Chiropractic Works

Chiropractic works! So why are there people who still don’t go to a chiropractor for care? There are plenty of misconceptions about chiropractic that keep people from getting the conservative, effective treatment they need. Let’s clear up a few things right now!

Are chiropractors “real” doctors? Chiropractic education is very similar to medical and dental education that demands three to four years of undergraduate studies and an additional four years of post-graduate education. Chiropractic coursework includes anatomy, physiology, orthopedics, neurology, x-ray, nutrition, and philosophy. In the sector of x-ray study, chiropractors , as a matter of fact, have quite a few more hours of education than medical doctors. Chiropractic studies in x-ray consist of x-ray safety, techniques, factors, positioning, and interpretation. In addition, chiropractors have more hours of study in nutrition than students in medical school receive. Chiropractors are sanctioned in all fifty states as doctors.

Is chiropractic safe? Chiropractic adjustments are considered to be one of the safest therapies for the neck and back. It is not only safe for adults, but for children and even infants. Spinal manipulation is encouraged by most medical doctors prior to a patient being recommended to undergo surgery. It is a natural, drug-free alternative to strong drugs like steroids and painkillers.

Does chiropractic hurt? Most patients feel immediate pain relief after an adjustment and increasingly more relaxing and comfortable over time. Adults and children, alike, often look forward to their chiropractic treatments.

Hope that this clears up a few misconceptions. If you are suffering from back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, knee pain, foot pain, or headaches and migraines, you don’t need to suffer any longer. Chiropractic works. Call your chiropractor today!

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The following is another amazing example of the undeniable evidence that chiropractic works! An article published in The Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research features the amazing recovery of a 55-year-old woman with a severe brain injury caused by a horrendous automobile accident. The story is most remarkable because the appreciable strides in the healing process began nine years after the accident and only after chiropractic care was initiated.

“There are physical, biochemical and emotional stresses associated with Traumatic Brain Injuries,” said Dr. Andrea Ryan, noted researcher and author of the study detailing the positive impact that chiropractic care has had on those suffering from Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). “Since one of the aims of chiropractic care is to reduce those stresses and find a balance in a person’s life, it has proven to be a vital component to the healing process of anyone afflicted with a TBI,” she added.

Dr. Ryan’s success in this area proves, once again, that chiropractic works often when everything else has failed. And, it is apparent that it offers hope to those afflicted with Traumatic Brain Injuries. But, as Dr. Ryan would be the first to remind you that chiropractic care didn’t “cure” the woman involved. The adjustments she received from Dr. Ryan, like all chiropractic adjustments are intended to do, decreased or eliminated nerve interference that, in turn, allowed the woman’s body to adapt and function as it was intended

The complete story and more information on Dr. Ryan’s work can be found at wickedlocal.com

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There are two terms associated with bed-wetting, i.e., primary enuresis and secondary enuresis. Primary enuresis is bed-wetting that has persisted since infancy, while secondary enuresis is defined as bed-wetting after an extended period of dry nights has been established (six months or more). Seeing a chiropractor may be helpful for treating secondary enuresis.

How can chiropractic treatment help? By realigning subluxations in the sacrum. In adulthood, the sacrum is a large, roughly triangular-shaped bone at the base of the spine. However, in childhood the sacrum is made up of five separate bones that fuse by the late teen to early adult years. Misalignments of these sacral segments can alter the pathway for the nerve — first as it exits to the bladder and as it brings information from the bladder to the brain. This alteration in the pathway of the nerve can change either the function of the bladder or the perception by the brain of the fullness of the bladder.

How can the segments of the scrum become misaligned. There are several reasons: 1) a fall on the buttocks, 2) a bladder infection, 3) constipation, 4) intense emotional stressors such as a death in the family, physical or emotional abuse by a parent, or sexual assault, and 5) chronic fatigue.

Chiropractic adjustments correct the misalignments of the sacral segments, allowing the nerve to carry information unimpeded between the bladder and the brain. If secondary enuresis is caused by the misalignment of the sacral segments, then chiropractic adjustments will help to restore normal night-time dryness.

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Does hip pain wake you up in the night and make it hard to get a good night’s rest? When you get out of bed in the morning, or when you get out of your car, are you stiff and do you find it hard, at first, to move your legs? Do you feel pain in one or both hips whenever you twist or rotate them or when you cross your legs? If you answered “yes” to any or all of these questions you are likely suffering from imbalances and alignment problems in the lower part of your body that, in addition to creating hip pain, can in the course of time produce degenerative hip joint disease if not treated.

Even though hip pain and related problems are often signs of age-related degenerative conditions, especially osteoarthritis of the hip joint, osteoarthritis isn’t always the perpetrator. In fact, instead of causing the original problem, osteoarthritis of the hip joint can be the ultimate result of injury to your hips earlier.

Gait changes as the result of biomechanical problems such as an ankle sprain or knee strain, can cause hip pain. Also, if you change jobs, alter the way you sit, take on a new sport or activity, or start driving for long periods of a regular basis, your gait may alter to compensate for these new changes.

In addition, gait imbalances can be caused by carrying a baby or small child on your hip, leg length dissimilarities, or foot pronation problems. Strictly speaking, anything that creates an asymmetry or imbalance when you are moving can cause painful hip problems.

As part of the chiropractic management of your hip problem, along with adjustments, your chiropractor may determine that you require orthotics. Your chiropractor will also offer suitable progressive rehabilitative exercises that include muscle stretching and strengthening.

Hip pain won’t disappear on its own. Hip pain is a sign that something needs correcting. Get out of pain, get back in balance, and get your life back now!

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Attempting to keep up with an active five-year-old can seem draining at times. If you have an active child of this age, or if you’ve ever been around one for any length of time, you may have found yourself longing for the kid to just sit still for a moment. However, recent research is validating the long-term health benefits of this whirlwind of activity. In fact, rather than attempting to slow these little ones down, five-year-olds should be aided in being as active as possible, according to a new University of Iowa study. Why? “Because it pays off as they grow older,” said Kathleen Janz, lead author of the study and professor of health and sport studies in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Even if kids don’t remain as active later in childhood, being active at age five helps them to stay lean as they get older. “We call this effect ‘banking’ because the kids benefit later on, similar to having a savings account at a bank. The protective effect is independent of what happens in between,” Janz went on to say.

The UI team tested the body fat and activity level of 333 kids at ages five, eight and eleven using a special scanner that accurately measures bone, fat and muscle tissue, and an accelerometer that measures movement every minute. Rather than depending on kids or parents to track minutes of exercise, the kids wore accelerometers to record their activity level for up to five days.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, indicates that kids who are active at age five end up with less fat at age eight and eleven, even when controlling for their accumulated level of activity. The average five-year-old in the study got thirty minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. For every ten minutes on top of that, kids had one-third of a pound less fat tissue at ages eight and eleven.

Although further research is necessary to discover what happens to the bodies of the active kids that keeps them in better shape down the road, Janz said that it could be that the active 5-year-olds didn’t develop as many fat cells, improved their insulin response, or that something happened metabolically that offered some protection even as they became less active.

Nonetheless, as exciting as this study is, weight moderation is not the only benefit of early exercise. As a chiropractor I have observed in my own practice that active kids have far less of the usual childhood health issues, like catching colds and the flu. Chiropractic care is, of course, exceptionally beneficial in helping kids to stay healthier. But, in addition, the stimulation to the brain that occurs during activities, especially those that require “cross pattern” motor movements of the larger muscles, i.e., right hand/left leg and left hand/right leg, such as crawling, running, climbing, and skipping, also boosts the autoimmune system and keeps kids healthier.

A large number children today are overweight and unhealthy. Though part of the problem is an inappropriate diet, inactivity is also a major contributing factor. If you have a five-year-old who prefers to watch television or play video games rather than to participate in more active play, help your child to get up and get moving into healthier activities. Moderate to vigorous activity will not only benefit your child now, but will assist in building a healthier future. You can bank on it!

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There is No “Magic Potion” When It Comes to Health and Longevity
by Guest Contributor Jamie G. Phillips, DC

It does seem, doesn’t it, that it doesn’t matter where we turn these days, there are news stories and advertisements, alike, promoting the stupendous studies on a plethora of natural supplements, not to mention the cutting-edge health claims of coffee and red wine that, indubitably, promise to reduce or eliminate all causes of mortality? It would almost seem, in fact, that a quest for immortality has replaced our search for longevity!

To begin with, let me make it super clear that I unwaveringly believe that certain~particular things that we put into our bodies can be beneficial to our health. Therefore, I’m definitely not against taking supplements. Not only do I recommend them to my patients, but I listen to my own advice and take them as well. Secondly, if confession is good for the soul, and red wine is good for the heart, then I’d like to take this opportunity to help both by stating for the record that I appreciate drinking a glass of red wine. The suggestion that it might have heart-healthy properties, well, that’s like icing on the cake, so to speak. And, lastly, as far as caffeine’s ability to actually reverse or prevent Alzheimer’s disease goes, I believe that if that were generally true, life would be far less frightening and far more enjoyable for many people and their families.

Let’s take a deep breath and reflect on a couple of facts, however, before deciding to add more caffeine to your morning grind, increase the red wine you may drink in the evening, or before you consider mortgaging the house in order to pay for high-priced minerals and herbs that promise to extend your life indefinitely.

Let us think about the fact, for instance, that we have not been locked up in a cage all of our life, and not one of us has been induced, by unnatural means, to acquire the age-related diseases that lab animals do, enfeeblement that is then “reversed” by resveratrol, caffeine, or some exotic mineral or plant. We are dynamic, biological beings, free to fully engage with life.

Fundamentally, we are far more than the sum total of our parts. We are dynamic and biological, not “mechanical, conscienceless devices.” We are organically individual, i.e., we react in a uniquely individual ways to internal irritation factors and external environmental influences. Case in point, though smoking cigarettes is commonly unhealthy, there are a few people who are able to smoke, so it seems, and live to a ripe old age without any apparently-related problems.

The outcomes upon which scientific research and testing are rely upon the isolation of a particular variable. That is the method that gives scientific inquiry its legitimacy. However, because tests related to human health issues occur through this very method, and are most often done on lab animals, when it comes to human beings, the effects are very likely to be quite different. In fact, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, what might benefit some of the people all of the time, most likely won’t work for all of the people all of the time (and sometimes won’t work at all!).

Everyday you make considerable choices that affect both your health and longevity. Decisions such as what you’ll eat and how much exercise and rest you’ll get will either be good for you, or not so good. Obviously, your unhealthy choices are not beneficial for your long-term health. And, even though you know, by the way your individual body responds to certain things, you may often ignore these important health messages.

Then, a report comes out asserting that researchers have finally found the “missing link” between we, humans, and immortality, that they’ve uncovered, in fact, THE THING that has the amazing power to reverse all of the overindulgent and unhealthy things you may have been doing to your body on a daily basis, and you, like many others, may want to jump on the bandwagon. Talk about “magical” thinking!

The human body is an exquisitely involved, homeostatic system. That is to say, every function is interdependent and sensitively balanced. This meticulous system becomes “off balance” when you consistently make unhealthy choices. Over time, the imbalances produce diseases and speed up the aging process.

As a chiropractor, I advise that you supplement if you need it. Pour that added cup of coffee if it feels right. And, have a little more red wine if it genuinely feels beneficial for your individual system. But all the while remember, the only truly reliable way that we, humans, can avoid or reverse age-related health issues is by changing our unhealthy lifestyle. Good health has nothing do with luck. And, there is no “magic potion” when it comes to health and longevity.

Jamie Phillips, DC, a Ventura Chiropractor, has been a practicing chiropractor for 24 years. She is also a consultant for Bloczone Marketing, a chiropractic internet marketing company specializing in chiropractic websites that attract new patients. She can be reached at (805) 882-1956.

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We all know that movement is good for the whole body, right? From our head to our toes, our good health is determined by how much physical activity we get on a regular basis. So, why do so many people suffer from aches and pains in their feet? After all, aren’t our feet made for walking? Yes, but they weren’t designed for abuse. The average, healthy person takes 3,000-5,000 steps each day, not including activities such as running and aerobic exercise. But, often those steps are made by people walking incorrectly, with poor gait patterns and bad posture. In addition, a large number of people wear badly-designed, poorly-fitting shoes. Moving the body through space incorrectly on feet that are inhibited from functioning correctly cannot help but to cause aches and pains not only in a number of places in our feet, but in other parts of our body.  For example, if an individual over-pronates (walks like a duck) in a pair of poorly made or unevenly-worn shoes, or in a pair of high heels, that person is not only likely to develop foot and ankle problems, but will probably experience problems of the back, knees and legs.

One of the most well known foot problems is Plantar Fascitis (heel pain), which is usually caused by inflammation of the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is a wonderful, multi-tasking band of connective tissue that encircles the muscles on the bottom of the foot, adheres the heel bone to the ball of the foot, supports the arch, protects the foot, and absorbs shock.

There are many factors that contribute to the development of Plantar Fascitis. One such factor is short and tight calf muscles. When calf muscles get short and tight they exert a strong pull on the back of the heel bone, producing undue stress on the smaller and weaker plantar muscles and fascia. How do calf muscles get short and tight? In addition to running and jumping activities such as aerobics, volleyball, running, basketball, and tennis, the wearing of high heels can cause the problem.

Other factors that contribute to Plantar Fascitis include sudden strenuous activity after a period of prolonged inactivity, abnormal walking patterns (such as over-pronation), improper footwear, walking on hard or uneven surfaces (especially barefooted), and obesity.

Once an individual develops Plantar Fascitis, the condition is frequently not easy to manage and can become intensely painful and persistent. If you are suffering from heel pain, your chiropractor will be able to determine the cause of your problem and what chiropractic management is best suited. Such care might include ultrasound therapy, laser, joint manipulation, muscle stretching and strengthening exercises, special taping and, in some cases, orthotics.

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