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Are you sidelined by 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. He’s your Chiropractor in Oak Lawn. Get your life back!

Technorati Tags: back pain, chiropractic treatment, chiropractor, foot pain, hip pain, knee pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, tension headaches

I believe that exercise, often in the form of sports activities, keeps the body healthy and strong. But, as a chiropractor I see a lot of sports related injuries, not just the weekend warriors, but young student-athletes. Sports activities seem to inevitably lead to sports injuries, and some are far more serious than others. That’s why I am happy to see that there is currently a focus on concussions, especially repeated 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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Santa Barbara Chiropractor

You know what they say, When you consider the alternative, getting old isn’t so bad.” But, if the aging process is creating pain in your body, you are painfully aware that aging is no joke! As a chiropractor in Santa Barbara, I see quite a few patients suffering from age-related challenges that might not have taken place if the original cause had been treated earlier in life, especially when it comes to musculoskeletal breakdowns. Pain in the back, neck, hips, knees, and even the feet are frequently the result of needless stresses due to poor posture, improper gait, and repetitive overuse. If we only aware years ago how our aging body would feel now, eh? But, as they say, “hindsight is 20-20.”

As you can see from the list areas of pain above, there are plenty of musculoskeletal challenges that can, and often do, develop as we get older, but painful back problems are one of the most prevalent. Back pain that is age-related is most often the result of a degenerative disorder known as Spondylosis (spine osteoarthritis).

Spondylosis is caused by prolonged erosion and weight-bearing pressure on the spine that, over the years, does harm to the discs, joints, and surrounding ligaments. The area of the body and rate of the degenerative process of spondylosis varies from person to person. It might affect the cervical (neck), thoracic (mid-back), or lumbar (low back) areas of the spine. Depending on the severity of degeneration, Spondylosis symptoms vary from person-to-person as well, and can run a spectrum from low-amplitude pain and numbness to extensive sensory loss and muscular atrophy.

Repetitive stresses adversely affect the cartilage surrounding the joints and can encourage calcium to deposit in the tissues around the vertebrae. Adjacent nerves, blood vessels, and soft tissue can be constricted by these calcific deposits, also called bone spurs. This kind of compression is at the root of Spondylosis.

Regular chiropractic adjustments and overall chiropractic management has been shown to significantly slow age-related degeneration of the spine whether or not you are suffering from spondylosis. No, “you can’t un-ring a bell” or “turn back the hands of time,” but it’s never too late to give your spine the attention it deserves. When it comes to treating the spine, chiropractors are experts! See your Santa Barbara Chiropractor today, for the health of your spine.

Technorati Tags: age-related back pain, chiropractic, chiropractor, spine osteoarthritis

Corona Chiropractor

Your Corona Chiropractor offers a potent non-surgical, drug-free approach to relieving hip pain and frequently eliminating it altogether. Hopefully, it goes without saying that surgery should be a last resort whenever possible. So, before you decide on hip surgery, consider the following questions: Does hip pain wake you up in the night and make it impossible for you to get a good night’s sleep? When you arise in the morning, and/or when you get out of your car, are you stiff and do you find it initially hard 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 you’ve answered “yes” to any or all of these questions you probably have imbalances and alignment problems in your lower extremities that, in addition to causing your hip pain, can eventually lead to osteoarthritis in your hips if not treated. The good news is that whether or not degenerative changes have already taken place, 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. Even so, did you know that your hip pain and related problems, which are thought to be age-related degenerative conditions, may not actually be caused by osteoarthritis? That’s right. In fact, as opposed to being the original source of your problem, osteoarthritis of the hip joint is more often than not the outgrowth of a past injury (or injuries) to your hips.

Hip problems frequently have to do with asymmetry or imbalance when you are in motion, as in the case of walking. If you “pronate” when you walk, like a duck, with your toes pointing away from your body, sooner or later you will feel pain in your hips due to the asymmetrical stress on your hip joints as your body attempts to compensate. Fortunately, you can make changes in your gait pattern at any age, and your chiropractor in Corona can help you to do it.

In addition, you may have undergone gait changes due to an ankle sprain or knee strain, and since “the knee bone’s connected to the hip bone,” these biomechanical accommodations create hip pain. Naturally, if not corrected, your hip joints will suffer further consequences, i.e, wear and tear that creates degenerative changes.

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

Isn’t it good to know that not every pain is caused by “old age,” even though we may suffer from more pain as a consequence of the progressive capacity of untreated injuries.

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

Your hip pain won’t vanish on its own. Hip pain is a symptom informing you that there’s an injury that needs treatment. If ignored, it is very likely that at some point you will require that hip replacement surgery. So, don’t wait until it’s too late. Your chiropractor in Corona can get you out of pain, get your body back into balance, and help you get to back to enjoying your life again!

Technorati Tags: chiropractic, chiropractor, hip pain, osteoarthritis

At this point you may be asking: “Why are ‘antibiotics’ bad if they’re so good at fighting infections? And, what the heck are phthalates!?” Antibiotics are destructive to micro-organisms, and that’s why they are used in the treatment of infectious diseases, i.e., they destroy bacteria. But, since their very nature is the destruction of life or the prevention of the inception or continuance of life, it’s not good to have them roaming around in your body looking for something to destroy when you don’t have an infection, especially if you are pregnant. Antibiotics are widely used in industrial farming to maintain production levels and tend to move on up the food chain.  Phthalates, on the other hand, are colorless, crystalline, slightly water-soluble solids used as solvents, additives and plasticizers in everything from nail polish, dyes, perfumes, and shampoo to raincoats and garden hoses. But, obviously should not be an additive in a biological system, like the human body!

Back to the study: Participants stayed at a Buddhist temple for five days and ate a strictly vegetarian diet. The researchers analyzed urine samples before and after the stay, and found that levels of both antibiotics and phthalates had dropped dramatically by the end of the experiment. In addition, the researchers had measured the diets of the participants before the start of the study and found that what the participants had eaten 48 hours prior to the study had an effect on the amounts of chemicals found in their urine.

So, once again your mom was way ahead of the times! Vegetables, in addition to all their other benefits to our body, are excellent antioxidants. So, eat your vegetables! They will help your body to eliminate the harmful pollutants of the twenty-first century.

Source: The journal Environmental Research.

Technorati Tags: antioxidants, health, Korean research, vegetarian diet

Advantages of in-house chiropractic internet marketing

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One in five people are stressed out, tense, and angry these days, and with those who have heart disease, the percentage increases to one in three.  That’s a lot of suppresses anger waiting to attack the heart! So, should angry people explode with anger rather than suppress it? No, of course not. Feelings of anger need to be dissipated in a healthy, non-destructive way.

If you are someone who “steams quickly” and often, it’s important to learn how to diffuse your angry feelings.  When you start to feel angry, learning to literally “take a breather,” through deep, slow, meditative breathing can go a long way to blowing out your short fuse. Or, as in the poem, “If,” you “can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.” Exercise, especially running has been shown to cool down anger. And, if you find that you can’t get there alone, there are plenty of anger management programs available to help you.

Technorati Tags: anger, heart attack, heart disease

It isn’t news to anyone that elderly people are more prone to bone fractures, especially of the hip. Fortunately, there are a number of preventative measures that older adults can take to help avoid bone fractures, especially from falls. As a chiropractor, I recommend a number of preventative measures to my older patients, not the least of which is for them to have regular chiropractic treatment to help to improve and maintain balance and to keep their body in good alignment. As far as I’m concerned, in addition to balance challenges and poor muscle strength, an aging body that is out of alignment is a hip condition waiting to fracture.

According to a new study by Dr. Marian Hannan, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical school and co-director of the Musculoskeletal Research Program at the Institute for Aging Research, elderly people who eat more protein are less likely to suffer hip fractures. Why? Because consuming proteins such as meat, eggs, fish or cheese helps to build stronger muscles in the legs, which, in turn can reduce an older individual’s chances of falling.  In addition to helping to build stronger muscles, other studies have shown that protein intake can increase bone density.

For more on protein study go to: dailymail.co.uk

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Technorati Tags: age-related health issues, falls, hip fractures

Anyone who has ever been a long-term caregiver to someone who has a terminal condition knows that it is a very stressful situation. And, there’s no doubt that chronic stress causes a number of health problems. Many studies have found both physical and psychological repercussions in the health of those caring for chronically ill loved ones over an extended time. When we are stressed for any reason our body releases an abundance of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol increases insulin levels, and there is evidence that excess circulating insulin in the brain may contribute to or even cause Alzheimer’s disease.

The answer, of course, is not that you should give up caring for your loved one. The important thing is for you, as a caregiver, to understand (and accept) that you, too, require care along the way — no matter what your age, but especially if you are in your later years. It is important for you to continue to maintain a healthy diet (even though you may not feel like eating), get daily exercise (preferably outdoors), and  engage socially (with friends and through church or other social gatherings). And, when you are feeling “down,” it is critical for you to talk to a trusted friend or professional before your natural feelings of sadness turn into depression, and depression turns into poor health, and the combination turns into Alzheimer’s disease.

Technorati Tags: Alzheimer's disease, caregivers, research