Chiropractic care has been helping family have vital lives for over 100 years. Vital health expression is the result of a properly aligned spine, a healthy lifestyle, and a positive mental attitude. If you’re like most families you want a safe and natural health care solution. Drugs all have side effects, and these don’t necessarily affect you when you take them. It can happen years later. More and more people are choosing Chiropractic care FIRST, because it makes good sense. No other form of health care is safer.
spine
Why Chiropractic: Prevention
Many people think that because there is no pain present, that they are healthy. Regular chiropractic care allows your body to function normally and correctly. It is a scientific fact that imbalance (dysfunction) in your spine can cause an adverse effect to the overall health of you and those around you, such as your family. You may not ‘feel’ bad, but if something is wrong, the organs are affected. If chiropractic care starts at birth, you can achieve a higher level of health and wellness throughout life…naturally!
Is Your Neck Pain Serious?
When is a pain in the neck more than just a pain in the neck? When is it the sign that something more serious may be involved?
Typically, neck pain is caused by a muscle strain, and one side of the neck may experience more pain more than the other. But when neck pain is accompanied by other symptoms, it may be a cause for concern. Neck pain with weakness in the arms and tingling in the fingers may indicate herniated disc, which is pressure on a nerve root due to a narrowing of the spinal cord canal. Chiropractors are experts at being able to distinguish different types of neck problems, so make that call.
Improve Your Posture
Identify good posture. Good posture is nothing more than keeping your body in alignment. What it looks like when standing is a straight back, squared shoulders, chin up, chest out, stomach in. If you can draw a straight line from your earlobe through your shoulder, hip, knee, to the middle of your ankle—you’ve got it.
- Using a mirror, align your ears, shoulders, and hips. Proper alignment places your ears loosely above your shoulders, above your hips. Again, these points make a straight line, but the spine itself curves in a slight ‘S’. You’ll find that this doesn’t hurt at all. If you do experience pain, look at your side view in a mirror to see if you’re forcing your back into an unnatural position.
- The spine has two natural curves that you need to maintain called the ‘double C’ or ‘S’ curves, these are the curves found from the base of your head to your shoulders and the curve from the upper back to the base of the spine. When standing straight up, make sure that your weight is evenly distributed on your feet. You might feel like you are leaning forward, and look stupid, but you don’t.
Stretching for Back Pain Relief
Almost everyone can benefit from stretching the soft tissues – the muscles, ligaments and tendons – in the back, legs, buttock, and around the spine. The spinal column and its contiguous muscles, ligaments and tendons are all designed to move, and limitations in this motion can make back pain worse.
Patients with ongoing back pain may find it takes weeks or months of stretching and other back exercises to mobilize the spine and soft tissues, but will find that meaningful and sustained relief of back pain will usually follow the increase in motion.
Keep the following in mind when starting a stretching routine as part of a program of back exercises:
- Wear comfortable clothes that won’t bind;
- Stretching should be pain free; do not force the body into difficult positions;
- Move into the stretch slowly and avoid bouncing, which may actually tear muscles;
- Stretch on a clean, flat surface that is large enough to move freely;
- Hold stretches long enough (20-30 seconds) to allow muscles or joints to become loose
Commit to Your Health in this New Year.
Patients and Friends: From now until the 31st, we would like for you to come in and invite your friends to come in for a Complimentary Chiropractic Exam. This includes examinations of the spine, posture, muscles, joints, nerves and even spinal x-rays if they are needed. This is a total of up to $198 of services we will provide at no charge to your family and friends. We are sure you know two people who would appreciate the opportunity to take this step towards better health. In fact, it could be the most important gift anyone has ever given them. Come in to see us at Harbor Family Chiropractic and bring a friend. We want to see you have a well adjusted 2010. Call 949-515-5170 for an appointment.