Discover Health Now


   Aug 21

Could One Conversation Change What You Eat?

via Integrative Nutrition Blog by Integrative Nutrition on 8/10/10

Many people shop labels.  Whether its high fashion or expensive cars, a label costs more; it means something to the consumer.  Food is no different.  People who care about the quality of the food they put in their body read labels.  If a label reads “high fructose corn syrup” or “trans fat” an informed consumer will bypass this product.  Whether a food has an organic label or not is also important information for today’s foodies.  If a product has the seal “USDA Organic” the consumer knows that the food was grown or prepared using organic practices and ingredients; however, the producer has paid a fee to the government to obtain that certification. 

Many small farmers cannot afford the high cost of the government’s organic label.  According to the Organic Trade Association, referenced in this article on Change.org, 92 percent of organic food sold in this country is sold by mass markets, like Wal-Mart, Costco, or grocery store chains.  By comparison, only 8 percent comes from farmers markets, co-ops, or CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture). 

Quite often the small farmers have organic growing practices; they just don’t pay for the expensive label.  How do you get this important information?  It’s easy; simply start a conversation with the person you are buying your food from.  When you visit the farmers market and you see they do not have an organic label, ask why?   Ask them about their growing practices.   Do they use pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals?  You won’t know until you ask. 

Do you only shop for products with the “USDA Organic” label?  Do local farmers in your area provide an opportunity to talk about their growing practices?  What are your conversations like?

Posted via email from chirohealthnews’s posterous


   Aug 12

Oak Lawn IL Chiropractor Talks About Tension Headaches and Chiropractic Treatment

Are you suffering from painful tension headaches? Dr. Gerald Helwig, the best Oak Lawn Chiropractor, knows that life can be a pain from time to time. Sometimes that pain is caused by an accident or injury. Sometimes it can be the result of the cumulative effects of bad posture and poor gait. Sometimes it can occur from the degenerative effects of aging. But, often pain, especially headache pain, can be caused by everyday stress.

Are you sidelined by your tension headaches? Do they cause you to be absent from work or ineffective while you’re there? Do they interfere with your family and social life? Most people have experienced more than one tension headache in their life. If you are someone who’s had a tension headache, then you know that the pain usually feels like an intense, but dull ache in your head. Such pain is commonly accompanied by a sensation of tightness or pressure along the forehead or on the sides and back of the head. Sometimes, you might feel a tenderness of your scalp, neck and shoulder muscles, and periodically you may experience a loss of appetite or even nausea.

Most tension headaches are defined as mild to moderately intense, but the severity of the pain varies from one person to another, and can vary from one headache to another in the same person. Would you describe your tension headaches as occurring frequently? Did you know that if your headaches take place fifteen or more days a month for a minimum of three months, they’re viewed by healthcare professionals as chronic?

The good news is that if tension headaches are interfering with your life, once in a while or chronically, chiropractic treatment can help. For over twenty years Dr. Helwig has been helping the Oak Lawn Community to get out of pain, whether an individual is suffering from back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, knee pain, foot pain, and headaches. That right! Chiropractors don’t just treat back pain. They address the entire musculoskeletal system!

So, if you are suffering from tension headaches that have kept you from living your life fully, call Dr. Helwig, your Chiropractor in Oak Lawn, Illinois today. Get your life back!

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   Jun 25

Your Chiropractor in Oxnard Offers An Alternative Solution to Your Allergy Discomfort

Oxnard Chiropractor

Donald Bolt, DC, your Chiropractor in Oxnard, is aware that allergies can make your daily life unpleasant. A stroll in the park, a yarn ball toss with Kitty, a shellfish repast, or merely something as tiny as a nut may well result in such unwelcome discomforts as itchy eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, or a skin rash.

Then again, occasionally a sufferer’s allergic reactions can go from just plain irritating to acute and even life-threatening as the air passageway starts to close and breathing becomes difficult. This kind of development of difficulties can frequently result in a state of acute anxiety and also a trip to the ER.

Allergic reactions can, without a doubt, turn out to be an exceedingly troublesome interruption and cause you to feel unable to participate in daily life. Actually, should you be one of the many men and women who have allergic reactions, it might perhaps appear to you that, every once in awhile, the environment is a extremely unfriendly place and that natural environment out there you is, virtually, out to get you!

You may wonder as to why it is that others seem so invulnerable to the identical environmental challenges that send your body into overwhelm. Other people seem either unaware of or plainly`totally unresponsive to the would-be irritants that lie in wait at every turn, while your body reacts, or rather overreacts, to them. Why you? It is a appropriate question. The answer is that a lot of individuals, not unlike yourself, have a hyperactive immune system that virtually “goes wild” whenever you are exposed to ordinary substances most notably pollen, dander, shellfish, or nuts.

Can your Oxnard Chiropractor assist you in finding a lasting reduction in your allergy symptoms? Happily, the answer is a resounding “Yes,” and the solution could perhaps surprise you. Quite a few chiropractic patients have noticed that they experience freedom from their allergy symptoms after a chiropractic treatment, despite the fact that chiropractic care does not actually directly address allergies, per se. The biology behind the decrease in allergy symptoms is because chiropractic manipulation influences the entire nervous system, including the autoimmune system, which is the origin of your hypersensitive responses. Whenever there is a perturbation within the nervous system, together with other challenges, the autoimmune system, whose task it is to help you to adapt and respond in a healthy way to your environment, may well become under-active or overactive. Where your allergies are concerned, the dysfunction is the latter (it becomes overactive).

Since chiropractic manipulations are intended to decrease or even entirely get rid of disruptions within the nervous system and recreate symmetry and harmony to the whole body, in addition to a number of other corrections, the manipulations include homeostasis to the autoimmune system at the same time. A sound immune system reacts appropriately to so-called allergens within the natural environment.

So, as already mentioned, your Oxnard Chiropractor doesn’t necessarily treat allergy symptoms, but then that doesn’t mean your allergies won’t improve or vanish entirely. On the other hand, one could say, instead, that relief from your allergies is purely the consequence of your rebalanced nervous system. If you would like to get back into harmony with your environment as soon as possible, contact Dr. Bolt, your Chiropractor in Oxnard, today. He can help you to enjoy your life again!


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   Jun 15

Repeated Concussions a Big Risk for Student-Athletes

As a chiropractor I believe in exercise, whether it’s aerobics, bike riding, or team sports. Keeping the body active keeps the body healthy and strong. However, when it comes to sports activies, it seems that sports injuries are inevitable among young and old alike. And, though many sports injuries can be very serious, I was especially happy to see that there is a current focus on concussions among young athletes who participate in school sports. The question people are asking is: Are schools doing enough to protect their student-athletes? Do you, as a parent, feel that your child is safe when participating in sports at school?  Many parents worry that their young athletes are at risk for serious sports injuries, especially concussions. In fact, the latest C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health found that nearly two-thirds of parents of young athletes between the ages 12 – 17 worry that their children will get a concussion while playing school sports.

To make matters worse, researchers have found that youth athletes are more likely to sustain concussions and to take longer to recover from concussions than adults. Furthermore, if a second concussion occurs before a child’s brain recovers from the first, there is a possibility of long-term neurologic conditions.

When surveyed, most parents indicated that they would strongly support school requirements, such as:

    * If a student-athlete sustained a concussion, he or she would need to be evaluated and cleared by a doctor before returning to sports – 84 percent

    * Coaches should to receive education about the risks of concussions

    * After a concussion there should be a mandatory period of non-participation in sports

    * A certified trainer should be on-site for practices and games

High school athletic organizations, injury prevention groups and professional sports leagues have become increasingly active in promoting policies to minimize the risks of repeat concussions among young athletes. But, let’s face it, parents are in a unique position to recognize concussion signs and symptoms that occur outside of school, and to work with coaches, trainers, and other health care personnel to ensure that their child is appropriately monitored throughout his or her recovery and return to play.

Source: University of Michigan Health System

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   May 29

Corona Chiropractor Explains How Chiropractic Treatment Can Relieve Hip Pain

Corona Chiropractor

Your Corona Chiropractor provides a valuable non-surgical, drug-free approach to relieving hip pain and often eliminating it altogether. Whenever possible, surgery should be seen as a last resort. Therefore, before you schedule a surgery to replace that hip, ask yourself the following questions: Is it out of the question for you to get a good night’s sleep because your hip pain wakes you up at night? When you get up in the morning, and/or when you step out of your car, are you stiff and do you find it difficult at first to move your legs? Do you feel pain in one or both hips when you cross your legs or rotate or twist your hips? If so, you may have asymmetries and alignment problems in your lower extremities that, in addition to causing your hip pain, can lead to degenerative joint disease in your hips in the future if not treated. The good news is that whether or not degenerative changes have already started, chiropractic treatment can help!

It may be true that you’re getting older and your hip joints just aren’t what they used to be. But, are you aware that your hip pain and related problems, which generally point to age-related degenerative conditions, may not actually be caused by osteoarthritis? That’s right. In the majority of cases, as opposed to being the root cause of your condition, osteoarthritis of the hip joint is typically the outcome of a prior injury (or injuries) to your hips.

Frequently, hip problems have to do with asymmetry or imbalance when you are in motion, as in the case of walking. If you “pronate” when you walk, with your toes pointing away from your body (like a duck), sooner or later you will develop pain in your hips due to the asymmetrical stress on your hip joints and your body’s efforts to compensate. However, you can learn to correct your gait pattern at any age, and your chiropractor in Corona can show you how to do it.

Furthermore, you may have developed gait changes because of an ankle sprain or knee strain, and since “the knee bone’s connected to the hip bone,” these biomechanical alterations cause pain in the hip(s). Naturally, if not corrected, your hip joints will suffer further consequences, namely, the wear and tear that produces degenerative changes.

Other circumstances that can occasionally adversely affect the hip joints are starting a new job or beginning a new sport that makes it necessary for you to move your body in uncommon ways. Also, transporting a child (or grandchild) on one hip can produce hip pain. Even the way you sit or driving for extended periods of time on a routine basis can cause hip injury and pain.

See? Not every pain is caused by “old age,” even though we may suffer from more pain as a consequence of the progressive nature of untreated injuries.

And important aspect of the chiropractic management of your hip problem, along with your adjustments, your Corona Chiropractor will offer individualized rehabilitative exercises that include gentle muscle stretching and strengthening, and will also analyze your gait and may suggest simple pattern changes.

Your hip pain won’t go away on its own. Hip pain is a sign that there’s an injury that needs treatment. If put off, it is very likely that you will eventually require that hip replacement surgery. Remember the old adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Your Corona Chiropractor can get you out of pain, get your body back into balance, and help you get to back to enjoying your life again!

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   May 17

Chiropractic Internet Marketing Strategy: Do it Yourself or Outsource?

Here’s an interesting question for you to consider: Do you want to keep your chiropractic internet marketing in-house or do you want to hire a professional? There are pros and cons to both, and the answer lies in your particular situation. Let’s check out the advantages and  disadvantages of both.

Advantages of in-house chiropractic internet marketing

  1. There is a lower monthly cost involved in using someone already employed by you.
  2. The staff knows your practice intimately.  Your staff has a good understanding of your clinic’s particular services and, therefore, is able to describe your specialties easier than those who don’t know the specifics of your particular practice.
  3. You can communicate anytime. Being in-house it is easier to set up times to have meetings or just to chat about situations on the fly.

Disadvantages of in-house chiropractic website marketing

  1. The staff may not be fully aware of what SEO (search engine optimization) is, let alone how to accomplish it. In that case, a lot of education and training will be needed to make sure SEO gets done right.
  2. The staff may be overworked. Sometimes the time it takes to do SEO can be underestimated. It is an ongoing process that can actually be a full-time job.  If a marketing manager has been told to do SEO as well as his or her full time job, obviously that person will be overworked and feel overwhelmed.
  3. Attention needs to be paid to detail. This goes together with Point #2. If the staff is overworked, they have no time to check out search engine news and keep up-to-date on how the search engines have changed the game each week and what needs to be done to implement those changes to keep your clinic internet presence up in the rankings.

Advantages of using an outside professional

  1. Chiropractic marketing companies are specialists in the field.  They have experience in working on numerous clinics and their websites and optimizing them for SEO.  They know, first hand, what works effectively and what doesn’t.
  2. There is a dedicated team at the company who will be working on your site and can give it the attention it requires.
  3. The company has a specific plan and won’t be just jumping around, going from short term tactic to short term tactic with no organized strategy and no clear way to reach your desired goals. In other words, they have an “integrated” internet marketing strategy.

Disadvantages of a chiropractic internet marketing company

  1. Let’s face it, it can get expensive, but costs vary widely from company to company. Some companies out there are charging $600-$700 a month for their services. It is definitely worth your while to shop around and research before you buy.
  2. There is usually a commitment. Most chiropractic internet marketing companies will want you to sign up for at least six months to a year.
  3. Account management can be a problem. With high turnover rates at many companies, especially the big ones, there may be a chance that you’ll get handed from account manager to account manager just when you were building a relationship of trust. You may have to start over again, maybe even have to redesign and reiterate your strategy with the new manager.

Now that you’ve taken a moment to look at the pros and cons of both keeping your internet marketing in-house or hiring a professional, the solution to SEO and your internet marketing strategy will depend on the size of your practice, the time and staffing you can devote to it, and your overall long-term goals.

Now, of course, we are a chiropractic internet marketing company that specializes in helping chiropractors with their internet presence. So, I will admit that I am a bit biased on the side of your hiring an expert to do it right. If you are thinking of hiring a company to develop and implement your internet marketing strategy, it is tremendously important for you to hire one that specializes in chiropractic clinics. Why? Because we understand the chiropractic profession intimately. Therefore, in the long run it will save you both time and money not having to explain what chiropractic is about to some general SEO company. There are several of us out there.

If you are going to go with an outside company, be sure to read the fine print. Look at the bottom of their page for a disclaimer. If they have one, read about their “typical” results. You don’t want to be fooled by outrageous claims even though such hype can be enticing. Remember, your internet marketing strategy is just one stream of new patient leads. Even though chiropractic internet marketing is fast becoming a great source for new patient leads, and even though internet marketing gets more important with every passing day,  and even though it is a crucial area in which to generate new patient leads, it is still not the only source of marketing you will need to succeed in your practice.

Whether you choose to keep your internet marketing in-house or to hire a professional, you want to be sure that the time and money you spend on SEO gets you where you want to go. A member of your staff that does your internet marketing for “free,” while squeezing those efforts in-between other tasks, may “cost” you in the long run. A professional whose sole focus is internet marketing, won’t lose sight of your goals. Internet marketing is essential to your practice, so choose your chiropractic internet path wisely.

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   May 14

Social Media Marketing, Your Clinic, and You

Chiropractic Marketing

Social Media is the “hottest” topic on the Internet today. If you’ve been thinking about getting on board, but you’re not sure where the platform is, let’s take a minute to talk about the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” of social media and you, that’s “Who.” Then you can make a better decision about whether to add Social Media to your chiropractic marketing strategy.

Social media marketing may be very much like, and entirely unlike, any chiropractic marketing strategy you’ve contemplated. In the “very much like” category, you wouldn’t consider any kind of marketing plan without taking the time to understand what it’s about and what you want to get from it. What are your goals? Once you know what you want, it’ll be easier for you to use social media to your greatest advantage.

Before you actually start your social media effort, it will be highly important for you to make certain that you “own your name” on all the social media outlets, i.e., be certain that your name or your clinic’s name is procurable so that you can use precisely same name on all of the social channels you desire to use. There is a free service to assist you with your search when you’re ready. Knowem.com is the who to go to. This service will check where your name is and/or if it’s available or not on a substantial number of social media sites.

When you have secured all of your social media accounts, the next step is to make a decision as to where you would like to be active. Initially only a small number of social media sites is preferable because, let’s face it, you have a clinic to run and patients to see. You won’t want to get involved in too many social media sites. How do decide which sites are best for you? The big ones (where most of the action is) are facebook, twitter, linkedin, and Youtube.

What successful social media activity will do for you is build a genuine presence in your community. What is definitely a no-no is for you to try to “sell” on your social media sites, that means don’t sell your chiropractic services, don’t sell products, don’t sell anything! The objective of social media is for you to have an addition channel through which to network with the community. Of course, let them become aware what you do, but do it by participating in the conversation. There is really no difference between the way social networking works and the way you normally network offline. People on social media sites don’t want to be sold to, plain and simply. Social media sites are a lot like a neighborhood backyard barbecue. People are standing around having a conversation about who they are and what they do, and then a person asks you what you do. Or, maybe you start the conversation by simply stating, “Hello, I’m Dr. ____. The same kind of interaction applies with social media. “Work” your social media sites in the same way you’d work your offline networking communities, which is to say, answer the questions and concerns that let people know who you are and gets them interested in the who that’s you!

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   May 13

Help Your Young Baseball Player to Avoid Injury

Okay, as a chiropractor I continue to advise my patients, young and old alike, that routine exercise is a vital component to good health. And, since one in three children in the US is either overweight or obese, it’s apparent that getting enough exercise is becoming a national crisis. That said, exercise, especially when it involves sports activities, should be engaged in with the utmost caution. And, not just for the middle-aged “weekend warrior,” but for children as well. In fact, here’s a shocking statistic regarding kids and the “great American pastime”: According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, in 2008, nearly 200,000 children aged 14 and younger, were treated in hospitals, doctor’s offices and emergency rooms for baseball-related injuries.

Why do so many injuries occur? Well, for thing, young athletes today are taking on the kind of intense fitness regimen that can lead to overworked limbs, and overworked limbs, particularly arms overworked from repetitive throwing, can result in injury. In this case, it the old saying “it isn’t whether you win or lose but how you play the game,” couldn’t be more true and truer still is how you practice “pre-game.” Coaches and parents need to advise their young baseball players to not only practice proper form, but to avoid over-exertion. And, kids need to step up and let the coach or a parent know when they’ve had “enough” practice for one day.

The  American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons recommends the following tips, which we, chiropractors, fully support:

  • Always take time to warm up and stretch before and after play. Research studies have shown that cold muscles are more prone to injury, specifically:
  • If a child is pitching, he should concentrate on stretching his arm, shoulder and back muscles.
  • If a child is catching, the focus should be on the legs and back.
  • Children should not be encouraged to play through pain. It is important that they take breaks.
  • Limit the number of teams on which your child is playing in one season. Kids who play on more than one team are especially at risk for overuse injuries.
  • Wear a batting helmet at the plate, in the “on deck” circle waiting for your turn at bat, and during base running.
  • Coaches must teach and allow practice of proper sliding techniques before using a bag, including breakaway bases. Players younger than 10 should not be taught to slide.

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   May 12

Your Wichita Chiropractor Has Years of Experience Successfully Treating Sciatica

Wichita Chiropractor

I understand from more than twenty years experience as a Chiropractor in Wichita assisting patients suffering from the pain of sciatica that the problem can be extremely debilitating. Sciatica sufferers are unfortunately all too familiar with the deep radiating pain that persists during the day and interferes with almost all of their daily activities.

Are you wondering if your low back pain might be caused by sciatica? If your pain travels from your low back, through your buttock(s), down the large sciatic nerve in the back of one or both legs, and possibly radiates into one or both knees, you probably have sciatica. Also, not only activity, but even sitting can be painful. Often lying down will decrease, or occasionally even temporarily eliminate the pain. Even so, you should be alerted to the fact that sciatica will not go away without proper treatment.

Radiculopathy

One of the clinical diagnoses of sciatica is referred to as a “radiculopathy”, a medical term that means simply that a disc has protruded from its natural position in the spine and is pressing on the radicular nerve (nerve root) in the lower back, which forms part of the sciatic nerve. This type of pressure can generate excruciating pain.

Prolonged sitting, particularly with bad posture, can produce imbalances in the muscles enclosing the spine and additional pressure on the intervertebral discs. A specific event or injury isn’t generally the cause of sciatica, instead sciatica has a tendency to develop over time as a result of ordinary wear and tear on the structures of the lower spine. Over the course of time the lower spine can lose its ability to function normally during everyday stresses.

When this happens, the intervertebral disc undergoes small fissures or cracks, which then let the soft nucleus to protrude the disc outward. Pain is generated as the disc pushes on sensitive tissues. This condition is often called a ruptured, or slipped, disc. Sciatica is the result of the disc pressing on the spinal nerve. With chiropractic manipulation and management, which frequently includes postural exercises, most disc challenges, including sciatica, can be completely relieved.

Periformis Syndrome

Periformis syndrome is another condition that results in sciatic pain. Periformis syndrome occurs when the periformis muscle, for any reason, goes into spasm and irritates the sciatic nerve, which runs “deep to the muscle.” In combination with chiropractic treatment, this kind of sciatica can be significantly relieved by sciatica stretches that your chiropractor will suggest.

It is vital for you to see your chiropractor for treatment if you are experiencing sciatic pain. If you are in the Wichita area, as your Chiropractor in Wichita, I look forward to helping you to get out of pain and get your life back!

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   May 04

Exercising Can Make You Both Healthy and Wise

“Motion is Life.” That is my mission statement as a chiropractor, and my goal is to get as many of my patients as possible moving into pain-free daily exercise routines. There’s just no getting around it, our bodies are meant to move, and when we don’t let them (or in some cases “make them”), every system in our body suffers. Exercising is crucial to our overall well-being, and not just for physical health and strength, but mental “power” as well. In fact, a new study, led by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has found evidence that regular exercise speeds learning and improves blood flow to the brain.

I’m sure that if you already exercise you are aware that your thinking tends to become more clear and sharp after a good workout and cool down, even though you may have been unaware that by exercising you were actually increasing the volume of blood flowing to your motor cortex. The point is, exercise is clearly a “smart” thing to do. So, keep it up if already exercise, and if you don’t, GET MOVING. But, see your chiropractor first to be sure you’re well-adjusted!

The findings are available in the journal Neuroscience.

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