Tag: Back pain

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Back to School Health Essentials

With children across America gearing up to begin the school year, what better time to explore some ideas to help ensure your child starts the school year healthy and happy. The following are 3 Ways to Start the School Year Healthy:

1. Backpack Safety 101

When people think Chiropractic and back to school, the first thing that usually comes up is backpacks. Here’s what you need to know – most backpack problems occur from excessive weight, inappropriate fit, and incorrect wearing of the pack. Your child should carry no more than 10-15% of their body weight in their school bags. When a heavy weight (such as a book-stuffed backpack) is incorrectly placed on the shoulders, the weight’s force can pull a child backwards. To compensate a child may bend forward at the hips or arch the back which can cause the spine to compress unnaturally.

If your child uses the traditional backpack – urge them to wear both straps (Here’s what to look for when picking a backpack: two wide, padded shoulder straps / padded back / waist belt / multiple compartments). Although it’s worth noting that messenger bags or purses – despite potential problems – are usually the better choice for children. When used correctly, the strongest muscles in the body, the back and abdominal muscles, support the weight of the packs. If not too heavy and if they are used correctly the weight is then evenly distributed across the body. Continue reading “Back to School Health Essentials”

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The Chiropractic Advantage

I often explain to people who have never had any experience with chiropractors that we are essentially electricians for the human body. We focus on the communication pathway in the body – which is your nervous system. This is how your brain communicates with the rest of your body: The millions of messages are transported from your brain down your spine – where they exit and supply your muscles, organs, tissues and cells with essential information.

Think for a second about a luxury automobile. These vehicles utilize a central processor (a computer) that communicates with all areas of the vehicle. It knows if there is low tire pressure, when an oil change is needed and if there is a problem with the engine. Now what would happen if there was an interruption with that message? The result would be a less efficient automobile, or one that is not operating at an optimal level.

The same can be said for the body. This is the reason that Olympic athletes receive chiropractic care. It’s not for low back or neck pain, it is to ensure that they are operating at an optimal level – as efficient as humanly possible. After all, a fraction of a second can be the difference between a Gold or Silver medal. Luckily, There are now 28 chiropractors in the Olympic polyclinic – a multidisciplinary medical services team provided by the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games. Continue reading “The Chiropractic Advantage”

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How to Maintain Your Adjustment

The end goal of chiropractic care (at least in our office) is to retrain the spine to maintain its proper position so that the body can naturally heal and adapt to any problems that may occur in everyday life. This is why when you first begin chiropractic care, you will likely have to visit on a fairly frequent basis, but over time, your visits should occur less often and adjustments will likely be quite minor. This is a good thing. It means that your spine is, in fact, learning to retain its proper shape and position.

However, like any healthcare initiatives, caring for your adjustment is not just your chiropractor’s job. The patient needs to take responsibility and do what they can to maintain the adjustments they receive. Doing so will help expedite the spine’s retraining process, but it’s also just good practice for your body. After all, a backbone and spinal cord that are in the proper position provide optimal performance for your entire body, enabling you to live a healthy, happy, pain-free and productive lifestyle.

So what can you do to help maintain a chiropractic adjustment? Continue reading “How to Maintain Your Adjustment”

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Why It’s More Than a Back “Crack”

I must admit I cringe a bit every time I introduce myself as a Chiropractor and someone says “I love getting my back cracked”. The reason it is so disappointing is that “joint mobilization” (aka cracking) is the most insignificant part of what we do. In fact the only reason that anyone should receive a chiropractic adjustment is if there is pressure on their nerve system. Why? Because the nervous system controls and coordinates every aspect of your body. The millions of messages are transported from your brain down your spine, out to your organs, tissues and cells. The purpose of a chiropractic adjustment is to clear any interference in that pathway.

Just this month, we have had reports of an infertile couple conceiving, depression lifting, pain killers being thrown out, better sleep, numbness and tingling gone, sinus infections eliminated, improved digestion and better breathing. This doesn’t happen by “cracking a back”. This only happens when pressure comes off the central nervous system and the body begins to heal itself. Continue reading “Why It’s More Than a Back “Crack””
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Improve Your Golf Game with Chiropractic

Every spring and summer, patients are wondering how they can improve their golf game for the season. One word…Chiropractic. Golfers, by the nature of the game, develop asymmetrical conditions and therefore can benefit from chiropractic care. Such care can specifically help to restore balance and lay the foundation for high-level athletic performance.

Regular chiropractic adjustments can improve your game on many levels. The repetitive nature of the swing makes it critical that the muscles are at ease and the joints of the spine can be moving smoothly. Yes, eliminating low back pain helps the golf game, for sure, but improved bio-mechanical function of the body takes the game to the next level and helps shave strokes off your score.

Professional and amateur golfers turn to chiropractic care as one of the best strategies for maintaining health on and off the course and achieving the best possible performance. Household names including Tiger Woods, David Duval, and Padraig Harrington are just a few of the professional golfers who rely upon chiropractors. Lets find out why. Continue reading “Improve Your Golf Game with Chiropractic”