CHIROPRACTIC IN ABOUT 100 WORDS

Aches and pains are signs that your body isn't working correctly. Your brain, spinal cord, and nerves (your nervous system) control and coordinate EVERYTHING in your body. Physical, chemical or emotional stress can cause problems in the spine or other joints of the body. Muscles contract, locking spinal joints that can pinch and/or irritate nearby nerves and cause pain or dysfunction throughout the body. This sets the stage for chronic pain, disease and ill health. A thorough examination helps chiropractors find these problems in the spine called subluxations. By applying a precise force to misaligned spinal joints, it removes the dysfunction from the nervous system. Repeated visits restore your nervous system integrity, allowing your body to function at its optimal potential.

 SOURCE: http://www.crossroads-chiropractic.net/Home/What-Is-Chiropractic.html

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CAN SPINAL DECOMPRESSION HELP MY PAIN?

Though each patient is different and no doctor can guarantee success of any treatment, the clinical results of this type of therapy have been effective in over 80% of the patients treated. The common cause of many back conditions includes damaged discs and poor spinal muscle control. This protocol addresses both of these causes. Spinal decompression creates a controlled unloading of the vertebra, which decreases the pressure to the disc, allowing an increase in blood and nutrient exchange. This exchange of fluids is something that the damaged disc desperately needs to help it heal from the inside out. Spinal adjustments, physiotherapy and a physical rehab routine will also be established to strengthen the core and other involved musculature.

When a subluxation occurs, a chiropractor can correct the misaligned bone and allow it to return to its proper position. This procedure is called an adjustment, and the adjustment enables the body to heal. In a chiropractic adjustment, the chiropractor applies quick and specific pressure to the misaligned joint that is not functioning properly. The goal is to correct its alignment and cause a positive neurological response. This results in a reduction of pain and inflammation and a restoration of function and mobility to the injured area. In addition to the chiropractic adjustment, our treatment plans may include therapeutic exercise, spinal decompression therapy, ultrasound, electric muscle stimulation, intersegmental traction, nutritional counseling and other professional advise that may improve overall health.

WHY IS DECOMPRESSION THERAPY MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN OTHER TREATMENT OPTIONS?

Decompression therapy is a comprehensive program using the newest traction techniques and targeted core stabilization. In addition, we also have other adjunctive treatments in our office that have proven effective in spine care. It is this multi-faceted approach that makes the overall treatment so effective. Additionally, discs have been shown to be a predominate site of pain, so treating them as directly as possible is the best method. The combination of kinetic traction, rehabilitation to the supporting structures and overall strengthening of the global musculature makes the treatment unique.

SOURCE: http://www.crossroads-chiropractic.net/Home/Spinal-Decompression.html

National Donor Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! Today is not only Valentine's Day, but also National Donor Day, so signup — You’re Never Too Old! People of all ages, from newborns to seniors have been organ donors. There’s no age limit. In fact, people in their 90s have been donors. Learn more about age and organ donation. http://www.organdonor.gov/index.html

Heart-Healthy Suggestions for February, Heart Disease Month

By Cathy Burke, Program Manager
The Child Nutrition Foundation

February honors several heart health observances—Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week on February 7-14, Cardiac Rehabilitation Week on February 11-18, National Women’s Heart Day on February 17, and National Wear Red Day on February 3. All of these observances, as well as Valentine’s Day on February 14, provide a perfect opportunity to remind you to take care of your heart.

Many simple improvements can benefit your heart tremendously. Aim to weave at least two of the following suggestions into your day, making them a new habit.

•Do cardio. Walking, running, swimming, skiing, biking, dancing, skating are all excellent forms of cardiovascular exercise that increase the rate at which your heart pumps blood, helping it stay strong and perform better. This form of exercise also helps lower cholesterol and assists in weight management. Find more information and motivational tools atwww.heart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200013.

•Fill up on whole grains. In addition to helping you maintain a feeling of satiety for a longer time and taking the place of fatty foods in your diet, whole grains help reduce cholesterol levels and sweep toxins from your digestive tract. For example, consider choosing instant oatmeal for a quick breakfast or replacing your white toast with whole-wheat toast.

•Eat flax seeds. These small seeds are packed with one of the most beneficial heart helpers—omega-3 fatty acids. This “good fat” provides the materials necessary to improve arterial health while protecting you against heart and vessel diseases, reducing blood clots, and decreasing cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

•Replace meat with fish once or twice a week. Fish offers a low-fat, lower-cholesterol alternative to meat and provides the same omega-3 fats as flax seeds. Some kinds of fish, however, may contain high levels of mercury and should only be eaten in moderation. For more information on safe fish, visit www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg3.html.

•Avoid hydrogenated oils (trans fats). These fats contribute to clogged arteries and heart disease. Manufacturers of all foods containing trans fats will be required to state trans fats content on their label beginning in 2006. Many manufacturers are working to reduce or eliminate them from their ingredient lists.

•Choose oils high in unsaturated fats. Coconut, palm kernel, cottonseed and corn oils are higher in saturated fat and can nearly always be replaced with oils containing less saturated fat and higher levels of unsaturated fats such as olive, safflower and canola oils. Butter, margarine, and other shortenings can often be replaced with these as well. While most fats and oils contain the same amount of fat per tablespoon, unsaturated fat is much healthier for the body and especially for the heart. Replacing saturated with unsaturated fats will reduce your “bad cholesterol” and improve your “good cholesterol” levels for improved heart health.

•Make a heart-healthy Valentine’s Day meal. Plan an evening starting with a romantic healthy meal followed by a long walk under the moonlight or an evening of dancing—at a party, dance studio, dancehall, or right in your own living room. You can find several ideas on healthy Valentine’s menus and activities at: www.foodfit.com/ orhttp://recipestoday.com/resources/articles/10ideas4vday.htm. If you prefer to go out, select a restaurant with heart-healthy options and make good selections! And remember… nothing is more romantic than controlling portion sizes by splitting a meal!

To learn about the warning signs of heart attack, stroke, and cardiac arrest, visit www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3053#Heart_Attack.

SOURCE: http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=1092

Tips for Healthy Aging

T

he number of people living longer is increasing dramatically. An estimated 4.2 million U.S. residents now fall into the age group of the “oldest old”—85 years and older—with more than 40,000 having reached the age of 100. In fact, centenarians (those 100 and older) are the fastest-growing subpopulation of the elderly, and by 2050, according to census projections, 1 million Americans will celebrate their 100th birthdays.

At the same time, a growing body of evidence suggests that good genes are only a small part of the longevity puzzle. In fact, researchers now believe that chronic illness is not an inevitable consequence of aging, but it results more often from lifestyle choices that we’re perfectly free to reject.

So what are centenarians’ secrets to healthy old age? Experts recommend the following:

Embrace a Positive Attitude

Centenarians tend be very optimistic and always hope for the best. According to research, having a positive attitude is key to the ability to live longer and can lead to a healthier, higher quality of life. Researchers speculate that positive emotions may directly affect overall health, perhaps through direct mechanisms, such as immune function, or indirectly, for example, by strengthening social support networks.

Stimulate Your Mind

Research shows the more educated we are, the longer we live. And the benefits of education are even more pronounced when learning continues throughout our lives. Most centenarians take advantage of opportunities and possibilities that have not been available to them earlier in their lives, such as second careers, volunteer activities, musical instruction, writing, various classes in areas of interest or travel. In addition, you may want to consider mentally challenging activities such as crossword puzzles or learning a new language.

Limit Stress and Stay Connected

Protect your mental and physical health by managing your stress at work and at home. Humor, meditation, exercise and optimism are good ways to naturally reduce stress and relieve tension.

Stay in touch with family and friends. Those who maintain a close network of social support do best. Social contacts may encourage us to take better care of ourselves—by cutting down on smoking and drinking, for example, or seeking medical treatment earlier for symptoms that may indicate serious problems. Friends may also help us get through difficult times by offering coping mechanisms and having a positive effect on mood and self-esteem.

Take Advantage of Your Genes

Good health practices will help you make up for at least some of the genetic difference between you and centenarians. Essentially, you can compensate for bad genes by healthy living—or ruin perfectly good genes with poor habits. Smoking and excessive alcohol intake, for example, increase the risk of many chronic diseases. As you age, be sure to get regular health screenings.

Support Your Body with Exercise

Find fun ways to stay in shape, such as dancing, gardening, swimming, walking or jogging. Include strength training, as directed by a personal trainer or health care provider, to maintain muscle mass. Increased muscle tissue burns fat more efficiently, reduces your heart disease risk, and lessens your chance of a broken hip from falling. For adults, a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week is recommended.

Make Healthy Diet Choices

What you eat and drink—and what you don't eat and drink—can make a big difference to your health. To prevent weight gain and maintain good health, pay special attention to eating efficiently. Choose foods that maximize nutritional value and minimize calories.

Overly processed foods often contain more calories and fewer nutrients. Choose, instead, whole, natural foods like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, good (unsaturated) fats, nuts, legumes and healthy sources of protein (white meat, fish and eggs).

Choose a Good Health Care Provider

Even if you are healthy and make good preventative choices, it is essential to have access to a good, trustworthy health care provider.

A health care provider should:

• Know and support all forms of healing and various approaches to health care to present patients with the most effective, safest preventative or treatment options available.
• Emphasize prevention and whole-person wellness.
• Teach healthy living practices.
• Involve patients in decisions regarding their care—except for acute, potentially life-threatening emergencies.
• Encourage patients to be responsible for their health.

Chiropractic Care Can Help

Talk to your doctor of chiropractic about other ways to improve your quality of life. Doctors of chiropractic are trained and licensed to examine and treat the entire body with specific emphasis on the nervous and musculoskeletal systems, wellness and prevention.

SOURCE: http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=2200

Stroke: Know What to Do

Although most people who suffer strokes are older, stroke can occur at any age. Especially prone to stroke are people with unhealthy lifestyles—those who smoke, stick to poor diets, and don’t exercise. Stroke is also associated with people who suffer from obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, alcohol abuse, diabetes, or have a family history of stroke or an abnormal heart rhythm. African-Americans have a much higher incidence of stroke, as well. In the United States, strokes are the most common cause of disability and the third most common cause of death in adults.

What Is Stroke?

Stroke is caused by a lack of blood supply to a portion of the brain, which causes that portion to die within just a few minutes. This lack of blood supply, also known as ischemia, results in long-term neurological effects because the cells in the brain do not regenerate.

The outcome of stroke depends on the person’s age, general health, the region of the brain affected by the stroke, the type of stroke, and the extent of the brain damage. Common long-term effects include difficulty speaking, poor memory, altered emotions, poor recognition of previously familiar objects and people, amnesia, deformities of the extremities, and difficulty with movement, including weakness and paralysis. The weakness and paralysis often affect one side of the body—usually opposite the stroke location. Some of the effects can be permanent, while others may resolve with time and treatment.

What Are the Warning Signs of Stroke?

Sometimes people experience a “pre-stroke”—a shortterm lack of blood supply to the brain, also called a transient ischemic attack. The loss of blood supply lasts from seconds to just a few minutes and does not result in permanent damage. This condition is often a precursor to a full-scale stroke, so any symptoms associated with it should be investigated immediately.

Warning signs of stroke include ANY of the following:

• Sudden difficulty speaking (slurred speech) or understanding what people are saying
• Sudden onset of confusion or altered mental status, such as loss of consciousness, or not recognizing people who should be familiar
• Sudden numbness or tingling on one side of the face or body, or both
• Sudden onset of dizziness or unsteadiness, loss of balance or coordination, or both
• Sudden difficulty walking or standing upright
• Sudden severe headache
• Sudden severe unexplained upper-neck pain
• Sudden trouble with vision or sight.

What Should I Do If I Have Any of the Symptoms?

If you, your friend, or a family member is having any symptoms, seek medical care immediately:

• Dial 911 or have someone take you or your friend to the nearest emergency room. Do NOT let the person with the symptoms drive or stay home.
• Try to remember the time of onset of your symptoms and what symptoms you’re having. This information will help the treating doctors provide the best possible care for you.

Remember: The sooner you seek emergency medical assistance, the better the chances of minimizing the damage from a stroke. The person with the symptoms should seek medical care even if:

• Not all symptoms are present.
• The symptoms go away after a short time.
• He or she has the symptoms with no real pain.
• He or she denies the symptoms.

What Is the Treatment for Stroke?

There are generally three separate stages of treatment for stroke: prevention, therapy immediately after stroke, and post-stroke rehabilitation.

Stroke prevention is based on treating underlying risk factors (see tips below). Acute stroke therapies try to stop a stroke while it is happening. These include anticoagulants that help break up or prevent further formation of blood clots and efforts to support the person’s vital functions, such as breathing. Post-stroke rehabilitation helps overcome some of the disabilities that result from the brain damage. For most stroke patients, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy form the base of a rehabilitation program.

  

Is There Risk of Stroke from Neck Manipulation?

Neck manipulation is a remarkably safe procedure. Although some reports have associated upper highvelocity neck manipulation with a certain kind of stroke, or vertebral artery dissection, there is not yet a clear understanding of the connection. While we don’t know the actual incidence of stroke associated with highvelocity upper neck manipulation, the occurrence does appear to be rare, based upon the clinical reports and scientific studies to date. The chiropractic profession is actively researching stroke and neck manipulation and available safe alternative conservative therapies.

It has also been suggested, for example, that sudden severe upper-neck pain and/or headache, which may indicate a pre-stroke condition, could cause someone to visit a doctor of chiropractic. In addition, some regular everyday activities, such as stargazing, rapidly turning the head while driving, and even having a shampoo in a hair salon may cause aneurysm—a widening of an artery resulting from the weakening of the artery walls— of the neck arteries, resulting in stroke. These events remain very difficult to predict.

If you are visiting your doctor of chiropractic with upper-neck pain or headache, be very specific about your symptoms, so that he or she can provide the safest and most effective treatment, even if it involves referral to another health care provider. There are various head and neck positions and forms of joint movement. Depending on your clinical condition, joint mobilization, therapeutic exercise, soft-tissue techniques, and other therapies can also be recommended. If the issue of stroke concerns you, do not hesitate to discuss it with your doctor of chiropractic.

SOURCE: http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=2204

Nutrition Advice for a Healthy New You

There is no better way to rejuvenate your health than by eating more nutritiously. In fact, even a few simple changes in your diet and lifestyle can have a positive impact on your health-and can also prevent a variety of health problems in the future. 

The traditional coffee and doughnuts for breakfast; a hamburger for lunch-or no lunch; candy, cookies, and a soft drink for a snack; followed by a huge dinner with more protein than a person needs-are unhealthy dietary choices. As a result, younger people are starting to suffer from heart disease-not only because of poor diet, but also because of an epidemic of inactivity. 

To reverse the alarming trend, many doctors of chiropractic urge patients to stop smoking, eat a balanced diet, drink plenty of water, exercise regularly, and augment their balanced diet with appropriate nutritional supplements. 

What Can You Do? 
The ACA offers the following prevention and wellness advice: 

Lifestyle Changes

• Exercise at least 20 to 30 minutes three or four days a week.
• Eat out more sparingly. Food preparation methods in restaurants often involve high amounts-and the wrong types-of fat and sugar.
• Brown-bag your lunch to control your fat and sugar content while adding nutritious fruits, vegetables, and grains.
• Limit your intake of alcohol and quit smoking. Drinking alcohol excessively and/or smoking hinder your body's ability to absorb nutrients from your food.

Dietary Changes

• Eat more raw foods. Cooking and canning destroys much of the nutrition in foods. With the exception of canned tomatoes, which can help prevent prostate cancer,1 fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables always have more natural vitamins and minerals.
• Select organically grown foods when possible, because they have lower amounts of toxic elements, such as pesticides and heavy metals.
• Consume 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. Whole-grain breads and cereals, beans, nuts, and some fruits and vegetables are good sources of fiber. High-fiber diets can help prevent digestive disorders, heart disease, and colon cancer.
• Drink eight to ten 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Coffee, tea, soft drinks, and alcohol are dehydrators. Don't substitute them for water.

Vegetarian Diets
Research shows that a good vegetarian diet as part of a comprehensive health program can help prevent heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.2,3 However, fried foods, hydrogenated fats, and commercial meat substitutes may contain more sugar and fat than a meat-eater would consume. 

If you are considering a vegetarian diet, keep the following tips in mind:

• Don't rely on fruits and vegetables at the expense of grains and legumes. Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables to consume a wide range of nutrients.
• Tiredness, malaise, and anemia can be signs of deficiencies. Have your B12 and iron levels checked at least once a year.
• Consume fortified foods or take supplements to obtain the nutrients you no longer get from animal-based products, such as vitamin B12.
• Before eliminating animal products from the diet, learn to do it right. Children, pregnant and breast-feeding women, and people recovering from illness should consult their health care practitioners.

Supplements According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, dietary supplements are not substitutes for foods, nor can a person sustain good health by just taking vitamin and mineral supplements.4 When taken properly, however, supplements can play an important role in achieving maximum health. If you are considering nutritional supplements, keep the following tips in mind:

• Remember to consume dark green vegetables, oils, nuts, and seeds, which are sources of magnesium, fatty acids, and many other vitamins and minerals.

Don't "self-prescribe." Consult a health care practitioner, such as a doctor of chiropractic, to determine what supplements are best for you. If you have symptoms such as headaches, chronic fatigue, or cardiac problems, seek professional advice from a health care provider who specializes in nutrition. 

SOURCE: http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=81