Posts by Barton Chiropractic Clinic

Your spine is central to your overall health

Thus, having regular checkups performed to determine its overall health is a simple way of maintaining well being. Every movement you make during the day will affect one part of the spine or the other, and many of these movements conspire to move the spinal joints out of alignment, leading to nerve compression and overall bodily dysfunction. The important thing is to listen to your body. Pain is a signal just like the check engine light in your car.

How can problems with your spinal joints cause pain? 

First of all, they can bother or impinge upon nearby spinal nerves which interact directly with the brain. This is especially prevalent in people suffering from herniated discs, in which bulging disc material puts pressure on spinal nerves. However, spinal joints being out of alignment most often lead to restrictions in range of motion, which can hamper the effective communication of your central nervous system. This overall imbalance is responsible for painful tightness in the muscles as well as pain that results from sprained ligaments surrounding the vertebral joint.

Tuning up your spine

The good news is that subluxation is effectively corrected with chiropractic adjustments. These are purposeful, sometimes instrument-assisted adjustments that return spinal joints to proper alignment and simultaneously improve nervous system functioning. Don’t let spinal misalignment wreak silent havoc with your life until a serious condition develops. Instead, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

The damage of sitting all-day

Excessive sitting affects every part of the body:

• Damages organs and interferes with digestion
• Increases compression on the spine 
• Encourages poor posture habits
• Contributes to obesity and diabetes
• Weakens muscles, and destabilizes the muscular balance
• Causes poor blood circulation

This is just the start. Excessive sitting can be traced as a cause of many of the USA’s most prevalent health problems. So, if your job requires you to sit, and you have a penchant for binge-watching TV after work, make sure that you take steps to undo this damage on a daily basis.

Undoing the damage of sitting all-day

Besides an hour of vigorous workout that gets your heart rate up and works your muscles, you should focus on choosing specific movements that target the parts of your body which suffer the most during sitting. Yoga is an effective modality for doing just that! Here are some of the most effective yoga poses for habitual sitters:

• Downward facing dog 
• Spinal twist
• Pigeon pose
• Cat and cow pose 
• Child’s pose

Detailed instructions for these poses can be found here: https://www.verywellfit.com/essential-yoga-poses-for-beginners-3566747. If you are interested in redressing all the damage done by sitting, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Instead of fleeing the problem, let’s face it head-on! 

Symptoms of compression injuries range from mild to severe. The most common compression related conditions that we treat include:

• Back pain
• Nerve pressure
• Herniated disc
• Degenerative disc disease
• Rehabilitation of fractured vertebrae
• Sciatica
• Government Pressure (jk)

The fact that pressure is constantly accumulating indicates why decompression therapy is so effective; and why it feels so good. At our office, we have a range of modalities for treating compression injuries.

• Spinal adjustment relieves pain by restoring mobility to spinal motion segments and relieving pressure from the nearby nerves. 
• Mechanical traction utilizes a specialized table to stretch the spine while we provide gentle, targeted adjustment to the spinal joints. This has the effect of opening up the space between the vertebrae, allowing for rehydration of the intravertebral discs and creating a negative pressure space in which bulging disc material can retract. 
• Manual traction applies a distraction force to the spine in order to alleviate pain and compression

Relieving pressure has never felt so good 

The goal of decompression therapy is to help you experience less pain, allowing you to move more and thus strengthen the muscles that matter for supporting the spine. If you are interested in using decompression therapy for your back pain, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Get a few more steps in your life and it helps your health

Many of us have heard the goal: 10,000 steps a day. But this is a huge number that turns many people off. Instead start with 1,000 and work your way up. And always remember that the quality of those steps is important too! 

• Walk and talk: make pacing nervously while on the phone work to your benefit. Walk from room to room, or take your phone call outside!
• Walk to talk: to the next desk, the next floor or next door. Whoever you need to talk to, we are guessing a face-to-face meeting will be more productive for both parties. Plus it helps you get your steps. 
• Walk at lunch: get outside, smell the fresh air and take a brisk 15 minute walk. Then choose a bench and sit down to have your meal outside.
• Take the stairs: stairs instead of elevator. Stairs tone your butt and help you get those few extra steps that matter.
• Park far away: give up looking for the closest-possible parking space- there are plenty a few rows further back that will give you an extra 20-50 steps.  
• Choose hills: the steeper the grade, the better.

How we help you walk more

Chances are you won’t choose to walk if you are in the grips of back pain. At our office in Homewood, we help people manage chronic back pain with natural methods so that they can focus on reaping the health benefits of exercise including walking. Spinal adjustment boosts circulation and improves range of motion so that you can walk with less pain. Let’s make 2021 the year that you make your health a priority- give our office in Homewood, IL a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Other forms of cardio that are better for your back

Here is a list of cardio workouts that limit the amount of stress to your back: 

• Swimming 
• Elliptical
• Cycling
• Rowing
• Walking
• Body weight training

All of these activities give you a full range of cardio benefits while minimizing the trauma that your back incurs along the way. But variety is important: each of these activities will condition a specific set of muscles and exclude others. However, if you are suffering from back pain, it is important to make your sport account for your condition. Do not continue with a sport that is causing you pain. 

Back pain in Homewood

At our office in Houston, we are committed to helping people find solutions for their particular health concerns. Don’t let back pain stop you from reaping the full benefits of cardiovascular exercise. Let us help you reduce pain and improve function so that you can continue enjoying activities that help you feel better.