When we go through our daily lives, not many of us are thinking about our bodies in the long term sense.

This is especially true when it comes to our backs and our joints, which have a little more to say in the matter as we advance in age. Below are a few measures you can take that will help you reduce the wear and tear your body experiences on a daily basis.

Maintain Healthy Weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is not only good for keeping a great appearance, but it’s also good for your health. Staying near your ideal body weight also ensures that your body isn’t working extra hard in any department and that no part of your body is experiencing unnecessary damage.

See Your Chiropractor Regularly

This one is a no-brainer. Seeing your neighborhood chiropractor in Homewood, IL is good for your spine and your joint health.

Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated ensures your body and your joints are receiving the right amount of lubrication. Drinking half your body weight in ounces of water will help you revitalize your body and prep it for the long haul.

Tweak Your Diet

Incorporating leafy greens and other healthy vegetables into your diet will help your body improve its functionality. Staying away from inflammatory sugars and processed carbs will also help your spine and your joints stay healthy.

If you have any additional questions about how to maximize your health through chiropractic care, contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today.

At Barton Chiropractic Clinic we like to remind our patients about the foods they can eat that will help them achieve new levels of health and wellness. At the end of the day, we are what we eat. But, just the same, it’s also important to remind our patients and readership about the foods and drinks they should avoid, foods and drinks that, when consumed, come with some serious health consequences attached.

Below are foods you should cut out of your diet or at the very least limit your intake of.

1.) Candy / Processed Sugar

Leave the sugar and syrup out of your morning coffee and make sure to limit (or do away with altogether) candy intake. Processed sugars rot your teeth, lead to inflammation, and have zero nutritional value.

2.) Soda Pop / Sugary Beverages

Simply substituting a nice, big glass of water for that soda will help you achieve optimum levels of hydration and avoid the serious pitfalls that come along with soda consumption.

3.) Processed Carbs

Make sure that you just say “no” to the morning bagel and instead opt for clean proteins, veggies, and sweet potatoes for your morning nutrition.

4.) Cut Fruit From Smoothies

Making sure that your smoothies are veggie-dense is very important in maintaining health. When you simply juice fruit or drink fruit-only smoothies, you’re getting a serious sugar spike on the same level with soda.

5.) Alcohol

Some people say that nothing good comes out of a night of drinking, which we don’t necessarily agree with, but it’s always a good idea not to drink if you want to stay hydrated and remain productive and functional. Alcohol is also loaded with sugar, carbohydrates, and is often combined with sugary beverages that will disrupt your nutrition plan.

If you have any questions about how our services our expertise can help boost your wellness, contact Barton Chiropactic Clinic today.

Yoga can be an excellent part of a wellness routine that includes a good diet, rigorous exercise, and chiropractic care from a specialist like Barton Chiropractic Clinic. The truth is, life is all about BALANCE. Eat well, sleep well, exercise well, and recover well. Yoga is a great habit to create because it not only stretches out your entire body, but there are particular moves that focus specifically on your back, neck, and spine. 

Yoga can also be done in such a way that builds your core, upper body, and lower body strength. In some circles, yoga can become a total body workout.

Read on for a few ways to incorporate yoga into your everyday life — it doesn’t always just happen in the studio, after all.

Do Yoga at Work

It doesn’t matter if you work at an office or on a construction site, taking 10-20 minutes out of each day to stretch it out is a great idea. Some employers even incorporate a team stretch early in the morning to get their teams ready for the day. Focus on moves that engage your neck and your spine.

Do Yoga While You Stand in Line

Instead of being another person starting at their phone, do a couple of yoga moves while you’re waiting to cash out at the grocery store, or while you’re waiting for the bank teller. People might look at you funny, but who cares? This is your wellness at stake, after all. Maybe some people will even join you.

Hold Your Poses

Make sure to hold your poses for 30 seconds or more. Make sure that you also focus on your breathing to maximize the calming and soothing effects of yoga, which can often yield similar benefits as meditation.

If you have any additional questions about ways you can boost your flexibility, range of motion, and overall wellness, contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today. We have a long track record of treating injuries and keeping our patients healthy and well!

Did you know that many injuries are related to fatigue and lethargy?

Yep, it’s true. When we’re tired we’re more likely to fall into being lazy or clumsy, which means we may not be focusing so much on our form, posture, and coordination. There are moments throughout the day that we’re all on autopilot, which actually makes us more susceptible to an injury, whether it occurs in the workplace or on your off time. Below are a few ways you can tweak your nutrition to energize you throughout your day.

1.) Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

You should try to drink a quart of water when you wake up in the morning. Try to drink half your body weight in ounces — for instance, if you’re 150 pounds, you’d drink 75 ounces of water daily. Hydration is key to functionality and will also help your body function at optimum capacity.

2.) Eat Protein-Rich Foods

Making sure to eat foods high in protein, like eggs, clean meats, quinoa, spirulina, greek yogurt, etc. will help you fuel your day. Focusing on the times of day you eat as well as the amount of food you take in at each meal is paramount to fueling your body properly as well.

3.) Get Those Greens!

Try to start having a veggie smoothie every day and try to incorporate vegetables into EVERY meal. If you have a scramble in the morning, try to put it on a bed of kale, for instance. Fruits are great, but they’re loaded in sugar, so add fruit to your smoothies with caution, and try to make sure you get maximum health benefits from said fruit (we recommend berries — which are rich in antioxidants — as well as bananas).

Back and neck injuries are often avoidable through being cautious and alert to your surroundings and being in touch with your body and its relations to the space it occupies. Contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today if you’ve experienced an injury. Read our blog for more valuable tips and information to optimize your wellness.

Did you know that there are a host of benefits that chiropractic has to offer that you might not even be aware of?

It’s true. At Barton Chiropractic Clinic we are constantly going above and beyond when it comes to the results and health benefits our chiropractic care services bestow upon our patients. Below are a few low-key ways that chiropractic is benefiting you without you even being aware of it.

1.) Boost Your Immunity!

Your body’s nervous system is the control center for cell functionality, not to mention organs and other tissues of the body. Spine misalignment can seriously reduce your immune system’s functionality as a result. When we realign your spine, this helps to ensure that your immune system is functioning at its best to ward off infection. Patients who undergo chiropractic care have been shown to get sick less than those who do not.

2.) Improve Your Digestion

We are only just now starting to skim the surface when it comes to knowing the stomach’s effect on the rest of the body, especially our mental well-being. When are spines are misaligned, this can cause the body’s signaling system to go all out of whack, which might spur the body to overcompensate when it comes to acid production, which can end up resulting in gas, acid reflux, and nasty cases of heartburn. Chiropractic adjustments help nerves in your thoracic spine work more properly and efficiently in order to help eliminate stomach problems.

3.) Boost Your Respiratory System!

Yep, chiropractic adjustments can actually help you breathe better! Spine misalignment (especially in the thoracic and mid-cervical areas of your spine) can (and will) lead to different lung complications (like asthma, for instance). When we correct subluxations, this can help reduce inflammation in your lungs and boost your respiratory system.

If you have any additional questions about how chiropractic care can help you, contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today!

Carpal tunnel syndrome happens to present itself in a number of ways. Carpal tunnel doesn’t simply happen overnight, either.

Painful symptoms that develop from carpal tunnel might take weeks (or even months) before they present themselves and can certainly worsen if you leave these adverse symptoms untreated.

Carpal Tunnel Symptoms

Symptoms can include:

• Weakness
• Clumsiness (Especially in the Hands)
• Muscle Loss (In the Palm Area)
• Pain

Carpal tunnel can also get aggravated by diseases like arthritis, diabetes, or even thyroid problems.

One major culprit of carpal tunnel is repetitive behavior. Doing a certain motion or performing a certain task over and over and over again can lead to carpal tunnel.

How Chiropractic Can Help Your Carpal Tunnel

Doctors will generally treat carpal tunnel syndrome with injections, surgery, splints, or even over-the-counter drugs (like Advil or Ibuprofen). At Barton Chiropractic Clinic, we provide services that do more than simply treat your carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. We work to treat the underlying cause of your pain. We use tried-and-true methods like joint manipulation as well as mobilization that will aid your hands and wrists in moving about more freely. We also provide you with exercises that you can use at home to improve your condition.

Contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today if you’d like to learn more about how our chiropractic care services can help your carpal tunnel syndrome.

In honor of The Masters Tournament and Tiger Woods celebrating his 5th win in Augusta, Barton Chiropractic Clinic thought it would be a fine idea to discuss the many benefits that chiropractic care offers to golfers and other athletes alike.

Below are just a few of the many health benefits golfers glean from chiropractic adjustments.

1.) Increase Your Range of Motion

If you’re looking to add distance to your drive and control your putting and chipping, chiropractic can help! Spine adjustments have been shown to increase your range of motion, which will help you get leverage on the ball.

2.) Treat Golf Injuries as They Occur

Chiropractic specialists can help treat your golf-related strains and injuries which can occur in the neck, back, shoulder, and leg areas. Chiropractic care is also amazing for your joints, which can go through a lot of wear and tear — both from your swing and from carrying those clubs around.

3.) Chiropractic Helps with Stabilization and Flexibility

Chiropractic care helps increase your flexibility and helps address those stabilizer muscles that come into play in the game of golf.

If you have any questions about how chiropractic care can seriously up your golf game, contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today. We have a long track record of keeping golfers, athletes, and everyone in between healthy, active, and well — and we do it the drug-free way!

Chances are, you take your back for granted. That is, until you experience some sort of problem, which usually has to do with back pain or having your mobility disrupted (or, even in some cases, halted altogether).

Below Barton, Chiropractic Clinic goes over a few ways that you can reduce your back pain as a way to get through your daily activities more effectively and more comfortably.

1.) Focus on Your Posture

It might be difficult when your back starts to ache, but sitting with perfect posture is a good way to correct issues with your back while building the necessary foundation to ensure that your sitting time isn’t doing damage to your neck and spine.

2.) Start Building Your Back

Start focusing on exercises that build and strengthen your back and your core. It’s very important that all exercises associated with the spine are performed with form in mind primarily, not heaping on piles of weight. By building your back you’ll be less susceptible to pain and injury.

3.) Yoga, Yoga, Yoga

We cannot stress enough the importance of incorporating a good stretching routine into your wellness regiment. Incorporating yoga poses into your day gives you extra brownie points in our book.

One last bonus tip: schedule regular visits with Barton Chiropractic Clinic for advanced chiropractic care, which is great for injury prevention, cognitive function, range of motion, and treatment of back pain and a wide variety of injuries and chronic conditions.

Contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today to schedule your consultation.

At Barton Chiropractic Clinic we’re not only here to provide chiropractic care for adults, teens, and children who are injured, active, or simply wanting to avoid injury or optimize their wellness. We also provide education and materials to our patients that will help them live active and healthy lives.

The sauna is one tool at your disposal that will help you enjoy some amazing health benefits — if you do the sauna correctly, that is.

Below are a few of the best sauna practices you should utilize with implementing sauna visits into your health and wellness routine.

Get Out When it Stops Feeling Good

It goes without saying that you should get out of the sauna when it stops feeling good. It’s important not to push your body’s capacity to tolerate heat. If you start to feel faint, nauseous, or your heart rate starts to speed up, you should exit the sauna promptly.

Hydrate Beforehand

It’s no secret that a visit to the sauna will make you sweat out mass amounts of water from your body. As your body perspires in great amounts, you won’t feel any adverse symptoms if you’ve drank plenty of water ahead of time. 

Let Your Body Adjust

It’s not a great idea to plunge into a cold body of water right after spending time in the sauna. Instead, wait about 10 minutes for your body to adjust to normal temperatures, then you can take that cold dip in the pool!

If you have any other questions about how to use a sauna properly, or if you’re in need of chiropractic care, which is also a great way to supplement a healthy lifestyle, contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today.

Chiropractic adjustments are part of the suite of services we offer at Barton Chiropractic Clinic that help patients either manage pain from chronic conditions, treat certain types of injuries, or to help fully optimize their health, wellness and overall functionality.

Finding a good chiropractor is key in a comprehensive health and wellness plan because chiropractic adjustments can offer some serious benefits discussed below.

Sciatica Treatment

Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to be incredibly helpful in treating sciatica. The European Spine Journal published findings from a clinical trial which uncovered how chiropractic adjustments resulted in a 72% success rate for the treatment of symptoms associated with sciatica, compared to a 20%  success rate from physical therapy treatment, and a 50% success rate from corticosteroid injections.

Neurological Benefits

After getting a chiropractic adjustment your cerebral spinal fluid and blood flow increase significantly. Cerebellar invagination (when the cerebellum drops down below the skull line) has even been shown to reverse, not to mention plaque buildup in the brain, which is common in multiple sclerosis patients. Chiropractic treatments have also been shown to help with vertebral subluxations associated with epilepsy and seizures.

Boost Athletic Performance

That’s right, chiropractic adjustments have been shown to reduce inflammation and enhance joint function, which, paired with the neurological benefits mentioned above can help you achieve peak performance.

If you have any additional questions about how our treatments and services can benefit you, contact Barton Chiropractic Clinic today. We have a long history of helping patients stay active.