you by the hand.


Do you really want to be healthy? Sadly, too many people do not want to pay the price, which is time, money and effort. Happiness does not come by accident. Fame and fortune are not a matter of luck. Similarly, you cannot expect to have good health unless you do those things necessary to attain it. Every individual has to establish his or her priorities. Is watching television more important than exercising for your health? Is saving money by eating poor quality food more important to you than spending the few dollars for good food? Is doing whatever you do that interferes with regular adjustments more important than your health? Only you can answer these questions and how you decide on these and other relative questions could very well determine your health, your happiness and your life.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

How is stress affecting you?


Your boss is getting on your nerves; you have to get a project finished but the phone keeps ringing; you still have not met the right person to marry to have the children you want so badly or you have children that are so bad you hardly want them; your car breaks down; your bills are piling up; your in-laws are coming to dinner; your mother says she never sees you anymore; you are overwhelmed by your cholesterol count, your sodium intake, your sugar intake and your fat intake; you or someone you know has cancer or aids and YOU’VE GOT STRESS!!!

There is simply no escaping it. Our lives and the world we live in are loaded with stress. More than 66% of all visits to a primary-care physician are for stress-related disorders. Every week 112 million people take medication for stress-related disorders. Job stress costs American industry more than 150 billion dollars yearly in absenteeism, lost productivity, accidents and medical insurance. It is worth noting that some stress may be good. Many people are more alert, more productive and consequently happier and healthier with a certain amount of stress. Beyond that, however, it stops contributing to your ability to function and starts inhibiting it.

Stress is a double-edged sword. Things going wrong produce stress and it cause things to go wrong. Stress over an extended period of time can make you quit your job; can lead you to depression or to drugs and alcohol. All of these can and will certainly affect your ability to perform, your ability to earn money and your quality of life.
We all need to do more to combat stress; we have to learn to find a balance in our work and personal lives. Certainly there are some things that you simply can not do anything about, for example, the unexpected death of a loved one, natural disasters and accidents. However, everyone can and should carefully examine their lives and make an honest attempt to reduce the stress-producing circumstances that make unnecessary demands upon them. Determine which things you can do something about, concentrate your time and energy on them and try to avoid the obvious ones. We should emphasize wellness, focus on the positive and relaxation, whatever the circumstance.


Chiropractic should also play an important role in your stress management. When a stress-inducing event occurs, muscles contract, breathing becomes faster and deeper, heartbeat increases and digestion is halted. This all occurs as a response to a nervous impulse. Continually contracted muscles will cause subluxation and being subluxated will lower your ability to deal with stress. Of course, just as different situations produce varying amounts of stress for different people, different stress management techniques will have varying degrees of effectiveness. Some may benefit from exercise while others respond to meditation, deep breathing or spending time on an enjoyable hobby. Chiropractic, however, can work for everyone because it removes nerve interference and interrupts the contracted muscle/increased stress cycle.


Chiropractic care coupled with positive thinking and other stress management techniques can create a sense of well-being and a zest for life and lead to a longer, more productive, happier and healthier life.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

How energized are you?


Why is it that some people seem to be able to go like the Energizer bunny and others can’t drag themselves out of bed in the morning? It is because all of us naturally have a varied amount of energy or vitality. Some of us were born with a 12-volt battery and some with only a six-volt. Some people simply have more energy than others. Often we classify these with a lot of energy as “Type-A personalities” or say they are “hyper,” but the fact is most of us would love to have the energy that they have, if only to be more productive. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done about that situation. It would seem though, with few exceptions, that everyone should have the potential to get out of bed in the morning and carry on the activities of a busy day without feeling like they are dragging an anchor behind them. Some people maintain that their lack of energy is due to not being able to get to sleep early enough. They just cannot get all their tasks done by a reasonable hour. For many of them, that inability is due to a lack of energy throughout the day that causes them to go at half speed. So the cycle continues until and unless they get more energy.

There are a few things one can do to have more natural energy. Most of those things are activities that we should be doing every day in order to be healthy. Eating good, nutritional food supplies the fuel that the body makes into energy. Proper rest allows the body to rejuvenate and recuperate from the day’s activities. Exercise is also important. There is another less known but equally necessary component to having the maximum amount of energy your body can have, that is a nerve system that is free of interference.

Whether you have a 12-or 6-volt battery running your body you will want to make sure that all the voltage available is getting through. You can put high-octane gasoline in your car but unless the electrical system is working properly, you car is not going to have any more power. Eating good food supplies the fuel, but your nerve system enables it to be turned into energy.

Regular chiropractic adjustments are absolutely essential to a properly functioning nerve system. When one of the bones subluxates (misaligns in a certain way), it interferes with the important message/energy flow to the organs and cells of the body. There is no way you can expect to have all the energy you were meant to have. Can your car get along on six cylinders instead of eight? Sure it can. Do you want it to? Probably not or you would have bought a six-cylinder car. Can your body get along with less than a full complement of natural energy? Sure it can but do you want it to? Like your car, a body that is not working as it should will eventually break down or develop some problem. Keep your nerve system free of vertebral subluxations and keep your energy level high.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Life, Health, Chiropractic


Life, Health, and Chiropractic

Life is the expression of existence. According to the scientific explanation, life is the response to stimuli, the ability to grow and become, and the adaptation of one to his or her surrounding environment. However, beneath the surface, life is much more than that. Life is built and maintained by the emotional ties built with others. We all go through the process of birth and death, but what about the time in between, how is our life being measured? Is it by the quality of our expression of life, or the quantity of life expressed through years.

If asked to be described by a random individual, health would simply be “the absence of pain or feeling good every day”. Although feeling good is a start, that is only grazing the surface. A deeper approach that is consistent with the modern world addresses the bodies function and the individuals overall well-being. According to Dorland’s Medical Dictionary: health is a condition of optimum physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmities. The understanding of this modern definition is contrary to past flawed thoughts. This definition covers all levels of wellness: physical, mental, and social. They all must be expressed in a congruent manner for an individual to truly express health.

Chiropractic embraces the approach that your body has the ability to heal itself from the inside out, just as it was made intelligently enough to grow from the union of two cells to a complex organism with trillions of cells, and the intelligence to close an open wound without the facilitation of a mental thought process to guide our bodies through the procedure. This healing is facilitated by your nervous system including the brain, brainstem, and spinal cord. This is the system that controls the function of every other organ system, tissue, and cell in your body. In 100 words, what is chiropractic? Aches and pains are signs that your body isn’t working right. Your brain, spinal cord and all your nerves control how your body works. Physical, chemical or emotional stresses produce a defensive posture. Muscles contract, locking spinal joints that pinch or irritate nearby nerves. Lack of nervous system integrity sets the stage for disease and ill health. A thorough examination helps chiropractors find these subluxations. Applying a precise force to stuck spinal joints helps the body right itself. Health usually returns as repeated visits restore nervous system integrity. That’s why chiropractic care has helped millions get well and stay well.

How are they connected?

Chiropractic facilitates health by not simply waiting until the individual has already begun to express symptoms of a dis-eased body, but rather through the promotion of wellness, and the maintenance of the nervous system. This nervous system is regulated with precise spinal adjustments to remove any interference in the function of this delicate organ system. When this approach is taken, it allows your body the ability to work as it was designed without the addition of drugs or surgeries and gives you a better expression of health. Overall, your life revolves around your health and if your health is compromised then you can’t enjoy life to its fullest. In addition, a greater expression of health leads to a greater expression of quality and quantity of life.