Chiropractic As Part Of A "Get Healthy" Program

If you're like many people, you'd love to be a healthy person. If you already feel pretty healthy, that's great. However, I've noticed more and more people are searching the internet for ways to get healthy. They want to be healthy, they just don't necessarily want to have to take any difficult action steps in order to make it happen.

Getting healthy usually means all the normal steps. Eating better, getting some regular exercise, and addressing various ailments and symptoms that have begun to show up. Still, most people are going to take a passive approach to their health. They want to do things and go places where things will be "done to them" rather than them having to "do stuff."

Let's take eating better for example. There's no real mystery any more for you in which foods are good for you. Fast food is usually bad (even the stuff they try to make seem like it's good for you), and vegetables are good. When you are snacking on potato chips, you can't honestly be telling yourself "I sure am eating healthy." Eating healthy things, putting only healthy things in your shopping cart, and worse, planning your meals ahead of time so you don't get caught starving and nothing to eat but fast food requires effort.

Exercise is the same thing. Remember those belts that people used to strap around their waist and get shaken into better health? You don't see them anymore because exercise really is not a passive thing. You've got to get out of your chair and regularly move around to make anything happen. After awhile, just walking around is not really going to get you the results you want either. You'll have to put in more effort to increase the intensity of your exercise to hit the next level.

Here's the good news for those people that want to do something healthy, but don't want to put forth a ton of effort. Get a chiropractic adjustment. You don't have to wait for headaches, neck pain, or back pain to decide to visit a chiropractor (even though that's what a lot of people do). Getting a chiropractic adjustment is one of the easiest things to do, and one of the healthiest.

It's an insidious thing. You don't see that your spine is breaking down. You don't see the degeneration process start to occur in your spine and the spinal discs. You just know that things aren't quite right. I've had patients that never complained of anything more than low back stiffness, before coming in for their first chiropractic visit.

However, their x-rays showed advanced spinal degeneration something that simply could not happen overnight. The best part of all in starting this type of program is that the only "action" you have to take is to show up. The chiropractor will do the rest, and you get to just sit back and feel better about taking a healthy step toward a better you.

Vitamin D: Could it be the answer to health problems?

Vitamin D has been in the news frequently lately. It is becoming apparent that it is involved in many more processes in the body then ever known before. From the immune system to regulation of hormones, this vitamin might just be the key to good health.

The old definition of vitamin D was that it is a fat-soluble steroid based vitamin, the body can produce it when exposed to sunlight, and it aids in the absorption of calcium. When children have low vitamin D levels they are more likely to get a condition called rickets (softening, weakening and deformity of bones). This vitamin is not naturally occurring in very many foods but is added to foods like dairy.

Now it is known that Vitamin D is essential in many body processes. The research is astounding. There are some professionals that now believe that cold and flu season takes place in the winter months because the population is all vitamin D deficient from inadequate sun exposure. Vitamin D deficiency seems to be responsible for immune system dysfunction that can often lead to illness or possibly cancer. Some have estimated that 25 to 50 percent of health care budgets could be saved by vitamin D supplementation when necessary.

Without blood tests it is impossible to check for deficiency. Ideally blood levels of 25 OH D should be 60ng/ml. A rule of thumb for a light skinned individual is at least 15 minutes of mid-day of sun exposure (arms, face, and chest) daily. Now, the cutting edge research is that vitamin D is formed on the surface of your skin in the oils from cholesterol exposure to ultra violet B rays and takes 48 hours to absorb through the skin. That means when using soap in the shower it washes away before the body absorbs it.

Overall, Vitamin D has proved to be an essential part of the human body and everyone should make sure that their levels are adequate.

If you want to talk about Vitamin D further, set up an appointment with Dr. Bagley at Vital Force Clinic for a consultation.

Your Pain Just Started, But Your Problem Began Long Ago...

There are problems that have just started, lurking beneath the surface where you have not yet felt their pain. You may go years, occasionally feeling some soreness and stiffness, just to have it go away on its own. Maybe you feel a twinge, take a pill, and it all seems like it's going to be okay.

Then one morning you get up, accidentally drop your socks on the floor, bend down to pick them up and you can't get back up. You are having so much pain that you barely manage to make it to your bed and hang on. You start taking pills like crazy until you manage to pull out the yellow pages and find a nearby chiropractor.

On your visit to the chiropractor, he explains that your spine is showing signs of wear and tear, that your problem likely began years ago. "What? I just bent down to pick up my socks. My problem started this morning." The problem with believing that your problem is new is that you will also likely believe that your pain should go away quickly.

You are likely forgetting about all the times you felt warning signals and quickly dismissed them or medicated them away. You don't realize that you haven't been able to touch your toes in years, you don't exercise regularly, and your job entails you sitting for extended periods of time. These were all factors in the building of your spinal problem, long before you ever felt your first symptom... the back pain.

The back pain ended up as the final result of the years of build up on your spine. Now you can either go for stronger drugs to cover things up, or you can begin to undo the years of ignoring the warnings and work to build up a healthy and normally functioning spine. The good news is that it rarely takes nearly as long to put your back together as it took to make it bad in the first place.

There is a point of no return. There is a point when you've ignored and dulled the warning signals for so long that the degeneration in your spine and the bulging of your spinal disc have eliminated some of the more conservative treatments. There is a time when your only choice is a spinal surgery or injections to stop the pain even if they aren't fixing anything.

What can you learn from this? When the back pain hits, take a good look at when your problem began and not just when your symptoms began. Seriously evaluate what its going to take to get your spine back to a good place and pain-free. The longer you wait in taking the proper steps, the more difficult the journey.

Is Back Pain Caused By A Lack Of Exercise?

Many people seem to want to know if you can just exercise lower back pain away. Is it only about exercise? That is, did you end up with lower back pain due to a lack of exercise? Or could it be something else?

Your back pain is not necessarily caused by a lack of exercise, but it's probably a good place to start looking. When I ask patients if they exercise, most are still saying "no." Those that do exercise tend to stick with the same machine or routine for their entire program. (And almost none of their "routine" exercises focus on improving their back muscles.)

So on one hand, we have those that don't exercise and have lower back pain. It's easy to take a guess and see that their spine is having problems due to a lack of muscular support. While their spine may need more work at this point (check with your healthcare professional), eventually they'll exercise lower back pain away by creating a muscular back support around their spine with regular exercise.

Those that do exercise, but are not performing a variety of movements are causing a different problem; muscular imbalance. They are likely only developing certain muscle groups while largely ignoring others. Worse, they may be performing activities that are alarmingly similar to what they already do all day.

They are strengthening muscles that are already overworked (muscles in the front of the body) and not strengthening muscles that are typically ignored (back muscles). This is a standard recipe for developing lower back pain problems and should be avoided.

Overall, maintaining a variety of activities that includes exercises to enhance cardiovascular health, strengthening and stretching will help exercise lower back pain away for good. The same formula works for almost everyone. First, due some exercise regularly. Next, make sure you take some time to strengthen your back muscles (especially if you already know you need it!).

Have You Developed "Computer Posture"?

Have you developed "computer posture?" Is your neck beginning to jut forward while your upper back takes on the rounded shape of someone hunched over a keyboard all day?

It makes sense that no matter what your occupation, if you spend extended amounts of time in the same position, your body will begin to stay that way. Your body loves to adapt. If you lift weights, your body thinks that you must need bigger muscles to accomplish your daily activities. On the other hand, if you don't lift weights, your body assumes there's no need for big muscles.

If you are hunched over the keyboard, your body begins the process of creating a computer posture for you. A postural change that will help you stay in the position that you are in the most.

So to solve this problem (yes, computer posture is a problem), you're going to have to do activities that tell your body that your desire is to sit up straight -- and out of pain.

The great thing about your body is that you won't have to do the additional activities nearly as much as you are doing the position that is contributing to your computer posture.

You just have to do it effectively. You have to target the muscles of your back that support your posture and help you maintain a straight position. Just going to the gym and bench pressing is not going to get you the results you're after.

Spend time exercising your back and you'll make it difficult for you body to keep you hunched over your desk.

Low Back Pain After Sitting At Your Computer?

These days, most people have to sit at their computer all day. They don't have the best posture in the world, and they don't always have the best ergonomic set up for their desks. They are also under a lot of stress. However, usually bad posture, stress, and poor ergonomics will lead to frequent headaches, neck and upper back pain... not low back pain.

Low back pain is usually reserved for those employees doing physical work, a lot of lifting, bending, and stooping. During the times that I've seen patients with more physical jobs, most of them presented to my office with low back pain. Now, the top half of their body provides the more abundant symptom.

So if you don't do physical work all day, why are you getting low back pain? I noticed the same two major muscle groups being tight and stressed over and over again. By stretching these two major areas, a lot of very common symptoms, including low back pain and sciatica seemed to get quick relief. Doing the stretches also seemed to make a difference long term in my patients' ability to get longer lasting results from their chiropractic care.

The first muscles you should stretch are your hamstrings. You sit all day and the seated position puts them in their shortest position. Standing up means your hamstrings are pulling on your pelvis and pulling things out of place. Keeping this muscle more flexible is key in helping your back pain.

People have the most trouble because they can't quite get it stretched. First step would be to get off the floor. That's usually too much! Stand up or sit in a chair and put your leg straight out on a chair. Slowly try to touch your toes. Just go slow and only as far as you can reasonably go without pain. Hold the stretch for at least thirty seconds. Repeat on each side twice. Usually people just don't hold their stretches long enough to do much good. Consistency will make the difference in getting more flexible.

The next muscles to stretch are your hip rotators. Relieving the muscles here takes a lot of strain off the sciatica problem. For this one, you can even do it while lying in bed or on the floor. Keep one leg straight while you pull your other leg up to your chest. You should feel a pull. You can further stretch this area by pulling your knee across your body to get better results. Again, hold the stretch for at least thirty seconds.

Chances are, you're not going to stop working on your computer any time soon. Taking a few minutes each day to do some stretching will make a world of difference. Seeing a chiropractor on a regular basis is also a huge help.