Article Aggregator – Chiropractic

Has your child been complaining of frequent headaches, back and shoulder pain or upper arm pain?

If so, one of the most common causes of all those things is improper sleeping positions, but there may be another culprit: your child’s backpack.

These days, almost every kid at school has one, and they are undeniably handy. Not only can your child pack the day’s lunch inside, but all the books and other supplies he or she will need to get through the school day.

Unfortunately, the weight of all those books and other items can add up quickly, and the load might be more than your little one’s back, neck and shoulders can bear. There are two big things to watch for that can help you determine if the backpack is the culprit, or if it’s something else.

The first and most obvious sign that the backpack could be the culprit is how your child is carrying it.

While all the cool kids might be slinging their packs over one shoulder, this can easily be the root cause of the problem, because carrying the load in that position is unbalanced. If your child does this, they will automatically adjust their posture to accommodate. After a whole day of walking around like that, the backpack can easily lead to the kinds of pain described above.

The second isn’t as noticeable, but you should look for the signs. If the weight of the pack is leaving red marks in your child’s skin where the straps hit the shoulders, that’s a clear indication that the weight is sufficient to cause strain.

In the former case, correcting the problem is as simple as insisting that your child wear his or her pack properly, with the straps over both shoulders. It might not be as cool, but it will certainly solve the pain problem.

In the latter case, it’s as simple as lightening the load. Find out which items aren’t absolutely essential, and if any of the pack’s contents can be off-loaded into your child’s school locker for part of the day to keep the weight manageable.

Do that, and you’ll minimize the risk of your child suffering from back, neck, shoulder and arm pain.

Each year, more than two million Americans visit the ER to have injuries sustained via slips and falls treated. Millions more go untreated, which is unfortunate, because although the vast majority of falls don’t present any outward signs of trauma, that doesn’t mean that no damage has occurred.

As with any injury, the best practice is to treat any slip or fall seriously and at least have a medical or chiropractic evaluation. A trained professional can take X-rays and evaluate the full extent of the injury, recommending a treatment plan that will get you on your feet and have you back to 100% much more quickly than simply taking matters into your own hands.

The sad reality is that in most cases, when someone suffers from a fall, they simply guess at what treatment might be best. Just as often, people simply try to “walk it off” and hope for the best. That can work in some cases, but it’s worth the time and effort to get your injury checked out by a professional.

In terms of chiropractic treatments, the two most common are therapeutic massage and chiropractic adjustment. Once your chiropractor has had a chance to perform a thorough evaluation, they can recommend the right treatment for you and greatly speed your healing process.

While this is always a good idea, it’s’ especially important where older people are concerned. The elderly often can’t bounce back from injury as quickly as they once did, and a fall you may have shrugged off in your 30’s or 40’s can really set you back in your 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s. It’s simply not worth the risk!

All that to say, any time you suffer from any kind of slip or fall, it pays to have it checked out right away. While it’s possible that no serious damage was done, it’s also possible that your inaction can lead to much more serious problems later.

Do you want to keep your face young-looking and wrinkle free, but rebel against the idea of spending thousands on facelifts and other types of cosmetic surgeries?

If so, you’re not alone, and the reality is that many people don’t realize that the muscles in your face are just like every other muscle in your body – they need exercise too! Below, we’ll outline a few different exercises designed to keep your face looking young and vibrant.

• Bewitched! – If you remember the old TV show “Bewitched,” then you’ll probably recall the main character wiggling her nose to cast her spells. Do the same thing. Wiggle your nose as much as you can from side to side. Ten reps for each side equal one set. Do three sets.

• Say Cheese! – Press three fingers firmly against both sides of your face, then smile as broadly as you can, using the muscles in your face to press against your fingers. Hold the smile for a slow five count.

• Surprise! – Pucker your lips in the shape of an “O.” Hold for a slow five count, then smile as broadly as you can and hold that for a five count.

• Quizzical – Raise your eyebrows as high as you can and hold that position for a slow five count.

Your face consists of more than fifty muscles, and keeping them all toned plays a major role in keeping you looking younger. That, in turn, will keep you feeling younger. If you do five sets of each of these exercises every day, you’ll keep your face looking years younger. Your friends and family will be amazed!

While these exercises will do your face a world of good, if you want to take things to the next level, try facial yoga. Believe it or not, that’s an actual “thing!”

It probably won’t come as a great surprise, but the answer to the question in the title of this piece is, of course, yes. What may surprise you, however, is just how bad soda really is for you.

Not all soft drinks are created equally, but if we use one of the world’s most popular as a baseline, you’ll get a pretty clear picture of what they do. So, let’s take a closer look at Coca-Cola, the most widely consumed soda in the world.

First and foremost, you should know that the drink is actually much sweeter than it seems to your taste buds, containing a staggering ten teaspoons of sugar in every can. That’s’ nearly twice as much as the WHO (World Health Organization) recommends for an entire day’s sugar consumption.

In fact, your body’s first natural reaction to that much sugar is to vomit it back up and purge it from your system, so why doesn’t that happen?

The answer lies in the phosphoric acid included in the drink. This helps mask the sickening sweetness and tricks your brain into letting you keep it down. Once it’s in your system, things go from bad to worse in a hurry.

In less than half an hour after consumption, your blood sugar levels spike, your body releases insulin, and all those calories are turned into fat. Within the hour, your body has fully absorbed the caffeine, which raises your blood pressure as dopamine begins to flood through you.

Dopamine is the “feel good” chemical in the brain, and is the reason Coke is so addictive. It is even more addictive than heroine, according to recent studies, which explains why we can’t seem to stop drinking the stuff, and none of Coke’s competitors are any better.

All of this shows that however bad you thought soft drinks were, it’s worse than you imagined. Kick the soda habit and drink more water if you want to be healthy!

You may have experienced growing pains when you were younger. If you did, then you probably remember what an agony they were.

Did you know that despite the fact that growing pains account for almost 10 percent of pediatric office visits, no firm cause has ever been established for them?

Unfortunately, it’s an area that there’s been very little research on, and what little work has been done on the topic has focused almost exclusively on the legs. In a way, that makes sense, because that’s where the pain is usually centered, but chiropractors take a different view.

Chiropractors look at the whole body, not just individual parts. Because of that, they take a comprehensive, biomechanical approach to the problem, and the reality is that young spinal cords grow very quickly, stressing a child’s entire body. That stress is bound to put pressure on the rest of the body as it tries valiantly to compensate for the radical changes it’s going through. Unfortunately, that can sometimes lead to the phenomenon we commonly call growing pains.

The good news is that there are viable treatment options, and your child doesn’t have to suffer.

Too often, the go-to solution is to walk up and down the hall with your child, or give them a leg massage, but those things often have limited impact. Your chiropractor can recommend a course of treatment including spinal adjustment (if and as needed), massage and specific exercises that can not only minimize the pain itself, but also minimize the chances of it recurring.

Growing up is tough, and it’s also hard on your body, but your child doesn’t have to suffer. Your chiropractor has the tools, training and expertise to help keep those growing pains to an absolute minimum, and that’s great news for everyone.

Back pain is hands down the most common ailment in the country.

Virtually everyone has experienced some form of back pain at one point or another in their lives.

At the end of the day, almost all back pain manifests because there’s too much pressure on your spine.

Standing for extended periods, walking or running can all lead to or exacerbate such pain.

Sometimes, it’s a simple matter of poor posture that stresses your muscles, forcing them to move in ways they’re not accustomed to, or not meant to.

This can lead to small tears, or sprains, which can cause pain.

In other cases, the pain stems from compressed discs in your spine. The compression causes the nerves there to become pinched, resulting in that sharp, sudden pain you may be all too familiar with.

Finally, there are more serious problems such as ruptured discs, which can not only cause severe back pain, but also lead to problems with your legs and numbness over large portions of your body.

The first thing you should do if you experience pain caused by any of the above, is, of course, stop what you’re doing and take it easy for a few days.

Either heat or cold compresses can be used to help alleviate the pain in the short term. If the problem persists long term, a visit to your chiropractor can put you on the path to saying goodbye to back pain once and for all.

Your chiropractor can work with you to identify the root causes of the pain you’re experiencing and design a program that’s custom-tailored to your specific needs.

While that approach isn’t instantaneous, you’ll start feeling better a lot faster than you think, and it won’t be long before your pain is but a memory.

Do you suffer from chronic pain?

Have you tried just about everything, but been frustrated by the lack of results?

If so, you should consider acupuncture.

It’s a time-tested, time-honored holistic practice with deep roots in Oriental medicine.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of skeptics in the West, and this doubt is the leading reason people are afraid of trying it.

They’re not afraid of acupuncture, per se, but that they’ll spend the time and money to try it and it won’t work. It won’t have the desired effect and solve whatever problem they’re having.

That’s completely understandable, but the reality is that acupuncture has a long and proven track record and is capable of treating a wide variety of conditions, including many that seem to stubbornly resist conventional treatment methodologies.

The second biggest reason people cite for being afraid to give acupuncture a try is a fear of needles.

It’s a common fear, but in the case of acupuncture, a mostly misguided one. The reason?

Although needles are involved, of course, acupuncture needles are so thin that you barely feel them as they go in. The results aren’t instantaneous, but you’ll be impressed at how fast it will make you start feeling better.

Aside from these, there are two other reasons people cite as to why they’re reluctant to give it a try.

The first is cost, and it’s true – acupuncture is fairly expensive as treatments go. There just aren’t many practitioners in most parts of the country, which, of course, leads to the second concern.

There may not be an acupuncturist in your area, which means you may have to travel to have it done – that’s time and expense.

These last two aren’t fears, of course, but they are valid concerns.

Nonetheless, if you’ve tried just about everything else, don’t you owe it to yourself to see if this is the treatment you’ve been searching for?

Are you a runner?

If so, then you should know two things. First, it is a great way to get exercise, but second, it can be pretty punishing. Few forms of exercise are harder on your body. In fact, studies have shown that runners’ bodies see about three times the wear and tear than people who participate in most other sports activities.

Did you know that your feet contain a quarter of the bones in your body? They do! And your knees bear the largest percentage of your body’s weight. Given that, it’s no surprise that runners are at risk of more than their fair share of injuries related to their sport of choice.

Mostly, it comes down to the repetitive motion. When your feet hit the pavement, no matter how good your shoes are, you’re putting a tremendous amount of pressure on your feet, and those shockwaves travel to your knees.

It’s worse if you’re running to get into shape, because every ten pounds overweight you are is magnified with every step. It’s as though you’re carrying an extra thirty or forty pounds!

In addition to that, running tends to overdevelop certain muscle groups, which can lead to a variety of injuries as your less developed muscles simply can’t cope with the strain like your overdeveloped ones. The most common injuries you’re likely to face are these:

• Overpronation – This is the single most common running-related injury, and is basically a cramping of the inner knee.
• Oversupination – The second most common running-related injury is essentially the same as the first, but is centered on the outer knee.
• Patellar Tendon Issues – The action of running places enormous stress on the patellar tendon, which can cause it to tear (microscopically) and swell, resulting in tremendous pain until you give it time to heal
• And IT Band Syndrome – The IT band is a structure on the outside of your upper leg that travels from the illium to the outside of the knee. The pain can be excruciating.

There are others, but these are the big four. If you feel anything other than the usual “sore muscles” after a run, stop immediately and see your doctor. If you try to run through the pain, you could make matters much worse.

Do you occasionally get the tingles?

We’re not talking about the good tingles, but rather, those that seem to hit you at odd times of the day, usually after you’ve been sitting in the same position for a bit too long, or performing a repetitive motion for an extended period.

Maybe you’ve had them off and on for months and you kept hoping they’d go away on their own. Unfortunately, that’s probably not the case.

Most commonly, people experience these sensations in their hands and feet, but although that’s where the sensation arises, that’s almost never the source of the problem. It is a problem.

The source is usually in your spine, and most commonly in the vertebrae of your neck.

There are a number of nerve clusters that originate here and spread out to your extremities.

If you’re feeling periodic tingling, it could be a sign that you’ve got spinal disc compression or some related issue. It’s important that you take action immediately, because it could be a sign of bigger problems to come.

If left unchecked, those tingles, which start out as little more than a minor annoyance, could lead to chronic pain, or even loss of functionality.

That’s not something you want to ignore or leave to chance. If you’re experiencing periodic tingles, make an appointment with your chiropractor right away.

A simple examination can identify the root cause.

From there, you’re just a few short steps from developing a treatment plan that’s custom-tailored to your needs. Generally, this will involve some combination of gentle spinal adjustment coupled with regular, low-intensity stretching exercises of the affected areas.

The other aspect of treatment is, of course, identifying and correcting the behavior that led to the problem to begin with. Again, your chiropractor can help! The most important thing is to take action before the problem gets worse!

Lateral epicondylitis is the technical term for the condition more commonly referred to as “Tennis Elbow.” It can certainly develop in tennis players and those who participate regularly in other racquet-related sports. However, the reality is that regular people who perform repetitive movements with their fingers and forearms suffer from the condition far more frequently.

Any time you perform repetitive motions with your fingers, wrist and forearms, you put stress on the muscles that run from your fingers to the connective tissue at your elbow. Over time, these motions can result in tiny tears, which can lead to inflammation and swelling.

This, in turn, makes continued performance of those motions increasingly painful. If left untreated, it can cause permanent damage, making it impossible to perform certain actions at all.

There’s good news, though. The condition is easily treatable and can be reversed, often with just a few treatments by your chiropractor.
Treatment centers around solving three key problems associated with the condition:

• Relieving the swelling around the elbow by reversing the inflammation
• Breaking up any scar tissue that may have formed or be forming in the soft tissue in and around the elbow
• And returning your forearm to normal function

It’s important to remember that although Tennis Elbow can be treated quickly and easily, it is a condition that’s generally slow to develop. It’s not something you can get after a single hard day playing tennis, or a week spent typing nonstop, but over time, these repetitive motions can cause enough damage that it begins to manifest in the form of physical symptoms.

If you begin experiencing a sharp pain in your elbow and you think it might be Tennis Elbow, your best bet is to make an appointment to see your chiropractor right away. You do not have to suffer needlessly!