Four Ways Back to Health!
4 Ways to a healthier back:
Most of us have experienced moderate to severe neck, mid-back or lower back pain, in fact back pain ranks second only to common cold as the most frequent cause of sick leave in the United States. Contrary to popular belief spines do not just give out, rather it takes months and years for a condition to develop if left untreated. In most cases, any back problems can be prevented with lifestyle changes and habits. What you may not know is how the health of your spine is directly related to your overall health and aging process.
Your spine has many muscles, tendons and ligaments that serve as connections to areas throughout your body. Your spine also houses your nervous system which in turn controls all of your vital organs. Every cell in your body is dependent on the energy that it gets from the brain which travels through your spine. So keeping your spine in top condition is the best things you can do for both your back and your overall health.
1. Lose the Extra Pounds
Most people know that obesity contributes to the development of coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and colon cancer. However, did you know that being overweight is a contributing factor to back pain? It is true. The spine is designed to carry the body’s weight and distribute the loads encountered during rest and activity. When excess weight is carried, the spine is forced to assimilate the burden, which will lead to structural compromise and damage.
2. Get Fit & Strong
While keeping your weight down is important, it is also crucial to strengthen the core muscles and the ligaments around your spine. Lack of exercise and bodily conditioning leads to poor flexibility and weak muscles in the back, pelvis, and thighs. Your increased strength and fitness will keep your joints well lubricated and prevent your body from tightening up, and minimize the chances of debilitating injuries.
3. Sit Straight
Your posture has a direct correlation to your overall health. Examine how you are sitting right now… are your shoulders hunched over? Is your head tilted to one side? Do you have a forward head posture? Do you notice that when you are stressed you tend to slouch more? Poor posture can cause insomnia, general fatigue, headaches, neck pain, tightness in the shoulder blades, numbness and tingling in the arms and legs, as well as a wide range of other issues. By becoming more conscious of your posture and by strengthening your core you can prevent back problems from developing altogether.
4. Schedule a Checkup
As it was mentioned earlier your spine is essential to the overall health of your vital organs because it holds your nervous system. It is highly recommended that anyone who would like to get on the path to a healthy back, to first schedule a complete spine checkup by a specialist to determine if there are any structural issues that need to be addressed first. Give us a call at Wellness Choice Center in Newport Beach, Orange County, and we will set up a time for us to sit down one-on-one to meet and talk about your health concerns. We will study the x-rays and address any core issues prior to starting a strengthening and fitness program. Without a complete checkup, any sudden fitness programs or strengthening exercises could exacerbate your current condition. Call us at 949-847-1333 for a complimentary consultation.
migraine doctor
At Wellness Choice Center, we do not spend money on advertisements, we get all of our business through personal referrals. Patients come in with one condition and leave without it and then they refer their friends and family members. Typically patients who come in with a specific condition such as migraine headaches, they always have friends and family members that suffer from migraine headaches.. It just works that way. Last month in August, I couldnt believe how many patients we had in our office complaining of migraine headaches, so much that I had to blog about it. Almost every single one of them is suffering from a severe kind of headache that interferes with their daily activities. They take exedrin, they have gone to every doctor, neurologist, naturopath, acupuncturist and they have tried cutting out things from their diet… etc. You name it they have done it, but no one has ever looked at their neck for the cause of the problem. All of the patients coming in with migraine headaches showed major degeneration of their cervical spine (neck) as well as a lack of curve in their neck. They all suffer from a forward head posture and have tight muscles in their neck area. No wonder they have migraine headaches. their neck is working four times as much just to hold their head up! Anyways.. if you are suffering from migraine headaches needlessly and have tried everything, don’t give up. Have an expert check your cervical spine. If you are in Orange County, you can call us for a complimentary one-on-one consultation with one of our experts @ Wellness Choice Center. Call 949.387.1333
Before you consider spinal surgery…
Before You Consider Spinal Surgery:
Your nervous system is the most important asset to your health. Your health is a direct reflection of how your nerves flow energy throughout your entire musculoskeletal and visceral organ systems (Heart, Lungs, Intestines, etc). Your nervous system is the only system in your body that is completely encapsulated and protected by bone. Your spine/back bone houses the nervous system with 26 vertebrae shielding them from any damage. Thus it is extremely important to make sure your spine is extremely stable.
A disc herniation, a bulging disc, compressed disc, or a ruptured disc are all terms that describe irritation of the nerves. This is due to the rupture of a less elastic disc which creates a bulge out from between vertebrae. This process puts a lot of pressure on the spinal nerves as well as the spinal cord and can cause severe pain in the area.
Electric Shock Pain:
Pressure on the nerve can cause abnormal sensations, commonly described as electric shock pains. When compression occurs, a lot of patients will feel shooting pain down their arms/hands or legs.
Tingling and Numbness
Patients often experience tingling, numbness, or pins and needles sensation in the innervated areas (usually in the upper or lower extremities).
Muscle Weakness
When the nerves exit the spine, each will innervate a specific group of muscles, and is responsible for their strength, sensation, and general function. In a case of nerve irritation, signals from the brain may be interrupted causing muscle weakness, loss of reflexes, as well as lack of or decreased sensation.
Bowel or Bladder problems:
The exiting nerves from the spine will also innervate and control your organ systems such as bladder, lower digestive organs, and reproductive organs. In more severe cases of a disc herniation, patients will experience constipation, irregular bladder function, infertility or sexual dysfunction.
Four non-invasive therapy methods before you consider surgery:
1. Spinal Decompression Therapy
Non-surgical Spinal Decompression Therapy is your best bet if you are suffering from a herniated disc. I have personally treated hundreds of patients with this form of therapy with great results, but you have to understand that not everyone with a disc bulge is a candidate for this treatment. Please consult your chiropractic doctor to see if you are a good candidate.
2. Chiropractic Manipulations, and Manual Therapy
Chiropractic management of a herniated disc has shown to be effective when combined with other methods. Therapy may include pelvic traction, myofascial release, cryotheray, ultrasound, electrical muscle stimulation, and stretching exercises.
3. Yoga and Specific Exercise Programs
In some patients, the pain response may limit their flexibility. Prescribed stretching exercises that are monitored by a health care professional can help widen the space that the bulge is protruding out of and alleviate pain. These exercises can help maintain the spine’s natural lordotic curve, but must be under supervision of your physician in order to prevent any additional damage to your spine.
4. Natural Anti-inflammatories
Typical prescribed drugs for an acute disc may include muscle relaxants, narcotics, steroid, and anti-depressants. If you are choosing the natural way, you should try Omega 3/Fish oil to reduce inflammation. Staying away from red meat and dairy products can also reduce the inflammation in and around the disc. Drinking a lot of water will also hydrate your discs and helps with replenishment. Icing your lower back (even though the pain may be in your buttock or legs), and icing your neck will also help reduce the pain.
5. Prolotherapy
The most invasive procedure before surgery is prolotherapy. If you are choosing this, you have exhausted all your other non-invasive methods. This treatment consists of the injection of a proliferant solution into the area of pain. The solution will cause controlled inflammation at the site of injury and your ‘repairing cells’ will show up at the area to rebuild the ligaments and tendons. As with many treatments, prolotherapy is not without risks and side effects.
In summary, a combination of these non-invasive treatments would be ideal and can manage your pain and help reduce the disc bulge. Consult with your physician to best benefit from this information. If you reside in Orange County, give us a call for a complimentary consultation @ 949-387-1333
Pillow Talk
We tend to apply ergonomics when it comes to waking activities or sitting at a desk; utilizing the correct sleep posture is just as important as your waking posture as you spend 5-8 hours in that position every night. Our sleep posture often doesn’t get the attention it deserves and it is extremely important to pay more attention to our bodies when they’re not in motion. Whether you have felt every bone complaining or whether you are curious to see if you could be getting better sleep, make sure you know the correct sleeping posture.
The key to understanding sleeping posture is to think about where your body curves are. The two major ones that need to be supported throughout sleep are your neck and lower back.
What is the best position for sleeping?
The best lying or sleeping position may vary, depending on your symptoms or structure of your spine. No matter what position you lie in, the pillow should be under your head, but not your shoulders, and should be a thickness that allows your head to be in a normal position.
1. Try to sleep in a position which helps you maintain the curves in your neck and back. Sleeping on your back is the most ergonomically correct sleeping position, as long as you are using the right type of pillow. If you sleep on your back, you’ve won half the battle. Make sure to use a thinner but supportive pillow. If you use a think pillow or multiple pillows, they can stretch and strain your neck muscles. Your head needs to be in a neutral position for the 8 hours that you sleep, and multiple pillows under your head only bring your head forward and can cause a variety of problems.
2. If you are a side sleeper having a hard time switching to sleep on your back, all you have to do is use a few pillows to modify your sleeping posture for better and restful sleep, less aches, and more energy during the day. Use a thinker pillow for your head; since you sleep on your side, you want to create the most neutral position for your head with a thicker pillow to support your neck and head. Also add another pillow in between your knees to create symmetry and a better posture. This will help take any pressure off your lower back and hip
3. If you sleep on your stomach, do everything in your power not to. This is the worse sleeping posture and there’s not much to modify here. Keep in mind, it may take months to train your body to change and or modify your sleeping posture, but it is doable.
4. Finally, when standing up from the lying position, turn on your side, draw up both knees and swing your legs on the side of the bed. Sit up by pushing yourself up with your hands. Avoid bending forward at your waist.
Overcome your sinusitis today!
Forty million Americans suffer from sinusitis. You may have experienced acute sinusitis in which the nasal cavities of the nasal passages become inflamed, mucus is built up and it blocks drainage. This maybe following a cold, and you have symptoms such as painful pressure behind cheekbones, headaches, nasal congestion etc… For some people this is not a temporary problem. If you have chronic sinusitis, you spend majority of each year experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, facial pain, headaches, mucus secretion, bad breath, post nasal drip, and etc.
1. Get steamy
Take a hot shower or better yet try steam treatment to help rid you of the inflamed mucus. The steam you breathe can be enhanced with sinus-clearing essential oils. Try adding Eucalyptus, lavender, oregano or peppermint to a large bowl of steaming-hot water. Drape a towel over your head and the bowl, and breathe deeply for 10 minutes. You’ll feel relief within that time.
If you are short on time, apply a warm wash cloth over your eyes and cheekbones for relief.
1. Get fit
Aerobic exercises at least three times a week can help drain sinuses naturally, which then reduces inflammation and risk of an infection. Physical activity helps cleansing you of toxins and relieve accumulated stress. Dawn’s info or link?
1. Flush the sinuses
Make sure you use a saline solution that does not contain preservatives; they can impair your nasal function. To make your own preservative-free saline solution, add one table spoon of non-iodized salt to one pint of distilled water and rinse your sinuses, and nasal passages with it daily.
1. What to eat
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables and staying away from sugar, dairy products, wheat, alcohol, and foods that can increase mucus inflammation is key in staying healthy, and avoiding those sinusitis episodes all together. Take your natural anti-inflammatory (e.g. fish oil). Try adding garlic, onions, horseradish, hot pepper and ginger added to any soup broth to open up the sinuses. Drink lots of hot herbal tea.
1. Killer immune system
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you exercise, eat right and your nervous system is functioning properly, you shouldn’t be suffering from any aches, pains, tiredness etc…
Your brain controls everything and it communicates with all of your organs through the nervous system/spine. If you have an abnormal neck curve, you have a low resistance immune system which in majority of cases does not cause any symptoms. So get your immune system checked before it’s too late. Also check out this post about Immune System!
Is your sinusitis life-threatening?
In addition to being painful, a chronic sinusitis can be dangerous and in rare cases causes blindness or even death. You may have tried anti-biotics for your sinus infection; unfortunately antibiotics kill the helpful bacteria in your gastro-intestinal system and can cause a variety of other problems if taken frequently. Before your sinusitis becomes more than just a head and face pain, prevent it.
Call 949.387.1333 in order to avoid sinusitis being a detrement to your health! We serve Orange County, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, or Irvine.
Obama’s view on Chiropractic…
Dear friends,
Doctors of chiropractic now make up over 60,000 licensed professionals in all fifty states, and care for millions of Americans every year. Almost a quarter of Iowans receive quality chiropractic care every year. As you know, chiropractic care is low-cost, drug-free, noninvasive, and has been shown to have a positive impact on patients’ health. I believe steps should be taken to acknowledge the important care chiropractors provide and knock down unreasonable barriers of access and discriminatory insurance coverage that stand between so many patients and the care they need.
I have a plan to support doctors of chiropractic. First, I support expanding the range of chiropractic services covered by Medicare. Medicare currently provides reimbursement only for chiropractic adjustments, even though doctors of chiropractic are trained and licensed in all fifty states to provide range of other Medicare-covered services. I support reimbursement reform that will reward and reimburse those who deliver high quality care and whose patients achieve good health outcomes, without restrictions against chiropractors or other health care professionals licensed to provide such care.
Second, I recognize that neither the Department of Veterans Affairs nor the Department of Defense has achieved full integration of the services of doctors of chiropractic into their health systems despite direction from Congress. I support careful examination into the policy and practical barriers that restrict access to such services in order to remedy this problem.
Third, I support commissioning doctors of chiropractic as officers in the Uniformed Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is comprised of approximately 6,000 public health professionals dedicated to delivering the nation’s public health promotion and disease prevention programs and advancing public health science. Given the critical role that doctors of chiropractic serve in each of these functions, I believe that we should commission chiropractors as officers in the uniformed Corps.
Finally, under the universal health care plan I have proposed, Americans will have access to a public insurance plan that will include comprehensive coverage, including all essential health care benegits. Benefits that are evidence based or meet the current accepted standard of care would be eligible for coverage, and as such many, if not all, chiropractic services provided by doctors of chiropractic would be included in the public benefit package.
My health plan also prioritizes preventative care, and chiropractors play a significant role in this effort. As we shift our health care delivery system towards a culture of well and disease prevention, I believe that chiropractors must play an integral role in expanding access to preventative care and strengthening our public health system.
I look forward to discussing these important issues with you over the course of the next several months.
Sincerely
Barack Obama
How can Chiropractic Help with Blood Pressure?
Most people come to chiropractors in hopes of getting rid of the aches in their back and neck. In my office however, we educate patients on all other benefits of chiropractic. Your posture is a representative of your spine and your spine is extremely important; it holds and protects your nervous system. Your nervous system is THE MOST important organ system in your body because it controls EVERYTHING! one of the most VITAL things it controls is your heart. Sometimes due to the stresses that we have in our lives, some sudden, and some overtime, the spine will shift out of place and shuts down the nerve into a specific organ or musculoskeletal unit. Irregular heart beat, high blood pressure, or difficulty breathing often times are caused by these shifts in the spine. Most postural dysfunctions are asymptomatic, but often times patients who come in with high blood pressure with have an abnormal posture or misaligned spine in their neck and mid back area. Chiropractic care can help regulate blood pressure the natural way and without ANY medication! Check this video about natural ways of controlling blood pressure, and once you are ready to put your health first and help yourself to natural ways of lowering your blood pressure, give us a call at 949.387.1333 for a consultation.
6 natural ways to beat allergies
Here are top 6 ways to beat your allergies this spring:
1. Correct your ‘allergy posture’
Your brain communicates to every cell in your body through your nervous system. The information gets sent down into your neck and then the rest of your body. If you have a misalignment in your neck that is blocking life and energy into the rest of your body, the communication is stopped. The goal of chiropractic care is to located these blocks that are causing major stress on your body and thus enable the immune system to communicate more effectively with the nervous system.
2. Eat allergy-fighting food
Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids help fight inflammation and can be found in cold-water fish, walnuts and flaxseed oil. Garlic, onions, ginger, turmeric, citrus fruits like lemon and oranges also contain natural anti-histamines.
3. Aqua therapy
This natural allergy remedy simply involves drinking lots of liquids to help flush out mucus. However, when you hydrate, you also need minerals to hold onto the water.
Hot liquids can help rid your of congestion. Mint and Green tea work well and contain lots of anti-oxidants that will keep you young as a ‘side-effect’ too. Stay away from black tea, coffee, milk, alcohol and anything with preservatives and additives in it.
4. Beneficial Bugs
Healthy gut flora is essential for wellness of the immune system. Probiotics are the natural and beneficial bacteria in your gut that contribute to your overall health. Disturbed flora can deplete your gut of normal flow of good bacteria. Probiotics can replenenish your source of good bacteria in your gut, and stimulate your immune system in order to prevent you from developing allergies and treating them.
5. Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar contains many healing properties and is often used to ease the symptoms of sinus infection as well as to treat allergies developed from exposure to pets, foods, and various environmental agents. In addition to being rich in vitamins E, A, B1, B2 and B6, apple cider vinegar contains potassium, calcium, and magnesium. It reduces the amount of mucus in the sinus cavities, soothes sore throats, and will shorten the duration of colds.
6. Raw local honey
There are reports that eating honeycomb that comes from the area where you live can relieve symptoms of allergy. The theory is that by chewing a little honeycomb made by local bees you can desensitize yourself to local pollens. Try it daily before allergy season starts so that you build resistance against it. A spoonful a day will keep allergies away!
Call us if you have any questions 949.387.1333
Allergies and Immune System
Allergies are ‘abnormal’ responses of your immune system to substances that are typically harmless. Now why would your brain and nervous system send wrong information regarding these harmless substances to your immune system and most likely the rest of your body? The answer is miscommunication and interference with your nervous system.
Think of the immune system as a well-trained and disciplined bio-weapon that protects the body from harmful substances, with the help of a two-way communication from the brain/nervous system, it identifies and destroys foreign and trouble invaders. If your brain and nervous system are having a hiccup communicating which substances are harmful and which are not, you end up sneezing, coughing, and getting teary eyed every time a harmless substance enters your body.
There are many reasons why your immune system would not be functioning at its best. The main one is having a nervous system that is not functioning correcting. Your spine holds and protects your nervous system; thus make sure your spine is alligned and your immune system is communicating well with the rest of your body! At Wellness Choice Center, our Newport Beach office, we can determine if there is a lack of communication between your nervous system and immune system; and this is one of many ways we help patients with allergies on daily basis. Call us at 949.387.1333 if you have any questions.
TMJ and Chiropractic
TMJ (tempora-mandibular joint) dysfuntion is one of the most commonly ignored condition in which the jaw joint is misaligned. The misaligned joint can be caused by clenching the jaw at nights due to emotional, physical or chemical stress. Structural misalignments can cause pain at the jaw, clicking, temporal headaches, middle ear aches, and much more. It’s not common knowledge that Chiropractors can treat TMJ issues, but ask your chiropractor about it. You’d be surprised how much of a difference it can make. If you are in the newport beach area, and suffering from Jaw pain, give us a call at 949.387.1333 to make an appointment for a consultation. Good luck!
