Mind and Body Connection.

What's on and in your mind can and will effect your health. A quick look in a few medical dictionaries confirm this.

psy·cho·so·mat·ic (s k -s -m t k) adj. 1. Of or relating to a disorder having physical symptoms but originating from mental or emotional causes. 2. Relating to or concerned with the influence of the mind on the body, and the body on the mind, especially with respect to disease: psychosomatic medicine.

psy cho·so·mat i·cal·ly adv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

psychosomatic [ˌsaɪkəʊsəˈmætɪk] adj (Psychology) (Medicine / Pathology) of or relating to disorders, such as stomach ulcers, thought to be caused or aggravated by psychological factors such as stress

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

This is also common in sayings in our society. "They seem to have the whole weight of the world in their shoulders." "My boss is a pain in my neck." These are just a few.

It is common for me to see patients with real physical symptoms that may be traced back to emotional stress.

So what can be done? Take time to de-stress. Maybe just some quite time, a walk, exercise, reading a book, prayer, meditation, vacation, ... in some cases professional help with a physiologiest, or a pastor.

Point is you must learn to take care of you Mind, and it will help take care of your Body!

Dr. Parrish Skrien.

Check your Spine

Remember to Schedule Your Spinal Screening

Chiropractic Care and Long-Term Health

Regular, vigorous physical exercise, a healthful diet, and sufficient rest are not the only components of a comprehensive program of health and well-being. Regular chiropractic care is an additional key factor. Each of these lifestyle choices contributes to the benefits derived from the others. In the case of regular chiropractic care, maintaining a healthy spine and nerve system helps support all the other things you're doing. A healthy spine helps keep your muscles and joints limber so you can get the most out of your exercise. By identifying and correcting nerve interference, regular chiropractic care helps your digestive system to efficiently utilize the good food you're consuming. By reducing neck and back aches and pains, regular chiropractic care helps you achieve a more restful, reinvigorating sleep. Overall, regular chiropractic care helps your body be more at ease and helps you enjoy increased health.

Most of us have undergone some type of screening exam in the last several years. Depending on your age, personal history, and family history, you may have needed to go for a periodic mammography, colonoscopy, or cardiac stress test. If everything was fine, you have probably been instructed to follow-up next year, in three years, or in five years or more. As treatment is usually more effective and easier to accomplish in the early stages of illness, screening procedures are an important component of a public health and health care policy. Most people are generally aware of the usefulness of periodic screening exams for chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Spinal screening, performed by your chiropractor, is an additional important service to assist you in maintaining your long-term health and well-being.^1,2

Your spinal column is designed for two primary purposes: to provide for an extensive range of motion in three directions (forward and backward, side-to-side, and rotation) and to house and protect the spinal cord. Both of these functions are critical to ensuring ongoing health and wellness. A chiropractic spinal screening exam analyzes your spine to identify localized regions of limited mobility and to detect the presence of nerve interference.

First, if your spine is not freely movable, you will likely begin to experience neck, mid back, or low back pain. People often wonder why they have such pains. A person will typically say, "I didn't do anything, really. I was driving and just looked around to make sure I could change lanes safely. Now I can't move my neck." Another person might say, "All I did was bend over to pick up the mail. My back really hurts." The problem causing their pain wasn't the simple twisting or bending motion. The problem was an underlying one - a lack of full mobility in the affected region of the spine.³

Next, your spinal cord is a direct extension of your brain. Your spinal cord connects your brain with the rest of your body through numerous pairs of spinal nerves. These spinal nerves branch out and create a complex communication network, sending signals from your brain to your body and from your body back to your brain. A mechanical problem in the spinal column can cause irritation to local spinal muscles, ligaments, and joints, which in turn can irritate spinal nerves and cause nerve interference. Nerve interference can cause disturbances in your body's neural network, delaying nerve signals or causing information to be transmitted incorrectly or at the wrong time. Over time, symptoms develop in the affected region or regions as cells, tissues, and organs no longer do their job effectively. Eventually, symptoms may develop into full-blown chronic diseases.

Often, mechanical problems in the spine are not immediately obvious. The effects of nerve interference and back pain on a person's health take time to develop. As with other chronic health issues, prevention is the best strategy. A spinal screening performed by your local chiropractor is the best way of detecting underlying problems. Chiropractic care then corrects nerve interference, helping your body perform effectively and helping you to enjoy long-lasting health and well-being.

¹Goertz CM, et al: Adding chiropractic manipulative therapy to standard medical care for patients with acute low back pain: the results of a pragmatic randomized comparative effectiveness study. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 2012 Oct 10 [Epub ahead of print]

²Morningstar MW: Outcomes for adult scoliosis patients receiving chiropractic rehabilitation: a 24-month retrospective analysis. J Chiropr Med 10(3):179-184, 2011

³Bishop PB, et al: The Chiropractic Hospital-based Interventions Research Outcomes (CHIRO) study: a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of clinical practice guidelines in the medical and chiropractic management of patients with acute mechanical low back pain. Spine J 10(12):1055-1064, 2010

Top Two Tips for Reaching Your Normal Weight

Top Two Tips for Reaching Your Normal Weight

Chiropractic Care and Lifelong Health

Chiropractic care helps support all your health-related activities. Following a healthy food plan and making sure to eat at least five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every day is one important step. Engaging in a regular program of vigorous exercise is a second critical step. A third key component of an overall health-and-wellness program is regular chiropractic care. Regular chiropractic care helps you get the most out of all the other things you're doing. By helping reduce nerve interference, chiropractic care helps your body perform its tasks properly. For example, your digestive system works more efficiently and you're able to make better use of the good things you're eating. Your musculoskeletal system is better able to adapt to stresses and strains and your body builds lean muscle mass where it's needed. Regular chiropractic care helps your body do the things it needs to do to keep you healthy and well.

It's well-known that one-third of American adults are overweight and an additional one-third are obese.¹ In addition, 17% of U.S. children and adolescents are obese.² Worldwide statistics are similar. These facts are strongly associated with ongoing epidemics in diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Diabetes may cause loss of vision, kidney problems, and loss of circulation in the legs and feet. Cardiovascular disease includes high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attacks. Being overweight or obese may cause diseases which require lifelong treatment. Personal action is needed to begin to restore good health, but it's important to understand the specific nature of the actions to take.

What is not required is a drastic reduction of body weight to some idealized norm of "thinness." It is not appropriate for people to attempt to force themselves to look like runway models. What does work is applying simple techniques and strategies to encourage a gradual loss of weight. Over time persons on such a plan will achieve a body weight that is normal for them. There are two key steps to reaching your normal weight.

The first step is to reduce your overall intake of calories by eating six small meals a day. If five small meals works best for your schedule and daily needs, that’s fine. The main point involves total calories. With six small meals, each one is about 300 calories - a little less for women and a little more for men who are taller and more heavily muscled. For men the daily calorie intake is between 1800 and 2100 calories. For women, the daily calorie intake is between 1700 and 1800 calories. By experimenting a bit, you’ll find your optimal calorie level that results in consistent weight loss. Make sure to combine complex carbohydrates and protein at each small meal. The numerous benefits of food combining include maintaining insulin levels in a normal range and improved cognitive/mental function.

For many people, this reduction in daily calories will have an immediate and dramatic impact. There may be real hunger pangs, and it will be important to remember that the next small meal is only a couple of hours away. The pounds you lose in the first couple of weeks will likely provide plenty of reinforcement to help you through the times when you are really hungry.

The next and simultaneous step is to begin a program of regular, vigorous exercise. Of course, if you haven't exercised in a long time you'll need to start slowly. Your goal is to build up to 30 minutes of vigorous exercise five times per week.³ Ideally you'll be doing both cardiovascular exercise and strength training, and in the process you'll build lean muscle mass. The result is an elevation in your basal metabolic rate which causes your body to burn fat even while you're resting!

As you follow these two health-promoting programs, you will notice that you're steadily and gradually losing weight. There will come a time, anywhere from 6 months to a year after you've begun your new lifestyle, when your weight loss will stop. For example, you'll notice you only lost half a pound over the previous week or two. Then you'll know that you've reached your "ideal" body weight. You've reached the weight that is normal for you. It is very likely that your new body mass index (a ratio between your height and weight) is now in the normal range or very close to the high end of normal. You've taken control of your health and your life, and the very good news is that you've built new habits that will last a lifetime.

¹Ogden CL, et al: Prevalence of obesity in the United States, 2009-2010. NCHS Data Brief No. 82. National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, January 2012

²Waters E, et al: Interventions for preventing obesity in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 7(12):CD001871, 2011

³Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Vital signs: walking among adults - United States, 2005 and 2010. MMWR Morbid Mortal Wkly Rep 61:595-601, 2012

Click and check out the website artical.

http://chiropracticfamilyclinic.net/articles/a_18217.html

Heart Disease Is Still Number One!

          

Heart Disease Is Still Number One!

Chiropractic Care and Lifestyle Disorders

A hidden element in the development of lifestyle disorders is the functioning of a person's nerve system. This master system controls the activities of the cardiovascular system, the digestive system, the immune system, and every other system that contributes to your physical health and well-being. If the nerve system is irritated, normal functioning gets disrupted. Important information gets lost, sidetracked, or corrupted. The long-term result may be poor health and disease. Therefore, an important part of getting well and staying well is making sure that your nerve system is working properly. By removing the cause of nerve irritation, regular chiropractic care helps ensure that your body's systems are working optimally. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure that your body is working efficiently from the bottom up and helps improve overall health and well-being for years to come.

According to a recent report, cardiovascular disease claims more lives worldwide than any other disorder.¹ Diseases of the heart and blood vessels, including coronary artery disease, are responsible for more than 4 million deaths in Europe each year² and almost one-third of all deaths worldwide. In the United States, coronary artery disease is responsible for nearly 20% of all disease-related deaths. Each year approximately 1.5 million Americans suffer a heart attack. Despite decades-long public health campaigns conducted across the globe, heart disease remains a powerful, formidable foe.

A large part of this problem is related to three classical risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels in the blood, and diabetes. As worldwide epidemics of obesity and diabetes continue to worsen, it is easy to understand why heart disease remains a number one killer. Obesity is strongly linked to high cholesterol levels, and the combination of diabetes and overweight/obesity is strongly linked to high blood pressure. As the epidemics persist, so does the prevalence of heart disease risk factors. No public health issue exists in isolation, and this is especially true for heart disease.

However, there is good news. Heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, high serum cholesterol levels, and overweight/obesity are all lifestyle disorders. This means that we can take meaningful action on our own behalf and begin to do things that will positively impact our long-term health and well-being. Such lifestyle changes are important for everyone, as people of all ages, races, and genders may be affected by lifestyle diseases.

Lifestyle changes primarily involve modifications to diet, engaging in consistent vigorous exercise,³ and getting sufficient rest. For example, it is well-known that many people in the developed world consume more calories than they need on a daily basis. The excess calories are stored primarily as fat. Reducing daily food consumption, while adhering to the basic principle of eating from a wide variety of food groups, including fresh fruits and vegetables, will likely result in weight loss and a normalization of high cholesterol levels. Assisting in this process is the practice of engaging in regular vigorous exercise. A proven method is to exercise for 30 minutes five times per week. Such exercise can include walking, cycling, running, swimming, and strength training. The specific choice of exercise is less important than the consistency. The payoff for your commitment to a healthy diet and regular exercise is significant. Research shows that prevention strategies such as lifestyle modifications account for a 50% reduction in mortality from heart disease. This is a huge return on investment.

But in order to reap these rewards, a commitment of time and effort is required. In today's world, good health doesn't just happen. We have to work at it. It's up to us to choose whether we're worth it, whether we want to continue to enjoy a full range of relationships and activities, whether we want to be healthy and well for many years to come. If the answer to these questions is affirmative, lifestyle changes become very important.

¹Carmon B: Biochemistry to behaviour. Nature 493:S2-S3, 2013

²Perk J: The power of disease prevention. Nature 493:S6, 2013

³Winter KH, et al: Hypertension Prim Care 40(1):179-194, 2013

Day

Pain in the Neck

Fun Factoids

The largest pumkin ever grown weighed 1,061 lbs. 11% of the people of the world are left-handed. Jupiter spins so fast that there is a new sunrise every ten hours.

Do you suffer from neck pain? If you do, you’re not alone. Nearly 75 percent of American adults will suffer from neck pain at some point in their lives. And, looking at our anatomy, it’s no wonder so many of us do. Though having your head perched on top of your spine gives you a great view of your environment, the set-up is rather like propping a bowling ball atop a tower of blocks. The price? Our necks are prone to injury of the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints. But by paying attention to our posture, doing regular stretching and strengthening exercises, and visiting our chiropractors, we can help keep our necks pain-free.

Causes of Neck Pain

Neck pain ranges from mild (annoying and distracting) to severe (incapacitating). Poor posture during normal, everyday activities such as watching TV, using a computer, reading a book, or talking on the phone can easily trigger minor neck pain. TV watching can be particularly bad for the neck if you’re lying on a couch, with your head propped at an awkward angle for a prolonged period of time. Holding the phone between the jaw and shoulder (rather than in your hand), reading at a desk or table with your head hung over a book, or working with a computer monitor below eye level can also be particularly stressful for the neck. By resting and making efforts not to repeat the offending stresses on the neck, minor neck pain usually disappears on its own within a day or so.

Neck pain that won’t go away or keeps coming back can signal a more serious underlying problem. Subluxations or joint restrictions; injuries such as whiplash; diseases like osteoarthritis, meningitis and tumors; congenital malformation; and degeneration (such as that in arthritis) require more than rest. A trained healthcare professional such as a doctor of chiropractic (DC) can help. He or she can determine whether the cause of your neck pain is minor and easily treatable or more serious and requiring more intensive, extended treatment. Then he or she may recommend chiropractic adjustment, massage, natural anti-inflammatory supplements, and/or strengthening and stretching exercises. In some cases, the DC will refer you to a specialist.

 

 

Prevention is Key

How can you avoid the need for treatment in the first place? The first step is to take note of your everyday posture. If your job requires a lot of phone use, consider wearing a headset. Do you slouch when you watch TV? Lie on the couch? Choose to sit upright, in a posture-supporting chair. When studying or reading, avoid putting the book or magazine on a flat surface. Instead, consider using a book prop. And, if you notice your computer monitor is below eye level, elevate it by placing it on top of a shelf or tower.

Neck pain is often caused by weak muscles in the front and tight, overactive muscles in the back of the neck. Doing daily strengthening and stretching exercises can be helpful in preventing neck pain. Try the following exercises:

• Lie flat on your back. Tuck your chin to chest and raise your head no more than an inch off the floor or bed. Hold this position until your muscles are tired (they may shake). Do this exercise three times, once or twice per day.
• In a standing or sitting position, with your neck erect and tall, keep your chin level and jut your head forward. Then, drop your chin to your neck. Place your hands on the back of your head to gently encourage a stretch of the muscles at the back of the neck. Hold this position for several seconds. Do this exercise three to fives times, as much as once an hour, every day.
• Looking straight ahead, tilt your head to one shoulder. With the same-side hand, gently pull your head toward your shoulder. Hold the stretch for several seconds. Repeat on the opposite side. Do this exercise three to five times on each side, as often as once an hour, every day.

If you experience neck pain that doesn’t abate within 24 hours, seek the advice of a trained healthcare specialist for the appropriate diagnosis and treatment. And remember, because chiropractors specialize in the neuromusculoskeletal system, they are some of the most well-trained healthcare professionals to consult about neck pain.

Chiropractic Care Can Help...
Our goal is to adjust the spine and help stimulate your body's natural healing process.

 

 

 

 

Morning Backache

 

           

How you feel when you wake up has a lot to do with how you sleep the night before. If you’ve been waking up stiff and miserable because of poor sleeping posture, overwork and tension, it’s time to see the chiropractor for a “cure”.

 

            Your doctor of chiropractic can attack the problem two ways; with expert, hands-on treatment to help your back feel better right away and with the know-how you need to get better sleep in the future.

                       

            Chiropractic adjustments are designed to eliminate any spinal subluxations that are causing nerve irritations, restoring the normal flow of nerve energy and helping the body to heal itself. Your chiropractor also can provide guidance in choosing the right kind of mattress for proper support and the placement of extra pillows – under the knees if you sleep on your back, or between you legs if you sleep on your side – for added comfort. Sleeping in an unsupported, face-down position can, in time, cause pain.