As the national anthem ends, your heart pounds, the sound of the fans rings in your ears with a blur as the energy that cannot be contained any longer takes hold and bursts forth as you prepare to take the field. For generations our country has a great passion for sports. With each generation, kids...
Spring Break is near. The excitement of warm weather and a well needed break from school or work is upon us. This Spring as you travel to your get away destination prepare with these simple tips so you may enjoy the most of your holiday.
Traveling in any mode of transport can be physically demanding. Even if the final destination is a luxury holiday, getting there can leave you tired, stressed and in pain.
Sitting down for too long can cause significant problems for the body. No matter how comfortable the seat or surroundings, pressures build and blood flow is restricted. This is why some people experience DVTs on long-haul flights; because pressure builds up in the blood vessels of the lower legs as the blood becomes more sluggish. Contracting and relaxing the muscles can help to counter this and help the blood flow better.
Travel should be looked on as a form of strenuous exercise that requires a period of warming up and cooling down. Warm up and stretch before you travel, and cool down with a brisk walk when you arrive to reinvigorate your hamstring and calf muscles.
For the ultimate success plan ahead and schedule a spinal examination and address underlying issues that may be aggravated by the journey of your holiday. Our fantastic team is just a simple call away and ready to have you spring into your well earned break!
You may have heard that the less sleep you get, the more likely you are to gain weight. How exactly does this happen? Our body is maintained by a series of delicate balances that help us maintain a set “level” that keeps us healthy. Many of these set points are balanced by hormones that regulate...
Have you ever woken up after a full night’s sleep and felt more exhausted than when you went to bed? Of course you have, but what is the difference between good sleep and bad sleep? The difference is in our sleep cycle and most importantly about the REM our brain was able to experience during...
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Are you sitting in the stands watching the game due to pain? Our lifestyles of wanting to work and play full out are sometimes hampered due to the wear and tear on our bodies. One such repetitive injury suffered most often is Tendonitis. What is Tendonitis? Our tendons are made of strong, ropy fibers of...
Today children live in the virtual world as much as the real. Unfortunately their health is not as easily modified as an "app". Good computer ergonomics – our posture when we sit at our workstations – is important for children as well as for adults. According a New York Times article, over 70% of America's...
Would it not be wonderful to turn off pain as easy as pressing an "Off "button? Reach back and touch at the base of your neck - do you have a bump? If so, you may have found the button to your headache and neck pain. This bump is an unattractive mass of fat and...
Our lives today have become congested and overrun with stress. The effects of stress are seen across the nation at an earlier age and with more detrimental health effects. Stress can be caused by a number of factors, both personal and professional. In most cases, though, it is the result of the difference between what we would like to happen in our lives, and what is really happening, or what we believe is happening.
Short-Term Stress
Stress that is short-term can be beneficial in that it serves to focus our attention on important matters. However, when stress becomes ongoing and chronic, it can cause immense problems for the sufferer. It can adversely affect our performance at work and elsewhere, and it can lead to a host of physical ailments, including cancer and heart disease, as it degrades our immune system and stresses our bodily functions. It can also provoke other psychological side-effects such a depression and substance abuse.
Long Term Stress
Stress is a highly personal experience, dependent on our coping mechanisms and predisposition to emotional fatigue. Some people, for example, are able to release stress by venting their aggression verbally or physically, but this is only a temporary fix.
Stress causes the body to undergo certain reactions: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. It is not just “in the mind”; it causes genuine physical reactions, including the release of epinephrine, or adrenaline, which is our “fight or flight” hormone. It also triggers the release of glucocorticoid cortisol, or hydrocortisone, which has anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant effects. Excessive levels of this can retard growth and healing, and increase the chance of infection. Chronic stress can lead to anxiety, hopelessness and depression.
Psychological problems often lead to pain, which research shows can be worse than that caused by strenuous physical activity or repetitive motion. Lower back pain and headaches are particularly common, and persistent pain only exacerbates the psychological problems, such as trouble with sleeping. A vicious cycle soon emerges where the stress fuels the physical which fuels the stress and so on.
Work Related Stress:
Work is a major cause of stress, and is especially prevalent since the economic crisis took hold. The risk of high blood pressure and heart disease is just one of the effects. Research has demonstrated, however, that it is often our perception of the demands placed on us that affects us more than the reality of the situation. In other words, our attitude is key. If we can control our reactions, we can reduce our stress levels and the physical effects of stress. For example, stressed individuals who react angrily at work have markedly higher levels of morning cortisol and are prone to higher blood pressure. Gender plays a large role in regards to the stress triggers and release mechanisms.
Getting Stress Relief:
With stress being so potentially damaging to our mental and physical health, our goal must be to find ways to ease the stress. However if we cannot remove the triggers, we have to change our reaction to those triggers.
Chiropractic Can Help!
Chiropractic care is proven to be a safe and highly effective treatment that not only helps alleviate tension and stress-related physical symptoms, it can help with future stress management as well.
Call and schedule an appointment today and let us help you make this your healthiest year yet!
Our lifestyles over the last thirty years have given way to a leading cause of debilitation. Unfortunately low back pain has become so extremely common that it is affecting sixty to ninety percent of the adult population. The vast majority also suffer from some degree of lumbar arthritis as a primary or contributing factor to...
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Our body has a miraculous way of healing it self but also protecting damaged areas. Scar tissue is one of the body's natural reactions to injury, no matter how small or slight. Everyday actions that most people would not regard as an injury can create scar tissue. The soft tissues in our body are made...