Article Aggregator – Chiropractic

At first glance, the question posed by the title of this piece might seem strange. How can chiropractic care help with addiction? The two seem to be totally disconnected with one another. On closer inspection though, it becomes apparent that a regular regimen of chiropractic treatment can be a powerful tool if you’re struggling with addiction. Here’s how:

Millions of Americans struggle with opioid addiction. The single largest contributing factor to the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic is prescription painkillers in all their various forms. The medical community prescribes (and honestly, probably over-prescribes these) to people who suffer from pain, and especially chronic pain, in order to help them manage it.

Unfortunately, these types of medications are problematic in two ways, both of which make the nation’s addiction problem worse.

First, the active ingredients in most of these medications activate the addiction centers in your brain. They make you feel good, and your brain starts to crave that. Second, your brain tends to fool you. Over time, your body may heal, but your brain knows that if it sends false pain signals, even after the pain’s gone, you’ll take more pills, which is what it’s craving.

Taken together, this is a powerful one-two punch that makes it much more likely that you’ll wind up getting (and staying) hooked on powerful prescription painkillers.

Chiropractic treatment is a safe and effective way to gently attack the source of your chronic pain, and over time, by bringing your body back into alignment, you can rid yourself of it altogether.

There is, of course, an adjustment period needed. Your brain will try to trick you into thinking the pain is still there in a bid to get you to take more pills, so you’ll want to wean yourself off of them slowly, but yes, chiropractic care can absolutely help if you’re struggling with addiction.

You’ve probably heard health nuts and exercise enthusiasts say something about “strengthening your core” a thousand times, but what does that actually mean? Well, in simplest terms, at least where the front portion of your core is concerned, it means your abs.

No, you don’t have to have six-pack abs, although if you’re feeling ambitious, why not? But even a moderate amount of exercise that focuses on that particular muscle group can give you huge benefits that extend well beyond aesthetics. In particular, it can help alleviate back pain. Here’s how:

If your abdominal muscles are weak, then the muscles in your back have to take up the slack in terms of supporting your frame and keeping you upright. In two words, that means they have to work harder. The harder you work those back muscles, the more likely you are to suffer back pain and/or damage to your spine caused by too much stress on it.

Again, you don’t have to go nuts here. Even two or three ten to fifteen-minute exercise sessions a week that focus on your abs can make a great deal of difference. Even better, you don’t need any fancy equipment to strengthen those muscles. You can do it simply by sitting on the floor and doing a few basic exercises like these:

Crunches – Everybody knows what these are. Consider them to be partial sit-ups that see you relying on your abdominals to lift your back from the floor to a partial sitting position.

The Rope Climb – Here, you’ll want to sit with your legs straight out in front of you and your toes pointed. Rolling your shoulders forward and sitting back at a slight incline, holding yourself up with your abs, you’ll raise first one arm, then the other, twisting slightly as you do, as though you were climbing a rope.

The Oblique Reach – Seated with your knees bent and feet on the floor, you’ll alternate straightening and lifting your right leg, and reaching out to touch your toes with your left hand, then reversing it, so that your left leg is straightened and lifted, while your right hand reaches for your toes.

Doing any of these, or even a mix of all three just a few minutes, three times a week will see you dramatically strengthen your abs, reducing the risk of back pain or back injury. That’s win-win.

Did you know that fully fifteen percent of Americans suffer from chronic pain? If you look at the elderly population in isolation, that number jumps to a staggering 50%, and if you suffer from chronic pain of any sort, you know how miserable it can be.

Unfortunately, the pain itself probably isn’t the only thing you have to contend with, because almost two thirds of chronic pain sufferers also suffer from sleep related problems. This probably comes as no surprise to people who suffer from chronic pain. The simple fact is it can keep you awake at night. It can cause insomnia, and even if you manage to fall asleep, odds are that it won’t be restful. You’ll wake up feeling tired, sore, and groggy, and that fog will stay with you for several waking hours of your day.

The most common form of chronic pain is back pain, but it’s by no means the only one, and that pain can be the gateway that leads to other problems, ranging from simple exhaustion to difficulty concentrating, and worse.

Since the two problems so often occur in tandem, it’s quite likely that by addressing the source of your pain, you’ll also address your problems getting a good night’s sleep. In some cases, however, even after the pain is gone, your sleep problems will persist.

This may be caused by simple, environmental things you can control, like keeping an irregular schedule or drinking caffeinated drinks just before bed time. Those types of issues are easily corrected. Simply set a regular bedtime for yourself, and stop drinking your caffeinated drinks earlier in the day.

In a few cases, however, even after taking these steps, the problem persists. In those cases, you’ll want to see your doctor and have a sleep study performed. You may be suffering from sleep apnea or other sleep-related disorder.

In virtually every case involving sleep disorders coupled with chronic pain, however, your first, best bet is to address the source of the pain, to see if that doesn’t solve your problem. Odds are excellent that it will.

It’s a fairly common question – which provides more benefit to me, cardio or weight training? While both are good for different reasons, the simple answer is that both are essential for a well-rounded exercise plan. Let’s take a closer look and see what specific benefits they provide.

Starting with weight training, this is all about building muscle mass. There are two basic options here, free weights (including hand weights) and weight machines. Either will work, and there’s no clear evidence that points to one or the other being superior, although unless you have a gym membership, weight machines are likely to be too expensive for the average person to buy and keep in their home. If you’re doing your weight training at home then, the most cost effective solution is free weights, but ultimately, the choice is up to you.

While weight training is superb at adding muscle mass to your body, bear in mind that if you are suffering from weight problems, adding muscle mass will actually cause you to gain weight in the short run. The reason? Muscle tissue is sixteen times the density of fat. Even if you’re losing fat due to changes in your diet, you’re still almost certain to gain weight initially as you bulk up.

Cardio is especially important for the elderly, but everyone can benefit from a good cardio routine. The best part here is that there’s no special equipment needed. A brisk walk can be a good cardio workout, but if you’re willing to spend some money, a stationary bike or a rowing machine will take your efforts to the next level.

The great benefit to cardio workouts is the fact that they improve your circulation and help your muscles use oxygen more efficiently. For this reason, most people start with cardio workouts, and that’s an excellent place to begin, but ultimately, if you want to optimize your health, you’ll want to do both.

With the release of the Apple Watch, fitness trackers have become all the rage. There’s just one problem. Studies have shown that more than half of the people who bought them gave up on them in less than six months. They simply stopped using them.

That’s a pity, because used correctly, a fitness tracker can make a huge difference in terms of meeting your health goals. Of course, as with any tool, the trick is to use it correctly and optimally. Here are some ideas for doing just that.

Establish Your Own Goals

Forget about the goals that come preset with the device or app. You’re unique, and your goals should reflect that, so the first step is to figure out what you want to accomplish, and make sure those goals are reflected in your fitness tracker.

Keep It On – Constantly

The fitness tracker only “knows” what you’re doing and how you’re doing in relation to the goals you’ve set if you’re wearing it. If you only wear it on occasion, then it’s fair to say that you wasted your money by making the purchase. It’s got to be “always on,” and you’ve got to make its use a part of your life and lifestyle in order to get the full benefit from it.

Accountability Matters

After a while, seeing your relevant numbers on a display screen stops having any real meaning. To keep giving it meaning and relevance, one of the best things you can do is participate in one of the innumerable fitness forums or social media groups that are built around the various fitness apps.

This is actually a much more powerful tool than you might first think, because by regularly reporting your activities and results, you’ll hold yourself more accountable than you otherwise would. Plus, let’s face it, there are going to be days when you’re just not terribly motivated. By chatting with others who are going through the same struggle you are, you can help motivate each other.

The important thing to remember is that a fitness tracker is a tool, not a magic bullet. If you don’t commit to using the tool, you won’t see much in the way of benefit from having it.

In a recent study conducted by the National Osteoporosis Foundation, it was projected that half of all Americans over age 50 would have osteoporosis by the year 2020. Osteoporosis is a condition that makes the bones in your body weak and brittle, and as such, more prone to breaking.
There’s good news though. No matter how old you are, there are a few simple things you can do, starting today, to strengthen your bones and improve your overall level of health. Here are three:

1. Get plenty of Vitamin D – Most Americans suffer from a vitamin D deficiency, which hurts your bones because vitamin D is essential for helping your body absorb calcium, which improves bone health. Fortunately, this is a very simple fix for this: go outside! Your body is actually a solar powered vitamin D factory, so the more time you spend in the sun, the more vitamin D your body will naturally produce.

2. Eat Your Greens – Dark leafy greens are loaded with calcium and other vitamins and minerals your body needs in order to stay healthy. If you’re not eating these on a regular basis (especially kale and spinach) you’re hurting your health, so grab a salad and a fork and eat up!

3. Talk a Walk – While an apple a day might help keep the doctor away, a walk every day will help even more. Not only does it improve your overall level of health and increase your muscle mass, studies have shown that moderate exercise, performed regularly, also improves bone health.

As an added bonus, if you walk in the woods, you’ll lower your cortisol levels, which will reduce stress. Recent studies in Japan have shown that as little as fifteen minutes a day spent walking in nature is sufficient to see notable stress-related benefits, making a daily walk through the woods a win, all the way around.

You don’t have to resign yourself to getting osteoporosis as you get older. You can take charge of your health and do something about it, starting today!

Everybody loves summertime and the chance to spend those long, summer days outdoors enjoying time with friends and families. Be careful though, because too much time in the sun can lead to heat exhaustion, or in extreme cases, heat stroke. Below, we’ll explain the difference between those two heat-related conditions, and provide you with some simple things you can do to minimize your risk.

Heat Exhaustion vs. Heat Stroke

Your body’s primary method of dealing with heat is to keep cool via the evaporation of sweat. People who live in areas with relatively low humidity have an advantage on this front, because high humidity slows the process. Heat exhaustion is basically your body’s way of telling you that it can’t keep you cool enough. The typical symptoms here are feelings of dizziness, general weakness and/or nausea.

Heat stroke is a more severe form of heat exhaustion, which sees you experiencing all of the symptoms described above, plus seizures or muscle cramps and have an internal body temperature above 104 degrees. Of the two, heat stroke is considerably more dangerous and can cause organ failure and brain damage, so it’s not something to be taken lightly.

How You Can Prevent It

The biggest and most important thing you can do if you’ll be out in the sun for extended periods this summer is to stay properly hydrated! Never go anywhere without a water supply, and top off your cup, jug, or bottle at every opportunity. Not far behind that is to wear sunscreen (at least SPF 15). This, combined with wearing proper clothing will help you minimize your chances of becoming overheated.

It’s also important to regulate your activity on especially hot days. Yes, you might be used to walking three miles a day, but when it’s 110 degrees outside, you may want to consider cutting your walk short. The longer you perform strenuous exercise in the hot sun, the higher your risk.

By all means, enjoy the summer sun, but stay safe out there!

Sometimes, it feels as though our society has placed a stigma on the idea of relaxation. If you’re relaxing, you’re not being productive, after all! The question though, is “is that really true?” Actually, it isn’t.

We’ve all been there. You’re tired. You’re frustrated, but you keep forging ahead anyway, marching through your busy schedule and trying to get everything done. The problem is that your mind and body both start to rebel at a certain point, and you start seeing diminishing returns. The harder to try to stay on task, the more you feel like you’re just spinning your wheels. That’s your cue to take a relaxation break!

Before you get up from your desk to take some much needed down time, it’s important to do a quick internal assessment to see what form of relaxation would actually be most beneficial to you. That matters, and if you properly pair a relaxation technique with the specific way you’re feeling, you’ll reap the maximum benefit, so that when you get back in the game, you feel refreshed and ready to go.

If you’re feeling tired, for instance, what you need is a quick pick-me-up in the form of a piece of fresh fruit. A little jolt of energy to get you through the rest of the day. On the other hand, if you’re wrestling with what seems like an intractable problem, a few minutes spent meditating, or taking the time to get away from your office and go for a short walk would be more helpful. If you’re facing multiple symptoms, say, both physically and mentally fatigued at the same time, then a short power nap is probably in order.

You don’t have to take a very long break, but you should definitely listen to your body when it starts sending signals like that. If you don’t, you’ll only wind up feeling more stressed out and being less productive, as you continue to struggle. Be good to yourself. Listen to your body and take a break when it tells you it needs one.

If you suffer from allergies, you’re not alone. There are millions of people fighting that battle with you, but this piece will give you an edge. A secret advantage you can use to make dealing with the symptoms a whole lot easier.

The secret? Exercise. No, you don’t have to become a “gym rat,” and spend every waking moment pumping iron, but the research is pretty conclusive. Spending just thirty minutes working up a sweat can reduce your allergy symptoms by as much as 70%! Even better, whereas a number of the medications you can take to control your symptoms will make you sleepy, a good, brisk workout will leave you feeling more awake, alert, and positively crackling with energy.

The science is unclear about exactly what exercise has such a big impact, but one of the leading theories is that by increasing your blood flow, it simply moves the allergens through your body and into your kidneys more quickly, where they can be purged. Another theory is that cardio-intensive workouts help to calm the inflammatory proteins in your nasal passages, although the exact mechanism is unclear.

A nice side benefit of regular workouts (in addition to the weight loss that will inevitably follow) is the fact that it can act to counter those feelings of fatigue and irritability you often feel when you’ve spent the better part of a day sneezing and feeling miserable.

So what exercises tend to be the most impactful?

Any cardio-centered workout will do wonders, as will activities like swimming. In fact, if the town or city where you live has an aquatic center, you can often sign up for classes that see you performing various exercises in the pool, where the drag created by the water gives you a better, more thorough workout than if you were to do those same exercises in an exercise room. Just be sure to take an antihistamine if you’re having difficulty breathing before you begin, otherwise, you could wind up making yourself feel worse, not better!

In most cases, excess weight doesn’t outright cause back pain, but the two are still closely related. That’s because the extra weight puts additional pressure on the discs in your spine, which is ultimately the source of that sharp, often debilitating pain you feel in your back.

When your back is hurting, it can be difficult to work up the motivation to get up and move, but it’s absolutely critical. Low impact movement is, of course, the best, so focus on movement that doesn’t make your back feel even worse than it already does. Walking will probably be your go-to exercise, but even that can add to the pain you’re feeling. If it does, your best bet is to walk in a pool. It may sound silly, but walking in shallow water will actually do quite a lot to help alleviate the pain.

One of the best, fastest, safest ways to lose weight is to eat foods that are not calorically dense. The problem with the Standard American Diet (SAD) is that it tends to focus on foods that are high in calories, and low in nutrition. That would be fine if we lived in a Hunter-Gatherer society, but we don’t. Instead of loading up on meats and grains, stick with fresh vegetables as your mainstay. Many of these foods are actually calorie negative, because your body burns more calories digesting them than the foods actually contain. That’s a win for you because you feel full, and your body gets plenty of nutrients, so it doesn’t go into “hibernation mode” and start hoarding fat, which can often happen if you go on one of the starvation, fad diets you find on the internet.

The combination of loading up on fresh vegetables and committing to a walking regimen is a powerful one-two punch that will help you lose the excess weight, and make your back feel better.