BEETS FOR YOUR BLOOD ??!!

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Happy 2012!   The new year is the perfect time to make meaningful health changes and get on the right track.  Is your blood pressure in the optimal zone before you consider increasing exercise?  Most people know that normal blood pressure should be right around  118/60.  This isn’t just an arbitrary number!  People who achieve this blood pressure have far less heart disease and strokes.  In February we are showcasing “Heart Health”, where we teach patients how to live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle.  As always, this information is free and available to all of our patients and their loved ones. 

Here are some basic ways of decreasing blood pressure:   Read more...

Uncommon Pain, Common Muscles

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We are taking a little time discussing common pain conditions, the involved muscle group and the recommended homecare/exercises. In the previous blog I discussed the illio psoas muscle and its relationship with lower back pain. Another muscle within this group is the quadratus lumborum muscle or QL. The QL is a powerful muscle in the the lower back that is primarily responsible for bending your body side to side. There are many reasons why the QL can go into spasm such as having a loss of your normal low back curve, or participating in one-sided sports such as golf or tennis. Patients who sit for long periods of time at a work station environment regularly complain about pain in the QL muscle.  Read more...

Ilio Psoas and Lower Back Pain

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In the previous blog I discussed the Illio Psoas muscle and its relationship with Lower back pain. The lower back muscle group is complex and has many layers. Within this group is the Quadratus Lumborum (QL). The QL is a muscle in the lower back that is responsible for your body bending to the side. This muscle connects to the iliac crest and lumbar vertebrae 3, 4, 5 and the twelfth rib. It is innervated by the intercostals T12 nerve and L2, L3, L4 nerves.  Read more...

Mind the Body First (Part 2)

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Hi All,

In Part 1 we discussed getting the body moving first as a method of stimulating the brain into action.  Most of us probably get this intuitively because we’ve witnessed it in kids who are like kinetic little hummingbirds all the time.  To use walking as an example, you walk upright and your nervous system works through the spinal cord which extends from the brain all the way to the small of your back and the bony spinal column houses and protects it.  Nerve signals travel down from the brain to every inch of your body, including organs, muscles, and blood vessels.  Information has to get back up to the brain as well, of course, relaying info back about the position or your joints, tension of the ligaments and tendons, pressure, temperature and about a million other pieces of information that is processed constantly between brain and body, body and brain.  Read more...

Grounding is Good

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Lie down & relaxSometimes our patients come flying in the door for their adjustments with some much in their minds and on their to-do lists that it’s difficult for them to relax.  Tense thoughts create tense muscles, not to mention chemistry that can have a negative impact on the body as a whole   The next few blogs will address ways that we can ground ourselves throughout the day, starting with first thing in the morning.  Read more...

Getting Creative

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Human beings are creatures of habit.  The benefit of this is that we create structure for ourselves that allow us to get things done and to have a certain level of predictability in our lives.  But we also need to keep ourselves engaged or stimulated.  Here are some ideas for trying something new in the weeks ahead:

 

Connect with others. Making time for social connection is very important and restorative. Social connection is what makes us a part of something larger than ourselves and our worries. It gives us perspective.   Read more...

First You Fit in the Big Rocks

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Here’s a story that inspired the title to this blog.  A teacher stood in front of a group of high-powered over achievers.  She said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” Then she pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of her. She produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, she asked, “Is the jar full?” Everyone in the class said, “Yes.” Then she reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel, and poured it down into the spaces between the big rocks.

Then she smiled and asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time, the class was on to her. “Probably not,” one of them answered. “Good!” she replied. And she reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. She started dumping the sand in, and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more she asked the question, “Is this jar full?”  Read more...

Make Up Your Mind

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“Man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.”  Abraham Lincoln

Picking up where we left off last week, here are several more steps that address the cognitive aspects of what contributes to a stressful day.  Most of us are aware that our thinking is driving our happiness or lack of happiness.  Paying attention to our thoughts can be a pretty revealing way of getting to know ourselves.  Those of us who are “helpers” have a harder time because we tend to take on other people’s “stuff” as well as our own.  Read more...

Correcting Posture Imbalances

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Correcting and improving posture is something that we are highly committed to in our practice. Just this week, a new patient who is a truck driver came into my office with extreme midback pain and neck pain on his right side.  When I examined the patient I found that his head shifted to the left as well as his shoulders.  From the years and years of leaning his arm out of the window and shifting his body to the left, his posture has settled in this position.  Read more...