Phase 1: Relief Care

Thumbs Up to Relief

Many people go to a chiropractor because they are in pain. In this first phase of care, the main goal is to reduce your symptoms. Sometimes this will require daily visits, or two to three visits per week for a time.
Most people are under the assumption that if they don't feel any pain that there is nothing wrong with them - that they are healthy. Unfortunately, pain is a very poor indicator of health. In fact, pain and other symptoms frequently only appear after a disease or other condition has become advanced.
For example, consider a cavity in your tooth. Does it hurt when it first develops or only after it has become serious? How about heart disease? Regardless of whether you are talking about cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stress or problems with the spine, pain is usually the last thing to appear. When you begin chiropractic care, pain is also the first symptom to disappear, even though much of the underlying condition remains.

 

 

 

Day
Monday	8:30 to 12:00	2:00 to 6:00
Tuesday	9:30 to 2:00	closed
Wednesday	8:30 to 12:00	2:00 to 6:00
Thursday	8:30 to 11:00	1:00 to 7:00
Friday	8:30am to 1:30pm
Saturday	closed
Sunday	closed

Testimonial

Thanks for helping me feel better. Since I've been seeing you, my headaches have gone away. I have never been to any Dr. that explains what they're doing and what they think is going on with my health like you do. I will continue to refer anyone that might need your assistance.

Rick Chandler -

The Stress of Life

The Stress of Life

Chiropractic Care and Stress Reduction

Regular chiropractic care is a necessary component of any program designed to help a person reduce the effects of stress in his or her life. Chiropractic care provides the direct action required to intervene in the vicious circle of stress-musculoskeletal aches and pains-more stress. By helping restore balance within your spinal column and your nerve system, regular chiropractic care helps remove mechanical causes of stress within muscles and joints throughout your body. Life's daily stresses now encounter a body that is healthier and more resilient. The result is greater tolerance for the stresses of the day and an overall enhanced and improved outlook. Your chiropractor is an experienced in stress management and can help you create a stress-reduction program that will work for you.

"The Stress of Life" is a perennial bestseller by Hans Selye, written in 1956. Selye almost single-handedly introduced the notion of stress into the worldwide consciousness. By doing so, Selye changed the way we think about ourselves, our values, and how we conduct our lives.
As Selye observed, stress is a double-edged sword. Many types of stress are good for people, both physiologically and personally. For example, Wolff's law states that bone will remodel (build more bone) along lines of mechanical stress. In other words, bone becomes stronger when it is subjected to physical loads. The physiological stress of weight-bearing exercise such as walking, running, and strength training helps prevent osteoporosis by making bone denser and more resilient. From a psychological perspective, the great German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, famously stated in "Twilight of the Idols" (1888), "What does not destroy me, makes me stronger." Apparently, Nietzsche (writing in the 19th century) was far ahead of Selye in pointing to the benefits (and dangers) of stress.
Life is filled with "good" stresses. A new love relationship, a new job, or a new baby may all provide great personal happiness and the experience of fulfillment and satisfaction. But each circumstance may also place new demands on us, calling on us to be and do much more than that of which we had previously thought ourselves capable. A person may develop all sorts of adaptive responses in attempts to cope with life's new requirements, but most of these adaptations are themselves stress-producing. Over time the adaptations become habits, stress becomes a day-by-day experience, and a host of physiological and psychological disorders and syndromes may appear.^1,2 High blood pressure, diabetes, overweight/obesity, arthritis, insomnia, and depression may all be considered as long-term maladaptive responses to stress.³
Muscular aches and pains, muscle spasms, and headaches are common physiological responses to ongoing stress. A vicious circle develops in which stress leads to muscle tightness, which constricts blood vessels, which leads to headaches, which leads to more muscle tightness, more pain, and even more stress. One's day seems to become filled with stress and stress reactions. The good news is that means of ending these vicious circles of stress are available. Present time consciousness, regular exercise and a healthy diet, sufficient rest, and regular chiropractic care comprise a powerful tool kit for restoring balance in one's life.
¹Wu EL, et al: Increased risk of hypertension in patients with major depressive disorder: a population-based study. J Psychosom Res 73(3):169-174, 2012
²Hristova MG: Metabolic syndrome - From the neurotrophic hypothesis to a theory. Med Hypotheses 2013 July 27 [Epub ahead of print]
³Martocchia A, et al: Targets of anti-glucocorticoid therapy for stress-related diseases. Recent Pat CNS Drug Discov 8(1):79-87, 2013

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Who do you know with Asthma?

" I want to try an alternative therapy to treat my child's asthma. Before trying chiropractic care whenever an asthma attacked occurred we would begin using inhalers, as well as other antibiotics to help subside the attack. At times we would be on 5 different medicines at a time.
After 5 weeks of care we have noticed a big change. In the past if our child woke up with a plugged nose I could count on an attack within 48-72 hours. This time we are able to avoid the medications and inhalers. He is back being a kid. He can keep up with his brother, swimming, playing, being a kid. Thanks Dr. Skrien." C. Swift

http://chiropracticfamilyclinic.net/

Is 60 the New 40?

Is 60 the New 40?

Chiropractic Care for the Entire Family

Chiropractic care is beneficial for all family members, including pre-schoolers, teenagers, and grandparents. As good health is often based upon good spinal health, making sure that everyone's spine is functioning properly is a key component in maintaining a family's well-being. Your spinal column houses and protects your spinal cord, which connects your brain with every organ, tissue, and cell in your body. Irritation caused by a decrease in or loss of full spinal mobility may negatively impact the flow of information within the spinal cord, resulting in muscular aches and pains, lack of restful sleep, nervousness, headaches, and disease. By helping ensure optimum functioning of your spinal column, chiropractic care helps address the causes of these various problems at their source. In this way, chiropractic care helps people of all ages achieve better health and optimum well-being.

"60 is the New 40" is more than a marketing slogan. The phrase is also a metaphor for optimism, as well as a metaphor for good health.
How can 60 really be the new 40? First, there are the demographics. Forty years ago, when today's 40-year-olds were just being born, 40 was a fairly substantial age. In the early 1970s, every 40-year-old had lived through World War II. For the Americans, many of the men fought in the Korean War and some may even have fought in the Vietnam War. In the early 1970s, most women had had their first child by age 25. Today, child-rearing years for adults frequently begin in their 30s and even late into their 40s. Life expectancy in 1970 was approximately to age 71. Today, average life expectancy is to age 79 or 80. Putting everything together, it can reasonably be stated that our "senior years" keep getting pushed further and further back.
"60 is the new 40" means there is plenty of productive life ahead. The phrase implies that, if one is ready, able, and motivated, whole new aspects of living can be explored. Whereas in 1970, 40-year-olds were often beginning to be established in middle-management roles in their white-collar companies, or were becoming shop stewards and supervisors in their factories, today men and women in their 60s are becoming entrepreneurs and launching their own businesses. Backed by a lifetime of experience, people in their 60s are going back to school to get the undergraduate or graduate degree of their dreams, or they're setting up shop for themselves as artists, artisans, or consultants. Regardless of the particular individual choice, the point is that people in their 60s are manifesting the spirit and vision that was previously thought to be the special province of those much younger, specifically, men and women in their 20s and 30s. But it would be a stretch to say that "60 is the new 30", so we'll stick with "60 is the new 40".
But these new activities and endeavors require physical resources and energy.¹ If one is not healthy, 60 may in fact not be the new 40. If one is not enjoying good health, then one's focus is usually primarily directed toward getting well. For 60 to really be the new 40, that is, for one to be fully engaged with family, friends, and work, for one to be focusing on the present and maintaining a positive, expectant attitude toward the future, an optimum state of health is required. Such an optimum varies from person to person. What is needed is for us to be functioning at our optimum. Such maximal functioning is based upon numerous factors, including a healthy, nutritious diet,^2,3 regular vigorous exercise, and consistent, sufficient rest. Putting these lifestyle choices into place and making these elements of healthy living habitual will go far toward helping all of us make our chronological age irrelevant.
¹Caprara M, et al: Active aging promotion: results from the vital aging program. Curr Gerontol Geriatr Res 2013;2013:817813. doi: 10.1155/2013/817813. Epub 2013 Feb 7
²Dickinson JM, et al: Exercise and nutrition to target protein synthesis impairments in aging skeletal muscle. Exerc Sport Sci Rev 2013 Jul 18 [Epub ahead of print]
³Levis S, Lagari VS: The role of diet in osteoporosis prevention and management. Curr Osteoporos Rep 10(4):296-302, 2012
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The Problem of Radiating Pain

Chiropractic Care and Radiating Pain

Although a few problems involving radiating pain require further investigation, the large majority of cases involving neck pain with arm/hand pain or low back pain with leg/foot pain can be addressed by your chiropractor. Your chiropractor will take a thorough history, do a detailed examination, and order tests if needed, with the overall goal of designing the most effective care plan to help solve your specific problem. Chiropractic adjustments may be part of the care plan. Chiropractic care may also include a rehabilitative stretching and exercise program, as well as recommendations for improved posture, safer lifting habits, and ergonomic enhancement. Your personalized comprehensive chiropractic care plan will help you return to improved health as quickly as possible.

Many people experience radiating pain as a component of neck pain or low back pain. A person with neck pain might have pain that radiates down her arm, possibly into the hand.¹ A person with low back pain might have accompanying leg pain, possibly traveling into the foot. Such arm/hand pain or leg/foot pain can represent a serious underlying health problem. However, not all types of radiating pain are of equal importance. The key is to be able to identify which patterns require prompt attention and which merely appear to be significant but are not.
Authentic radiating pain is most often caused by pressure and/or irritation of a spinal nerve root.² The spinal nerve becomes inflamed and sends pain signals to the brain that are interpreted as pain in the region of the body supplied by that nerve. Inflammation of a certain spinal nerve in the neck region will result in the experience of pain down the outside of the arm and forearm and into the thumb and possibly index finger. Inflammation of a certain spinal nerve in the low back causes the person to feel pain traveling along the back of the thigh and calf and into the fifth toe.
Specific patterns of radiating pain are associated with inflammation of specific spinal nerves. Such inflammation may be typically caused by pressure from a herniated intervertebral disc. Other disorders which may create local space-occupying pressure need to be considered as well. A thorough history and physical examination will help to identify the cause of the problem. X-ray studies may be needed, as well as an MRI scan. The underlying problem, including the pattern of pain radiation, may be termed a radiculopathy or radiculitis.
But most cases of what appears to be radiating pain are not, in fact, related to pressure on a spinal nerve. Most patterns of radiating pain are not associated with a radiculopathy or radiculitis. Rather, the large majority of pain patterns involving the arm/hand or leg/foot are caused by normal, everyday aches and pains. Our run-of-the-mill physical problems involve relatively large muscles such as the trapezius (overlying the upper back, shoulder, and mid back) and relatively small muscles such as those that overlay the spinal bones themselves and help move the spinal column. Ligaments that hold bones together and tendons that attach muscles to bones may also be involved in these everyday ailments.
Irritation and inflammation of muscles, ligaments, and tendons may cause more difficulty than mere soreness and tightness. Such inflammation may also cause radiating pain, but in broader, more diffuse patterns than those caused by inflammation of a nerve root. A person might experience neck pain with arm and hand pain, or back pain with leg and foot pain, but in a broad pattern not associated with a spinal nerve. This is actually good news for the patient, as such forms of radiating pain (known as scleratogenous patterns), are usually more easily treated than those associated with a radiculopathy or radiculitis.
The bottom line is that your chiropractor is experienced in the diagnosis and care of such problems. Your chiropractor will be able to determine if your radiating pain is associated with muscles, ligaments, and tendons or if it is related to pressure on a spinal nerve.³ Your chiropractor will make specific recommendations for care of your specific health problem and help guide you in the process of returning to good health.
¹Caridi JM, et al: Cervical radiculopathy: a review. HSS J 7(3):265-272, 2011
²Magrinelli F, et al: Neuropathic pain: diagnosis and treatment. Pract Neurol 2013 Apr 16 [Epub ahead of print]
³Mena J, Sherman AL: Imaging in radiculopathy. Phys Med Rehabil Clin North Am 22(1):42-57, 2011

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