Regardless of age or physical condition, everyone is prone to a flare of back pain. A person who has never experienced even a twinge of pain or stiffness may wake up one day to find that they slept awkwardly and their neck is now cricked. For people at all points on the spectrum between one-time pain and chronic conditions, it is important to know how to use your resources to allay pain so that it doesn’t sideline you completely. 

When it comes to managing back pain in the moment, two of your best resources are ice and heat. And while this may sound like overstated conventional wisdom, it is important to know how to actually apply ice and heat, and why you are doing it. Some people prefer one or the other, but we find that they are especially effective, and actually compliment each other, when alternated in this order:

• Ice to relieve pain and reduce swelling and inflammation. When you apply ice to an injurious region, the blood vessels narrow in a process known as vasoconstriction, your muscles flex and inflammation is immediately reduced. Ice, in the form of a pack, a frozen damp towel, or a bag of frozen peas, should be applied to the injurious region for 10-15 minutes at a time, up to three times a day. 
• Heat is used to relax the muscles and stimulate the healing process. The opposite of vasoconstriction, heat catalyzes vasodilation in which the blood vessels open wide, allowing nutrients and oxygen that are necessary for healing to flood the region. Most heat is preferable to dry heat, and you can apply it for up to 20 minutes at a time to achieve pain relief.

When it comes to managing your pain, knowledge is power. We help people find simple and natural ways to encourage a healthier, happier life. If you are suffering from chronic pain, it may be time to make the call and schedule an appointment so we can discern the true cause and begin the healing process.

Happiness in the workplace takes constant dedication 

Even people who are immensely satisfied with their job still need to monitor themselves to prevent the onset of weariness. We need to constantly listen to our bodies and brains: take stock of your stress levels, feel the twinges of pain and respond to them in a healthy manner rather than burying them away until they surface calamitously in the future. Essentially you need to separate “working you” from “you you.” 

Ways to stay happy in the workplace

By exerting control over the factors that are within your power, you can set the balance equally against those factors you cannot control and thereby prevent a lot of unnecessary stress. Here is a brainstorm of ways to improve your experience in the office:

• The comfort of your workspace: temperature is important. Too hot and your brain boils; too cool and your office feels like a cave so 65-70 Fahrenheit is a good target. Your ergonomic setup is also important for preventing pain and contributing to good posture. 
• Noise: keep the sound down as much as possible to contribute to a more zen atmosphere in the office. 
• Engage with coworkers: face-to-face, not over e-mail! 
• Keep moving: stand up and go for no-screens at least once every hour

How we help

While there has been a recent change in the attitude of companies toward employee health, many offices still sell their employees short in terms of ergonomics and stress management. At our office, we are your resource if you are feeling burned out from office life. We can help your body combat physical stress by addressing subluxation and muscle tension, which will allow you to focus on feeling your best mentally. Give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

You are losing flexibility while you sit hunched over.

8 hours in an office chair is a brutal reality for your back. Multiply that by the average amount of days you work in a year and you can see how the hours add up against your spine. Unless we are proactive, we are literally letting our flexibility fall by the wayside to the chagrin of our bodies. We need flexibility to perform basic human movements without pain: the lifts, twists, turns, and reaches that make up the subconscious movements of the day. Even standing up and walking depends on our bodies having a baseline of flexibility. 

Stretching from your desk can revolutionize the way you feel at work.

Try this from your office chair: 

• Gentle twist: Sit up straight. Gently twist to the right and look over your right shoulder. Hold for 5-10 seconds and repeat on the other side. 
• Fold from the chair: come to the edge your chair and extend your legs forward with feet hip-distance apart. Exhale and fold your upper body forward reaching with your hands for your feet. Grasp as far down your leg as you can and hang for 15 seconds.
• Upper shoulder stretch: Reach right hand over right shoulder and reach your left hand behind your back. Clasp your hands together and create a tension that stretches the shoulders and chest. Hold 15 seconds. 

Stop feeling stiff at work

This stretch routine takes about 2 minutes and it can release a lot of tension from the body. If you could do it once every hour you would be doing your body a grand favor. Let’s work together to identify the ways in which you are letting your body down. From poor body mechanics and movement to poor posture, everyone has room for improvement. By being proactive about your flexibility, you can ensure an old age with less pain and more independence. Let’s start moving more and moving more purposefully today! Give our office a call to schedule an appointment. 

What’s the big deal behind 10,000 steps?

It is a nice round number that can be easily tracked by fitness devices, and the number seems to have stuck. Science is currently debating the specifics of 10,000 steps down to the detail of the individual’s leg length, and overall fitness of the individual. Of course, fitness is more nuanced than a simple round number like 10,000 but there is still merit to the idea. 

The math behind 10,000 steps:

10,000 steps can be achieved in roughly 30 minutes of walking. This is a lot easier on the ears than 150 minutes of exercise per week, which 30 minutes of walking a day actually exceeds. This is enough to qualify you as a “moderately active person.”

The idea of 10,000 steps is right

Perhaps you already hit the gym three times a week; in this case, walking 10,000 steps a day is unlikely to increase your level of fitness. For someone who never exercises, 10,000 steps can be a boon. Even if the verdict is still out on just how healthy 10,000 steps can be, the idea is in the right place: it is easy to understand and sets a baseline to strive for. This falls in with the idea of setting a daily fitness goal for yourself. So let’s take this idea and adapt it to your life.

The question remains: how can you be more healthy? 

Setting realistic goals is the best way, so rather than following arbitrary guidelines such as 10,000 steps, think at a more individual level- what ways can I improve? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Walk 30 minutes a day
• Eat 1-2 pieces of fruit per day
• Stretch for 30 minutes
• Run, swim, or bike (whichever makes you happiest) for 30 minutes twice a week. 

Start by keeping your goals broken into realistic chunks of time such as 10 minutes or half an hour and powerful changes in both attitude and fitness will result. We want to help you heal your body so that you can focus on activities that make you happy and keep you fit. If you have long-standing pain or dysfunction that is holding you back, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. We will work with you to detect the true cause of your pain and create a multi-faceted plan for removing you from the clutches of pain today. 

Sleep is essential for pain management

For people suffering from spinal conditions, sleep often offers the only reprieve in a day full of pain and discomfort. Being able to extend your spine on a comfortable mattress may offer pain relief for some, but for others, sleep is less easy to come by. When it comes time to quiet your mind and get to sleep, there is nothing to distract you from your back pain. Insomnia becomes both a cause and an effect of your back pain, and this cycle can be hard to break out of. The best way to get to sleep despite your pain is by finding comfort. We have dedicated our lives to helping people with chronic back pain increase the amount of comfort in their lives so that they can find the sleep they need to push on. 

Most comfortable sleeping position by spinal-condition

• Herniated discs: people with this condition find the most relief sleeping on their sides and stomach, as long as the stomach is supported by a pillow underneath. A medium-density mattress allows for your shoulders and hips to sink in comfortably while still supporting the curvature and neutral alignment of your spine. 
• Degenerative disc disease: reducing stress on the discs is achieved by opening up space between the vertebrae. When sleeping, most people find comfort on their stomach, with a supporting pillow underneath. 
• Osteoarthritis: we most often recommend a loose fetal position, in which the knees are raised but the spine remains straight through the neck. This position relieves pressure on spinal joints.

At our office our job is to use hands-on modalities to restore alignment to your spine and reduce the severity of your symptoms. In so doing, we aim to reduce pain and improve function, helping you find the comfort you need to sleep. 

Chronic inflammation is the natural result of a poor diet

Foods that are high in processed ingredients usually contain high levels of sugar and bad fat- foods that make you feel OK and fill you up but let you down in the long run. A buzzword in the health community, inflammation is linked to all sorts of problems in the human body- pain, arthritis, obesity, and beyond, but here’s one that may not have occurred to you before:

Chronic inflammation is linked to cortisol imbalance

The brain’s foremost stress hormone, cortisol, is produced by the adrenal gland, and keeping it in balance is critical for maintaining the health of every cell in the body. By raising inflammation, a poor diet is helping to throw your cortisol rhythm out of balance and thereby, results in the following symptoms: 

• Anxiety and depression 
• Problems falling and staying asleep
• Weight fluctuation
• Decreased memory
• Immune system dysfunction

A plan for eating clean to fight inflammation and cortisol imbalance 

Diet, along with sleep, is one of the most powerful ways you can control cortisol rhythm and the functioning of your adrenal glands. 

1. We start by ditching the processed foods. As much as possible, try to limit your intake of drive-thru or ready-made meals. 
2. This goes along with controlling the quality of fats and sugars you intake.
3. Focus on anti-inflammatory foods or supplements that contain omega-3 fatty acids, spices such as turmeric, cloves, and ginger, 
4. Avoid caffeine and alcohol late at night: Both are great at disturbing your natural flow and interfering with the quality of sleep. 

This is not a radical change in your diet, but it does ask that you take some care in avoiding the pitfalls of ready-made meals and exercising more care over the ingredients you consume. We can help you identify behavior that is causing inflammation and cortisol levels to remain high and quality of life low. Give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

We all know that stretching is good for us…

…but even so, it is probably the activity that is the largest victim of our lazy nature. There are very few people I know who cannot reasonably find 10 minutes to stretch in a day, but there are millions of excuses for why we don’t. Let’s stop ignoring an activity we know makes us feel good and start getting excited about stretching. 

Active Isolated Stretching is a method for stretching that makes a noticeable difference

If you are someone who struggles to see the value of stretching because it doesn’t make an instant impact, try active isolated stretching. This variety of stretching isolates a single muscle, stretches it for two seconds, releases and repeats up to ten times. It is a method of stretching that was developed by kinesiotherapist Aaron Mattes and is used by athletes to prevent injury and improve range of motion. 

What makes active isolated stretching effective? 

It works in threefold ways:

• Isolating the muscle means you contract the opposite muscle, creating a good environment for the targeted muscle to be stretched. 
• 2 second bursts repeating the stretch help to circulate blood, oxygen and nutrients to the targeted muscle and avoids the muscle from activating its stretch reflex which is a natural response of the body to prevent injury.
• By focusing on breathing in during the release and out during the stretch, you deliver the oxygen your muscles needed to recover.

Helping you stretch

Stretching is an integral part of any balanced health plan. Active isolated stretching offers an exciting way to create noticeable results, improving circulation and elasticity of the joints to help improve your range of motion. Give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Strategies for overcoming back pain

To create more effective strategies for overcoming back pain and dysfunction, we need to meticulously record your pain. To this end, we recommend that our clients maintain a daily journal of their spinal health. You can start this even before visiting your chiropractor for the first time. Record the location, type of pain, severity, and time of day when it occurs. If possible, also keep track of your levels of movement, your diet, and your exercise regime; these things may seem unrelated, but they play a central role in chronic back pain. 

Working together to overcome your back pain

Sometimes all it takes us is a conversation to effect powerful changes in the way your spine feels. This conversation can be made all the more effective if we have a first-hand, in-the-moment account of your pain. When combined with diagnostic imaging, postural analysis, and a full physical examination, we will paint a comprehensive picture of your spine and what is causing your pain. From here, we can design effective strategies to overcome that pain and its underlying conditions. Give our office a call to schedule an appointment today.