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A Possible Cause of Unexplained New Aches and Pains.

 Do you have a “new” ailment that has you wondering… “What caused this or where

           did this come from?”

 True - It could be a recent injury you had, but if it was that – there wouldn’t be all that much mystery to it. Of course, you’d remember that you lifted something wrong yesterday or you fell down on the ice.

 Sometimes it’s just a matter of connecting the dots – What have you been doing differently lately? 

 Something worth looking at is what or how you have changed in your diet.

 Believe it or not - what you’re eating too much of can sometimes cause muscle pain in your neck, back or else-where in your body. 

 A good example is eating walnuts and pecans and other nuts. They’re very good for you. They’re full of omega 3 oils and anti-oxidants and all that good stuff. So is Vitamin B3. So is avocado. So is flax seed oil.

They are all good for you. You would certainly do better having them than doing without them.

But - not lots of them, together, all of the time. Not in “binge-mode”

                              Too much of a good thing = a bad thing.

 All of those so very-good-for-you foods contain phyto-statins or sterol compounds which function just like Lipitor, Crestor and Symbastatin which are used to lower your cholesterol.

 And, just like the statin drugs Lipitor and Crestor that are known to cause soft tissue (tendon and ligament) failure – including too many walnuts, pecans, avocado, peanuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, cantaloupe, corn, flax seed oil, omega 3 oil, etc., in your diet will similarly, also lead to tendon injury. This is especially true if you’re exercising regularly and then you begin to ramp up and increase your work out.

 If you find yourself suffering with a new and persistent pain that appears to have come out of no-where or maybe it looks like an “over-use” injury – why not take a good look at what you have been eating lately.

 You might surprise yourself and come upon the cause of your pain.  

Test it  - Do an elimination diet such that you eliminate the suspect food for a while and see if the pains go away. If they do - start eating them again and see if the pains return and when they do - eliminate them a second time. Then when the pains stop a second time you'll know for sure.  

Is it Your Back or is it Your Front?

Often, a person will complain of back pain and give some version / scenario for why his back is giving him trouble relating some accident or incident that occurred recently. It is interesting how most people are surprised their back went out - like they never expected it. 

           And then I look and see that his belly is sticking out so far he can’t see you know what without a mirror.

  Actually, the reason his back went out is pretty much all he can see – he just doesn’t recognize it as the cause. 

What many don’t realize is that the muscles of the abdomen are every bit as important to supporting the back as the back muscles are.

 A good example is a sailboat – if you look at a sailboat you’ll see four tight wires supporting the mast (that’s the tall skinny thingy in the middle that holds up the sail (the big white thingy that looks like somebody’s bed sheets hanging out to dry…)

 There is a tight wire in the front, the back and one on each side – all equally tight in order to hold the mast up nice and straight.

Now that you are an expert in the anatomy of sailboat…picture what would happen if ONE of those wires were to be too loose.

 Do you think that the mast would continue to stand up straight?  Or, do you think it might lean or even fall over to the other side.

 That’s what happens to the spine (back bones) when it’s not supported right. There are muscles on all four sides of the spine – (just like the sailboat mast wires) - each there to support the spine and keep it up nice and straight.

So, if the abdominal muscles are all stretched out and weak because your stomach is out to there…                    Guess what? – It’s not supporting your spine any longer.

No support means only one thing – you’re heading for a breakdown. Who knows when exactly? - It could be today, tomorrow or next week sometime. Most likely it will not be at a convenient time.

 But then again, is there ever a convenient time to have your back go out on you?

One thing you can do is get it checked and find out:

1)      Are you’re at risk of it going out?

2)      Are you’re on the verge of it going out?   and…

3)      What can you do to avoid it going out? 

Wouldn’t you like to know?  Or do you just like surprises?

Call our office (845-297-6688), before April 15, 2011, (show a copy of this blog entry), and we will check your back (and your front) and give our recommendations at half off of our usual fee. Uncle Sam isn’t giving any breaks but we are.  Unfortunately, however and sorry to say - but by law, we cannot extend this offer to anyone on Medicare. Not our idea.

Consistency in Golf Performance and Alignment of the Spine and Hips

 

It’s the end of February and you’re probably already thinking about golf.

While you’re probably ready mentally, something to think about first is… Are you ready physically?

 I know many people still think of chiropractic merely as a means to end back pain, but it also has a place in Pre-season Conditioning.

 Before you wrap your driver around a tree in frustration – try wrapping your head around this first:

  You may have spent a fortune with the Pro on lessons and practice but if your spine, neck, hips, shoulders – If your body is out of alignment it won’t matter –

             You will still not hit where you want to, with speed, power and…consistently.

 Do you know how to tell if your spine and hips are out of alignment?

 There are many tests we do in the office but you can check yourself in the comfort of your own home.

 Stand in front of the bathroom mirror and observe your shoulder and hip line by comparing it to the horizontal lines of the bottom of the mirror and grout lines of the tiles.               

                 Not level? – You’re not in alignment. Chiropractic adjustments will fix that.

If your left shoulder is higher the than the right, when you swing – you will slice. If the right is higher you’ll hit with a hook.

 In the front view your neck should be straight upright. Check it in the mirror. If your neck leans to the right but your head leans to the left you will hit with a slice.

 Sit on the edge of your bed and drag yourself backwards (using your arms only to do so) and lay flat, face-up. Now, without moving your legs as you do so, sneak a look at your feet. They should be flared, toes outward, evenly forming approximately a 90 degree angle. Is your right foot flaring more-so than the left?  Is so – your hips are twisted out of alignment and you need an adjustment or you will hit with a hook.         

 Why are you like this? Because of prior injuries and / or because of your posture habits - The way you sit at your computer, the way you sleep, the way you stand at your job, the way you sit in your car, etc.

                Is it correctable?   Usually these misalignments are correctable.  

Do these mis-alignments cause pain? Sometimes they do. Usually they increase your risk of injury. Often, they don’t cause any pain until weeks or months later. Pain is often an unreliable indicator of some problems.

 If you don’t fix the problem though, your golf game will be inconsistent at best. You will not be able to control where you’re hitting, the speed and power of your swing will be less than you would expect and all the lessons and practice in the world will not improve it nearly as much as simply fixing the misalignments will.

 If you call before March 31, 2011 you can have at no cost or obligation our

               Golf Pre-season Alignment & Flexibility Assessment

 Following this assessment we will give you our best recommendations to improve your golf game this coming season.

To receive this free, no-obligation Pre-season Alignment & Flexibility Assessment all you need to do is call our appointment secretary at 845-297-6688 and request an appointment for your Free Golf Pre-season Alignment & Flexibility Assessment.       

 

Assumptions about Back Pain Relief

 Taking care of a back problem is much like getting into shape at the gym, losing weight, taking care of your teeth or taking care of your car.

                          There is a process involved.

 We know that as we get older, to keep that 20 year-old “look” a little longer, or to get into, or just “stay in shape” requires working out, perhaps at a gym, for example.

 We know that to lose weight requires more than skipping lunch on Wednesdays.

 We know that our teeth are going to need to be brushed and flossed daily in order to keep them pain-free and without decay.

 We know that our car will require a regular oil change, a tune up and other maintenance to continue running as well in the 7^th year we own it as it did when we first drove it home.

 It’s the same thing with your back problem.

       It doesn’t just get “better” for all the wishing and hoping.

It doesn’t happen because you took a handful of Motrin which makes you unaware of your problem.

                   - There is a specific process involved to get the desired results.

 The process is specific because it involves specific adjustments to specific spinal joints on a specific schedule with specific exercises to strengthen specific weak areas, plus specific changes in lifestyle and postural habits.  

                        It’s not a miracle that it works so well.

How Can a Chiropractic Adjustment Affect Your Health?

 

 To many people chiropractic care is merely a way to reduce or help an aching back.

                 ... Because it does, in fact, do a great job at that.

 

What most don’t realize is that there’s much more to it.

 Back in the day, around about 1895, people were getting adjusted, not for back pain, but for illnesses ranging from cancer to gall bladder and gastro-intestinal problems to respiratory problem including asthma to diabetes and all of the things one would think only a MD could help you with.

 It only became a “remedy” for back pain in the 1960’s when most states began licensing chiropractors and insurance began to cover it – for back pain.

 

So, what is the connection between getting your neck adjusted and your health?

 The answer is very complex but the Cliff  Notes version is that the nervous system actually directs and controls everything that happens in the body. There is a nerve connecting every single cell, organ and gland in your body  - to your brain. That’s the part of your body that controls everything else.

 There’s actually more than that as there are nerves that give you sensation and there are also nerves that make things happen or function. The nerves are like a wiring system that carries an electric signal between the brain the body part - to make it work.

Mess with those nerves and things start to go wrong. Maybe not immediately, but over time you will see your health decline. Some will say it is due to getting older but lots of older people don’t have the same problem. So age is not the issue.

Look at what happens when you injure your lower back – you typically get sciatica.

That is pain in the back of the leg caused by irritation to the nerve coming out of the lower back where you tore a ligament or disc which is now swollen and bulging against the nerve… again - irritate a nerve the wrong way and you get a function failure.

The same thing can happen in every other part of the neck and spine.

If something isn’t working properly, say your gall bladder isn’t working right, something had to go wrong with the nerves controlling it.

Look at what happens when you bang your “funny bone”. You are actually stimulating a nerve in your elbow and it causes an impulse to be sent down to your little finger. No harm done, no big deal – you just stimulated a sensory nerve; It's a short lasting effect.

A similar effect (without the “Zing” down your arm), can be created by adjusting the spine.  Chiropractic adjustments have the same affect of stimulating and sending a controlled impulse along the course of a specific motor nerve to a target organ to stimulate it to function at better.     

When an individual is ill and she gets adjusted the adjustment sends health-improving impulses along the appropriate nerves to make her body start to respond and function on a higher level the way it is supposed to.

Of course it always makes sense to be a little proactive and get adjusted before your health declines. If one were to get adjusted on a regular basis those healthy nerve impulses would always be getting sent throughout the nervous system and you might never become ill.  

As you can see this is a much different approach then main stream medicine which tries to reverse illness by drugging or medicating the patient so she doesn’t feel the effect of the organ or body part NOT working right because that “electric” signal between the brain and the organ isn’t transmitting properly.

If your battery wire is disconnected putting a gas stabilizing additive in the tank isn’t going to make the car start. 

Avoid Re-occurring Back Pain. Here's How -

 

Our office has always enjoyed a very good track record for helping people’s back pains.

          We’re very good at catching horses once they’re out of the barn.

It is said that as many as 80 % of all adults have some form of re-occurring back problem, so it comes as no surprise that one of the biggest questions we get asked is WHY or HOW did my back pain start and how can I avoid it from coming back?

It really doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to keep fixing the same problem and not address     how to avoid it.

 As part of our effort to help people to be a bit proactive and AVOID the problems all together - we have developed a program of back ( and neck…), pain avoidance steps to take that are far less expensive than treating the problem once it has you on the floor, unable to get up.   

Don’t get carried away here. There’s, obviously no guarantees, but if one were to take these steps you could reasonably expect to experience far fewer episodes.

The buzz word for avoiding back problems is simply motion.  Motion is your friend.

 You certainly might not feel like that once your back is all jacked-up but if you keep it moving you will, very likely, rarely get to that point.

 There are other very important parts to this program but that is why the centerpiece of our back pain avoidance program is motion oriented.

                                        How does this work?     

1.  You will first come to our office in Wappingers so that we can test you, to minimize your risk of causing any new injury and determine that you can actually do the drill without causing more damage.

2.   Then you will meet with our personal trainer at our local gym who will guide you through our exercise drill. If you are not a member of any gym or you do not own your own exercise equipment – you will be encouraged to join one. There are several in the area to choose from. 

Don’t worry – weight lifting is not involved in this program, other than proper foot wear, no special clothes to wear, no sweating and really nothing that the average person cannot do. No special skills required and there's nothing to feel insecure about

 The beauty of it all is that it is so effective and it only takes about 25 – 30 minutes.

You will do it every other day for 2 weeks and then increase it incrementally ( a little at a time).

3.  Two weeks later we will test you to see how you’re progressing to being pain free, injury resistant and on your way to not having to be “thinking” about your back every day.

If you’re feeling a little intimidated or even skeptical…That’s to be expected so why not give us a call and we’ll explain it further.

  There’s really no need to continually have your back risk ruining your day – we can show you how to avoid it ever giving you trouble again.

  We’re just a phone call away – Call today for details:  845-297-6688    

 You can do this now or see us later after the horse is out of the barn…

 

 

 

Have Your New Years Resolutions “Stalled”?

Or, are you following through with them?

By the time the holidays are finally over most of us have put on a few extra pounds.

Many people I talk to, however, are at the point that they’re very close to simply giving up. They are so disgusted with themselves that they don’t even try anymore to control their weight.

The good news is it’s never too late to get things under control.

There are simple in-expensive ways to lose weight and get into shape and regain your youthful flexibility and health.

It is not engraved in stone that you must be over weight, out of shape and developing Type II  Diabetes.

At Hannigan Chiropractic we have partnered, in effect, with Medifast or Take Shape for Life to help you lose weight faster (and less expensively) then any other of the name- brand weight loss systems.

This program is also one of the safest on the market because it is one of the only ones actually developed by medical doctors (at John’s Hopkins Research Hospital), for people who desperately needed to lose weight fast for heart related problems.      

Hannigan Chiropractic became involved with Medifast for a similar reason. We felt we were not doing our patients any service if we merely did the chiropractic without helping the underlying cause of the patient’s problem…which was their weight.

In our effort to encourage our patients to get into shape and improve their over-all conditioning, one of the services we provide to our patients is to take them as our guest to the local gym and provide them with and then guide them through a basic “starter workout” program to get them going and then to follow up with them at a later date to ensure they are following our recommendations.

If you need help with your New Years Resolutions let us help you. Call (845-297-6688), for a free evaluation of your body mass index and a basic pre-work-out evaluation including blood pressure screening and a flexibility test.

Then we can design a work out just for you that we will walk you through, basically holding your hand until you get it down the way it needs to be done to give you the most benefit.

Then we can work on lowering your body mass index and your weight with Take Shape for Life.

If you call and come in for weight-loss before the end of January there's a nice savings waiting for you but you have to hurry or you'll miss it and if you bring a friend for the workout program session at the gym your fee for the session wil be waived. 

We're trying to make this easy for you but you have to hurry. By February ...New Years Resolutions aren't fresh and don't carry as much weight anymore         

Did you ever think you might be able to be or at least feel young again?

           You really can!

Realizing and achieving your New Years Resolution is just a phone call away.

It is much easier and more fun to do it with a friend so - bring a friend, or just email this to her so she can hound you into going.

Call today: 845-297-6688            

Feeling the Storm?

 

Have you ever wondered why you ache more just before the storm?

 

It’s actually for the same reason deep sea divers feel pain in their joints if they come up from depth too fast.

 

It’s due to unbalanced pressures.

 

The air around us exerts pressure on us because of the weight of the atmosphere pressing down from all the way up to top of the atmosphere near the edge of space.

 

The weight of the atmosphere is about 14.7 lbs. per square inch.   

 

That’s on a good day.

 

If the weather is going to be turning bad it is typically due to a change or reduction in that pressure.

 

We’re getting a storm tonight and the barometer (a device used to measure the air pressure) is already showing that the pressure is dropping.

 

It’s not a huge drop, but the pressure inside your joints is balanced to match that original 14.7 lbs. / sq. inch.

 

Now it’s not balanced anymore and even a slight difference is going to feel magnified by the pressure on the inside pressing outward against the lesser (outside) pressure pressing in from outside.

 

Why don’t all of my joints hurt then?

 

Only the joints that have been previously injured or are already slightly irritated / inflamed for other reasons are going to feel the pressure changes.

 

Having a joint “stuck”, not moving properly or even slightly out of alignment will cause it to be irritated and become inflamed and thus hurt with weather changes.

 

That is one of the benefits of safe modern chiropractic care. Regular chiropractic care can prevent your joints from hurting when the weather changes. 

How to Fight a Cold

When you have a good fight on your hands it’s a good idea to know the enemy.

 The “enemy” here, is a virus.

      Viruses are around us all of the time, but that doesn't mean you're going to catch every one of them.

Also, no one can give you their cold. You catch a cold only if your resistance is down making you receptive to it.

        Viruses don’t want you when you’re strong and healthy.

                       They want you when you're weak and your resistance is down as when …

• You're cold or feeling chilled.

Feeling chilled lowers your resistance almost more than anything else. Notice how you rarely get a cold in the summer except when going in and out of air-conditioned buildings?

 Stay warm, always dress in layers, wear your coat and hat if going outdoors.

• When you’re dehydrated - Your body needs water as much as food to function.  

Drink lots of water - 4-6 bottles per day        

• When you’re undernourished – Poor nutrition doesn’t supply the proteins and minerals the body needs to function best. What happens when you run your car run on the wrong gas?  It runs...poorly.  

 Eat balanced meals, at home, at least 3 times per day including protein, veggies, fiber and a small amount of carbohydrates.   

• When you’re exhausted – It’s like driving your car at 80 mph for days on end – you’ll wear it out & break down.   

Get to bed and get a regular, uniform night of sleep every night on a set schedule. Know when to quit every day and take a break - there's always a tomorrow.  

• When you’re stressed out – Too much stress (mental, emotional, or physical), and you start making too much cortisol which weakens your immune system. Back Pain is a stress.

        Save time every day to play, get some exercise and have some fun to alleviate the stress in your life. It's like what they say about who to pay first when you get your paycheck - yourself  

• When you’re out of adjustment – it directly affects your nerve system and this directly affects your immune system. One bone in your neck out of alignment can so stress your nerve system and… thus your immune system that you could easily catch a cold or many other problems as    well.                                                                                                                                                           Get adjusted regularly. The over-all effect on your immune system cannot be overstated. Chiropractors don't just do it because it's a business - it's a lifestyle  

All six of the above are important to raising your resistance but correcting any one or ALL of the first five together will not have nearly the same effect as correcting the sixth all by itself.

 So, your best defense against catching and / or fighting a cold is to become an in-hospitable host to the virus that causes it – make yourself so strong that you resist it.

Try it – The next time you start to feel like you’re starting to catch a cold - get adjusted as soon as possible and see what happens – You’ll be amazed.

What’s Your New Year’s Resolution Going To Be?

Let's start the new year off right –

 

Many people think that as they age – That they have to fall apart.

 That's not necessarily true.

The good news is life does not have to be a slippery slope.

         Your health and over-all condition is the cumulative result of all of the choices and decisions you make along the way, not just when you’re chips are down.

  - Every year at this time we all make “New Year’s Resolutions”

                   If not now …I guess – then, when?

But, here’s a crazy idea:  Why not, instead of making a resolution to take an active role in your health and condition, really make a commitment to do so.

 To make a commitment to do this you must not just quietly decide to do it – you have to boldly tell EVERYBODY you know that you’re going to do it.

That way you can’t back out or at least some of those you told you were going to do it are going to call you out on it. 

Commitments are like goals, and for a “goal” to work you have to write it down on a card and look at it every day and also (very important) - tell everybody you know that you are going to do it.

         So go write it down that you are going to…

 

       1 Get into shape – Call my office 845-297-6688 and ask for our simple / basic            

                   conditioning workout program to be sent  (it’s free)

       2 Lose weight - how much? Call my office and give us your weight & height and          

              we’ll tell you how much you need to lose and show you how easy it is to do it.

       3 Cut out the excessive starch, processed food, refined sugars and trans-fats.

       4 Increase your water intake to improve over-all body hydration levels

       5 Cut out the indiscriminate over-the-counter drug use.

       6 Call your chiropractor or if you don't have one ...call us and come in for a free check up          

          (please call 845-297-6688 for an appointment) and

              find out how to really improve and enhance your health as well as your over-all                        

              performance without taking drugs.

 

Just another thought – Whenever you’re trying to do something (assuming you wish to do it well…), doesn’t it make sense to look around you and see just how others (who are already successful at it), are doing it?    

                 It's already done. Why re-invent the wheel?  

 It’s no small coincidence that chiropractors just happen to be the healthiest of all health-care providers with the greatest longevity of any doctors. More chiropractors are involved in more competitive, strenuous, sometimes extreme, endurance sports than any other kind of docs.

                      – Because they can.