Get exercise: Any intensity of activity is better than no activity. Go for a walk, jog, or run. Play your favorite sport, swing the clubs or lift light weights. Whatever you do, make sure to also include plenty of stretching and exercises that are specifically geared toward strengthening your back muscles. Yoga and Pilates are amazing for this. In fact, I recommend both in my rehabilitative regimens for my patients recovering from injury. It acts as a preventative measure, too!
Watch your seated posture: Most of us tend to hunch or slouch while sitting without even thinking about it. Make a conscious effort to sit up straighter. If your job requires prolonged periods of sitting, keep your shoulders back and make sure you are using a chair that provides adequate back support. Get up and move around regularly, too.
Practice proper lifting techniques: You’ve been hearing this piece of advice for years probably, but if you are getting older it’s even more important to lift heavy objects the right way – or better yet, don’t lift them at all if it can be avoided! Too many of us are still bending over to lift: and it only takes one bad incident to send our backs out of whack. If you must lift something heavy, bend your knees and keep your back straight.
Rethink your footwear: Yes, those high-heels are fashionable but they are probably wreaking havoc on your back. Low-heeled shoes that provide excellent support are a much more sensible option. In addition, customized orthotics can support bad arches which can also be the cause of back pain.
If you tend to have back problems, your Chicago chiropractor is your best resource for helping to alleviate that pain naturally and without the need for invasive surgeries or pain killers which merely mask the pain. Recall that age-old chestnut: a little prevention goes a long way.
This is STRESS. It’s not unusual for all people at some time in their lives to experience it’s effects. It is, after all, a natural response. In time of old, it was essentially a “fight or flight” mechanism – when we encountered danger, our adrenal glands pumped out hormones that stimulated the muscles, brain, and senses to act accordingly. This response, however, was meant to occur only on rare and completely necessary occasions. Today, it is not uncommon for this response to occur many times per day, and last for hours at a time! The result is a huge tax on the body – muscle tension, mental fatigue, dulled senses, weight gain, and toxin production leading to pain. Aside from avoiding stress altogether (good luck!), what can be done?
1. Chicago Chiropractic/Massage Therapy – to ease muscle/nerve tension
2. Exercise – especially aerobic/cardiovascular
3. Stress reduction techniques – meditation, yoga, tai chi, etc…
4. Healthy diet – high in fruits and vegetables, fluids, low in caffeine, refined sugars, saturated fats
5. Supplements
– including:
1. Antioxidants – vitamin A, C, and E (to reduce free radical damage secondary to stress)
2. B Complex vitamins – essential nutrients for reducing physical and mental stress
3. Calcium – Magnesium – relaxes stressed muscles
4. Herbs – i. Chamomile & Ginger – soothes overstressed organs
ii. Valerian – promotes restful sleep
I hope this helps.
Drop by The Chicago Body Works or visit our website for more information.
A recent study showed that 60 percent of migraine suffers had a substantial decrease in symptoms after being treated by a chiropractor. Adjustments that target the root of chronic headaches have a success rate of up to 90 percent. Patients that are treated by chiropractors for headaches and migraines have maintained a pain-free lifestyle for years following chiropractic treatment.
Chiropractors believe that treatment needs to focus on the root of the problem. Too often, people turn to pain relievers and over the counter medications, which in high or frequent doses can cause liver damage. The idea behind chiropractic is to create an environment for the body to heal itself, as opposed to treating condition with medicines. Chiropractors don’t merely treat symptoms but instead they look for causes.
Below is a short list of the most common types of headaches:
• Tension headaches feel like a band of tension around the top of the head
• Cervicogenic headaches are often felt at the base of the skull
• Parietal headaches are often felt on one or both sides of the head
• Sinus headaches originate in the area just above the eye
• Migraine headaches are excruciating, pulsating headaches that are often accompanied by sensitivity to light and sound
Chiropractic treatment has techniques to relieve all of the symptoms listed above. Chiropractic Treatment or “adjustments” for headaches focus on subluxations. In layman’s terms, subluxations are the misalignments of vertebrae causing nerve irritation anywhere along the spine. The source of pain comes from misalignment of the vertebrae in the spine. If the vertebrae are misaligned they lose their range of motion, causing pressure on nerves leading to and from the brain.
Once these misalignments are corrected it eliminates symptoms and allows the body to heal itself. Patients, who receive adjustments or gentle, acute manipulation techniques, can feel relief almost immediately. It is recommended to continue regular visits to the chiropractor for 4-6 weeks following your first adjustment to monitor your progress and maintain the adjustment.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more, feel free to contact your Chicago chiropractor, Dr Chris Halliday.
Get exercise: Any intensity of activity is better than no activity. Go for a walk, jog, or run. Play your favorite sport, swing the clubs or lift light weights. Whatever you do, make sure to also include plenty of stretching and exercises that are specifically geared toward strengthening your back muscles. Yoga and Pilates are amazing for this. In fact, I recommend both in my rehabilitative regimens for my patients recovering from injury. It acts as a preventative measure, too!
Watch your seated posture: Most of us tend to hunch or slouch while sitting without even thinking about it. Make a conscious effort to sit up straighter. If your job requires prolonged periods of sitting, keep your shoulders back and make sure you are using a chair that provides adequate back support. Get up and move around regularly, too.
Practice proper lifting techniques: You’ve been hearing this piece of advice for years probably, but if you are getting older it’s even more important to lift heavy objects the right way – or better yet, don’t lift them at all if it can be avoided! Too many of us are still bending over to lift: and it only takes one bad incident to send our backs out of whack. If you must lift something heavy, bend your knees and keep your back straight.
Rethink your footwear: Yes, those high-heels are fashionable but they are probably wreaking havoc on your back. Low-heeled shoes that provide excellent support are a much more sensible option. In addition, customized orthotics can support bad arches which can also be the cause of back pain.
If you tend to have back problems, your Chicago chiropractor is your best resource for helping to alleviate that pain naturally and without the need for invasive surgeries or pain killers which merely mask the pain. Recall that age-old chestnut: a little prevention goes a long way.
Posted in alternative medicine tagged back, back pain, best chiropractor, chicago, chicago chiropractor, chiropractic, chiropractor, massage, massage therapist, massage therapy, pain, stress reduction, stress relief
Americans spend more than one-tenth of their out-of-pocket health care dollars on alternative medicine, according to the first national estimate of such spending in more than a decade. Chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists and herbal remedies are commanding significant consumer dollars as people seek high-touch care in a high-tech society, the report shows. Researchers can’t explain why. The answer is deceptively simple.
“Holism” (or wholism, to some) is taking the place in modern medical thought of “compartmentalism”, the principle being that the body’s ailments need be addressed in the full complexity of the individual organisms, rather than as separate and distinct systems. Thus, an awareness of how, for instance, back pain often relates to the arches of the feet, or how headaches relate to neck pain which further derives from deficits in one’s vision, are all critical facilities for today’s health care practitioner.
Medical doctors are generally not trained to think this way. They are taught compartmental theory and tend to have “protocols” for treatment. “If patient X presents with symptom Y, prescribe drug Z”. This approach works well in crisis situations or when the solution is fairly elementary but, as health questions compound, this approach has been exposed as inadequate. Rather, evaluating the patient as a “whole person”, taking into account all of their systems and their relationships, even indirect, has been shown the more successful perspective. Conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic and myofascial pain, and many psychological disorders, commonly labelled “syndromes” due to our nebulous understanding of them, have responded well to holistic consideration.
Chiropractors have been holists for decades. A good chiropractic diagnostician can see the “sum of the parts” as well as the parts themselves. What does this get you? Results. That is why Americans spend an increasing amount of health care dollars on alternative medicine. It works!
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