Month: May 2016

Have you seen those YouTube video compilations of people falling in spectacular ways? You probably have. We almost can’t help but laugh at the video footage, but of course, what happens next is no laughing matter. Falls like that can really hurt!

Yours doesn’t have to be as spectacular as some of the ones you’ll find on the videos mentioned earlier in order to be taken seriously, and should you suffer a fall, the first order of business is to make sure nothing’s broken. If you’re not absolutely certain, then head to your doctor’s office or the ER to get an X-ray so you know, because that’s going to determine your next steps in terms of treatment.

Assuming nothing’s broken, your next call should probably be to our chiropractic office. Between the time you place the call to our chiropractor’s office and the time of the appointment, be sure to apply ice packs to any parts of your body stiff, swollen, or sore, courtesy of the fall you suffered. That will help leach out the swelling and reduce inflammation, which will make it easier for us to treat you.

On the day of your appointment, you’ll be given a thorough exam, and be asked a number of questions about the circumstances surrounding the fall. Even if the details are a bit hazy (and they might be), answer as completely as you can, because this too, will ensure that your injuries are properly understood and treated.

Nobody likes being on the sidelines of life, and a painful fall can certainly put you there. The good news though, is that your chiropractor can help reduce, and ultimately eliminate the pain you’ll undoubtedly be in, in the days immediately following the fall, and can get you back in the game before you know it.

Let’s face it, for the overwhelming majority of us, foods like kale, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts aren’t the foods we tend to reach for when we get a sudden craving for a snack. They’re just not our go-to choices. If we eat them at all, we do it because we know they’re good for us. We tend to treat them as something of a necessary evil.

Wouldn’t it be great though, if we could retrain our brains (and our taste buds) to really, genuinely love foods like this? Actually, you can! Not only can you make it much more likely that your children will love the healthy stuff, it’s not too late for you either. Here are a few things you can do:

It Starts Before You’re Born
A portion of our food preferences come from the kinds of food our parents feed us, and that includes the nourishment we get before we’re born. If a pregnant woman eats plenty of broccoli, kale, spinach, and the like, those foods will alter the composition of the amniotic fluid that nourishes the child growing inside her, which leads directly to influencing tastes and preference after the child is born. The earlier you start feeding your child these kinds of foods, the better, and what could be earlier than this?

Masking
One of the reasons we (children and adults) dislike the healthy foods is the fact that many of them taste bitter. There are a variety of ways of masking the bitter flavor – everything from butter, to salt, to cream cheese. Try mixing the healthy foods you want to learn to love with these for a month or two, gradually reducing your use of the masking agent until you’re enjoying those foods plain.

Taste Is Relative
Finally, understand that taste is relative. Your taste buds grow accustomed to the foods you eat, and overtime, the foods you eat the most of become the “new normal.” If you cut out the sweets, and bulk up on the healthy foods, and you stick with that for at least three weeks, you’ll actually start to crave the foods you’re eating more of. The trick, of course, is in sticking with it long enough for that to happen!

The bottom line is, yes! It is absolutely possible to learn to love the foods that are the best for you, and there are lots of obvious benefits for doing so.

This question comes up more frequently than you might imagine, and the short answer is yes. Yoga, in any of its forms, will almost certainly help manage back pain, and will even play a major role in reducing, and ultimately eliminating it.

Yoga forms are fantastic ways to introduce low-impact, low-intensity stretching into your daily routine. The various positions you’ll adopt and hold, moving slowly from one position to the next are designed to gently work and strengthen nearly every muscle in your body.

The muscles in your back and abdominal region are the workhorses of your entire musculoskeletal system. As those muscles go, so goes the rest of your body. By practicing yoga regularly, you put yourself on the path of gradually building these muscles, and ultimately, giving yourself a much broader range of motion than you would otherwise have.

Yoga is especially beneficial for people aged 55 and up, who often suffer from periodic lower back pain and less pliable hamstring muscles. The yoga forms not only limber these muscles up, but also improve blood flow and circulation, which helps to not only nourish them, but rid the body of toxins, both of which make you feel better.

In addition to that, proper yoga forms help place the body into proper alignment, which improves both posture and balance. Perhaps the greatest benefit of practicing yoga, however, comes simply from the increased body awareness it gives you. The quiet, meditative state required for proper yoga exercise is ideally suited to stilling the voices in your head and truly listening to the messages your body is sending you. Once you are fully in tune with those messages, you’ll find that you’re better able to modify your routine to address issues you discover yourself, simply by listening more carefully to your body.

For people of any age, yoga is a wonderful form of exercise. If you’re too shy to take classes, you’ll find a plethora of helpful videos on the web.

If you’ve never been to a chiropractor’s office before, part of the reluctance to make your first visit may simply be the fact that you don’t have a clear idea of what to expect. This piece will shed some light on that, and help to demystify the process.

Your first visit is actually going to be quite similar to the initial visit to any doctor’s office. There are a few forms to fill out, including some data sheets that ask questions about your medical history, and any complaints you may be having now. Are you in pain now? If so, where? With charts and diagrams so you can point to the impacted areas and trouble spots, and augment that with written descriptions.

Once the paperwork is attended to, then comes the physical examination. Here, things begin to veer a bit from what you would see at a “regular” doctor’s office, because this exam will be centered on your spin and the overall alignment of your musculoskeletal system. X-rays will probably be taken, as these will enable the chiropractor and their staff to get an inside look at the soft tissue and the exact configuration (and potential damage) to your bones. For instance, if you have been in a car accident and are suffering back pain, the X-rays may reveal jagged edges on the discs of your spinal column, which are exacerbating the pain you’re feeling.

Once the initial examination has been completed, the chiropractor can begin custom-designing a treatment plan based on the findings of the exam. There are a variety of treatment options at the chiropractor’s disposal, but the most common are electro-stimulation, low-impact exercises, therapeutic massage, and of course, the “adjustments” that chiropractors are so known for.

That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? The bottom line is that a trip to the chiropractor’s office is a lot like a visit to any doctor’s office, and can be the thing that puts you on the short path to reducing and ultimately eliminating whatever pain you’re suffering from.

Sometimes, perhaps even often, the causes of neck pain are pretty obvious. After you’ve been in an auto accident, or if you took a hearty knock on the sports field, you don’t need to ask. It’s pretty easy to draw a straight line from that event to the pain in your neck. Sometimes though, it’s not quite so obvious. You may actually be surprised at some of the things that can cause neck pain. Here are just a few surprising examples:

The Tie You Wear

Here’s one for men. If you work in a professional environment and your dress code requires that you wear a tie, make sure it’s relatively loose. Often, men wear their neck ties too tight, and this can reduce blood flow and circulation to the muscles in your neck, which can lead to pain, cramping, and swelling. Most people don’t connect the dots and assume that it’s something to do with their posture. It’s true, posture is often a contributing factor, but don’t overlook the humble necktie, which could be causing more trouble than you imagine!

Flip-Flops

At the other end of the dress code spectrum, there’s the flip-flop. These summertime shoes are wildly popular, but really bad for your body. In addition to the fact that they have no cushioning or support for when you walk, because they are so open, you’re required to change the way you walk in them if you want to keep them on your feet. Your toes have to press downward to maintain contact, which pulls your posture forward. A couple hours walking in flip flops can give you an ache from your lower back all the way up to your neck.

Your Cellphone

How many times have you seen this scene – you walk past someone’s office, he or she is on the phone and typing, with the cell phone propped up by an exaggerated “shrug” motion, so he can keep it up next to his ear. It doesn’t take much of this before you develop a powerful, painful “kink in your neck.”

The bottom line is that the things we wear and the way we move our bodies throughout the day can have enormous impacts on our bodies. These impacts often manifest themselves in the form of pain, if we’re moving our bodies in unnatural ways, or constricting the flow of blood. It pays to pay attention.