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Do Children Benefit From Chiropractic?

Many people think that chiropractic care is only for someone who lifted a brick the wrong way and hurt his  back.

Children have spines too, and they bump and jar their spines constantly in the first five years of life. As they develop from helpless infants into fearless adventurers, bumps and falls naturally come with your child's desire to learn everything about the world around them in the quickest amount of time possible. But even normal, everyday activities can cause spinal trauma with lasting effects:

* Delicate nerve tissue can be damaged, resulting in interference with the brain's ability to send nerve impulses to organs, tissues and muscles.

* Discs, blood vessels and other soft tissues can swell and become inflamed.

* The body may respond with bone spurs and other abnormal bone growth.

* Various systems (immune, digestive, respiratory, etc.) through the body may malfunction.

In each of these examples, pain or other obvious symptoms may not be present at the time, yet optimum health and well-being have been compromised.

When your child is seen by your family wellness chiropractor, your child's spine and nervous system will be analyzed to determine if a vertebral subluxation is present. Often, the doctor will touch the spine and muscle (static or motion palpation), examine the length of the legs (pelvic misalignment may shorten one leg) or examine your child's posture (level of head, shoulder and hips).

You may already be aware of the benefits of chiropractic care. You may have experienced for yourself the relief that comes from having a properly aligned spine. If you have not had your child's spine evaluated, it's time to schedule an appointment to determine if there is a vertebral subluxation (which is painless until later in life).

Like dentistry, chiropractic, when started young, provides your child with a way to attain full-body health that lasts a lifetime.

Imagine an epidemic going through your town. There is a vaccine available that will protect you and you won't have to worry about getting the disease if you get the vaccine...So you get the vaccine for yourself - But would you leave your children home and not have them get the shot? Of course not you say!

That is just how ridiculous it sounds to me that people come in for regular chiropactic care (Not even for a back Injury, but merely to maintain their excellent health and conditioning), and I never see their children.

Chiropractic care has been around since 1895 - for health care reasons (not back pain) Is it possible  that just maybe the profession would have gone bust or just simply blown away in the last hurricane if there wasn't something to it. If there isn't any validity to it - why is it licensed in every state and most other countries around the world

Why Write a Blog About Bad Backs?

A few people have asked me why I am doing this "blog" thing...

In a word I am trying to empower people and encourage them to take an active / pro- active role in their health care.

I could have been an MD - I was on my way to medical school back in 1979 when I was sent to a chiropractor for a persistent aching shoulder. I liked what I saw there. He didn’t give me a pill or suggest he cut into my shoulder and do "exploratory" surgery.

Rather, he dug into the problem, asked me a lengthy series of questions about what I do and how and then he tested my shoulder, my neck and my lower back sixteen different ways from Sunday until he uncovered why my shoulder was hurting in the first place.

Believe it or not - It was a silent low back problem that was straining my neck, which in turn irritated nerves that made my shoulder hurt.

Following that first trip to see him he started to work on restoring the imbalance that made my shoulder hurt.

But it didn’t stop there - He said " You didn’t get this problem because you weren’t eating Motrin. You got it because of the way you live your life. That has to change for the care and its effect to be lasting.

So, he also gave me exercises to do to strengthen my neck and lower back. We spent a great deal of time discussing how I did my job, how I slept, how I sat when I watched TV - How I lived my life. He did that because that was why I got out of alignment in the first place.

We chiropractors don’t attempt to "lie" to you or your body and try to make you believe the problem is "fixed" by medicating you so you don’t feel it. We don’t treat the problem - We treat the patient. We find out what the imbalance is that is causing you to hurt and correct THAT and then...and only then can we expect your shoulder to stop hurting properly / for the right reason.

And - It doesn’t do you much good to simply fix your back if I don’t show you how you hurt it in the first place and more importantly - show you how to avoid hurting it again.

I could advertize in the paper, bill boards, on cable TV, etc. and what is that ?

It is interrupting you, your TV show, your thoughts, another conversation you might be having - It’s interrupting your life...

Traditional advertizing annoys people - It doesn’t teach anything and It doesn’t empower them.

Making entries in a blog gives the reader (hopefully), useful information from which she can make informed decisions about her health care. It’s here for those who choose to read it and maybe benefit from it and it simply leaves everybody else alone with their own thoughts.

Who Is More Likely To Injure His Back?

A better question might be what are the major risk factors for a back injury?

Some people, because of their profession, their lifestyle, their weight and their postural habits, the car they drive, etc. are more prone to having back problems.

People who are over weight with a BMI or body mass index over 24 are 3-4 times more likely to have back problems than someone who has a BMI of 24 or less.

People who smoke are prime candidates for back problems. Nicotine breaks down collagen. Nicotine is what your ligaments (ie.: disc fibers ), and muscle tissue is made of so if you smoke you’re destroying your spinal discs in addition to other ligament tissue that holds your spine together.

People who sit for a living - truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, computer drivers, desk jockies, airline pilots, taxi drivers are all at risk of having back problems more than someone who has a more physically active and busy work day.

People who work in very sedentary or prolonged postures such hair stylists, dentists, dental assistants, machine operators have a substantially greater risk of neck or back injury as well as residual sequella including repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel problems.

People who sleep on their hip, in a fetal position or in the semi face-down, partial crawl position with one leg out straight and the other leg dragged up in a partial crawl position are most at risk of having a back problem.

People who drive extensively in a non-Japanese or non-Swedish automobile are at greater risk for back injury due to the harmonic frequency of the vibration found in American, German, English and French build automobiles.

People who have had a previous back injury are more prone to have another injury.

People who get no or minimal regular exercise are more likely to have a back injury than someone who exercises regularly.

Are You At Risk for a Back Injury?

You are either at No-Risk , Low-Risk or High-Risk for a back injury.

Knowing which you are could make a big difference in how you live your life and the choices you make at work and in your personal life.

Some people, because of their profession, their lifestyle, their weight and their postural habits are simply going to be more prone to injuring their back.

How to tell which category you fit into:

A No-Risk person gets up in the morning feeling rested, without any pain or stiffness in her back. She can bend and turn her head and body fully and equally in both directions without discomfort. Looking in the mirror, neither shoulder or hip appears higher than the other, the neck does not appear to be leaning to one side and the head tilting to the opposite side, the feet appear to be flared outward equally and in the side view, the ear appears directly over the shoulder and hip without a stooped posture in the shoulders.

A Low-Risk person gets up in the morning feeling rested, without pain or stiffness in her back. She cannot bend and or turn her head and / or body fully and equally in both directions, even though it may (or may not), hurt to do so. One hip and / or shoulder is elevated above the level of the other. The neck appears to be tipped to one side and the head is tilted to the opposite side. The feet will appear to be flared unequally. In the side view the ear, shoulder and hip will not be in a straight vertical line from top to bottom. The shoulders may appear to be stooped.

A High-Risk person gets up in the morning feeling pain and /or stiffness in one or more areas of her back or neck. She likely masks the discomfort with over-the-counter medication so she is unaware that she may pushing the limits of already stressed and weakened muscles and ligaments. She cannot turn or bend her head or back fully and equally in both directions without pain or discomfort. One hip and / or shoulder presents elevated above the level of the other. The neck appears to be leaning to one side and the head tilted to the opposite side, and it is uncomfortable to try to straighten it up. The lower back appears to be leaning more to one side and it is uncomfortable to try to straighten it up. One foot is likely flared out more than the other one. In the side view the ear does not line up with the shoulder and hip.

It is strongly recommended that those at low risk and high risk get checked by their health care professional to determine what is causing the postural deviations, pain and discomfort before they become more serious problems.

How Carbonated Drinks Affect Weight Loss

Recent news reports reveal that 75% of Americans are over-weight and approximately 40 % are obese. About 70% of American youths have cardiovascular disease which is directly related to their being over weight.

I was sitting thinking about how sad this is and trying to think how and when this problem began.

When I was a kid in junior high school practically nobody was over-weight. I can remember just one person who was really seriously overweight. A lot of people commented about her because it was so unusual and it was said she had a "gland problem"...whatever that was.

In those days we all drank milk at every meal. I don’t remember having a coke but once in a rare while. It was a treat. There was no such thing as "diet" anything.

Now that so many people are over-weight and everybody is drinking Coke or Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi it got me thinking that maybe soft drinks are the problem. But what's the connection?

I did a little digging and found some interesting facts that might help explain why so many people are over-weight:

You cannot lose weight without adequate calcium in your diet. Why? -

If there's too little calcium in your system you'll make more of the hormone called Calcitrol

             Calcitrol fools the body into thinking you’re starving and

                        inhibits / prevents fat burning.      ie.: You store it instead...

Most soft drinks are loaded with Phosphorous

Phosphorous makes the calcium in your diet unavailable to you - no matter how much calcium you eat as a supplement - you won't get it, the toilet gets it...

Carbonation of soft drinks (the fizzzy part) comes from carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide makes the calcium in your diet unavailable to you - no matter how much calcium you eat as a supplement - you won't get it, the toilet gets it...

The sweeteners used in "diet" soft drinks so closely mimic sugar chemically that they cause the same insulin resistance problems as sugar does and result in weight gain anyway.

So it doesn’t matter if you’re drinking a Diet Coke or a regular Coke

If you have a weight problem why not try giving up the soft (carbonated) drinks altogether for JUST one month; Also - Increase your in-take of low-fat dairy to increase your intake of calcium and see if it makes a difference.

Multiple studies have reported huge weight losses in test subjects who have done this.

Try it - You can put up with anything for one month, right?

Should You Use Ice or Heat On a New Injury?

Whenever I take a new case I try to find out what the person had done to help herself before coming to see me. I like to know as much as possible about her condition all of the different doctors she has been to, all of the different drugs and medications she has taken as well as everything she had done at home.

I do this so I know what has been done (that didn’t work) as well as what might have been done that I might try differently. There is no point in repeating what doesn’t work...

It’s interesting how many people come to me following an injury and report that they hurt themself doing "XYZ" or whatever and when I ask them what they did for it at home to make themself feel better they tell me they put a hot pack on it or they soaked in a hot bath.

I have tried the Hot Soak Method before - (Before I went to chiropractic college)

I have to admit it feels so "sooooooooooooooooothing" when you’re doing it

But do you want to know what it Really does for you?

In a word: It aggravates your problem umteen times over

Heat it today, Tomorrow you can’t get out of bed...

Here’s why- when you injure yourself you tear tissue and that causes swelling

It’s a natural reaction to injury and it can’t be avoided. It will continue to swell for 72 hours following the injury. It’s the way we’re built

That swelling causes more (additional) tearing of surrounding tissue...which leads to more swelling and that to more (additional) tearing. Its causes a chain reaction

Now, when you heat a new injury - that causes swelling also

When you have an injury the last thing you want to do is add to the problem by increasing the swelling.

The best thing to do is use Ice (over a thin barrier to prevent tissue freezing),

This is done 20 minutes ON and 60 minutes OFF for the first 72 hours following the injury.

Ice gives you two favorable results:

1. Reduced swelling

2. Pain relief that is unattainable with heat

I would bet that a large percentage of the people who come to see me Wouldn’t if they had used ice instead of heat...

The Difference Between Healing and Feeling

Am I Getting Better or Just feeling better?

It’s a great question to ask if you’re wondering if you’re if you need more care for your problem or you’re thinking of stopping your care because you’re "feeling" better.

To many people - merely feeling better is enough:

Gloria came in with a back injury and after a few adjustments she stopped coming in for her adjustments. Follow-up calls went un-answered / un-returned and when we finally caught up with her she said she was much better and didn’t need any more care...

6 weeks later she was back in the office with the same complaint but a bit worse, stating: "I don’t know what I did ...It just went out" And: "Just crack me again like the last time and I’ll be fine".

It took a few episodes like that before Gloria found out that feeling better is not the same as being better.

My observation is that if it’s a real problem - real enough to do something about it in the first place - a few quick cracks isn’t likely to fix it for good and to do a proper job, it’s going to take a bit more than a few quick cracks to resolve it. Fixing a bad back involves healing - And healing is a process that takes time.

In many cases, a few adjustments will take the edge of the pain, but the imbalances that caused you to hurt couldn’t possibly be reversed and resolved with a couple of adjustments.

Yes, you can take a pill and feel that the healing process has suddenly accelerated but wait and see what happens when the pill wears off.

Tests that have nothing to do with whether or not it "hurts" need to be done to determine if your spine is getting stronger and healthier.

There is a big difference between healing and feeling.

Copying What Others Have Done

Have you ever had a problem that you didn’t know how to solve or what to do about it? What did you do in the end to solve the problem? Don’t you simply ask a friend what she did when she had that same problem?

If you recently moved here and were new in the area and you had a toothache wouldn’t you ask a neighbor or somebody in the office what dentist they used or recommended?

I think if I had a problem with my car or my boat that I couldn't fix, I wouldn't mess around with it -  I think I would talk to others and look around to find someone else who had had the same problem and do exactly what they had done to fix the problem. If it worked for him, It'll probably work for me too...

It’s the basis of so much TV advertizing - They show Sue Jones, Mrs. Typical Housewife, (Someone they figure you’ll relate to). First they show her very overweight, then as she looks Now after 12 weeks using the Take-Shape-For-Life weight loss program.

It’s just a clever advertizing tool and maybe their representative examples are somewhat contrived to make a point but - in “real life” - Why try to re-invent the wheel when you could... Just copy what someone else has done that apparently worked for her?

Likewise, if your back is giving you constant trouble and you recall someone at the office had had a similar problem with his back 2 months ago and then got better - wouldn’t it make some sense to ask what he did about his problem and then go ask his doctor if the same treatment might help your problem as well?

In the end - Are you really so different that what worked for your neighbor ...wouldn’t work for you too?