Statistics have indicated that back pain will affect around 80% of all people at some time in their life.  Back pain can range from the lower back area to the upper back and shoulder blade area.  Back pains are especially bad when they impact every day functions such as walking, bending, sleeping, or sitting.  Americans spend billions of dollars every year fighting their back pains.  Is there any way to prevent it?  Here are five simple ways to help prevent back pain.

1. Eat Right.  Excess weight puts more stress on your lower spine and contributes to injuries.  Animal-based foods (all meats, poultry, fish, and dairy) contribute to a pro-inflammatory diet and also lead to the production of chemicals that fuel the pain process.  Eating a healthy, whole food, and plant-based diet will reduce pain and inflammation, and can help reduce your back pain.
2. Minimize Stress.  Life is stressful!  Everyone experiences stress of some degree or another.  Excess stress causes muscles to tighten and interferes with the normal healing process.  Prolonged stress leads to homone imbalances of the stress glands of the body – the adrenal glands.  These glands secrete hormones that regulate many body functions including: sleep, digestion, weight gain, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, immune system, arthritis, allergies, heart function, fatigue… to name a few.  These glands can be checked easily in our office and can usually be balanced/repaired through diet and supplements.
3. Maintain Good Posture and Ergonomics.  Maintaining good posture means keeping the body in a balanced and neutral position as much as possible.  Avoid stressful and damaging prolonged postures where ever you are.  Moat people use computer work stations both at home or at work.  These can be a problem if the ergonomics aren’t set up correctly.  Screens should be centralized and keyboards should be positioned where the height allows your arms to be bent at 90 degrees.  Some lower back pillow is recommended if you are sitting for long periods.  Frequent breaks to move and stretch can also help maintain body posture and balance.
4. Perform Healthy Exercises Regularly.  Regular cardiovascular exercise is important to help maintain good cardiovascular health, manage weight, and reduce stress.  But nothing replaces targeted spine-specific exercises to focus on your core.  Some of the bast exercises for your core also involve balance and muscle endurance.  Some examples are:
• Quadruped – on hands and knees.  While holding abdominals in tight (hollowing), alternate straightening opposing arm and leg and holding for 5 seconds.  Repeat 20 times.
• Bridge – on back.  Lift pelvis, torso, and shoulder blades off floor and hold for 30 seconds.  Repeat.
• Plank – pushup position supported on the forearms rather than hands.  While keeping abdominals in tight (hollowing), hold your body straight for 30 seconds.  Repeat.
• One Leg Balance – standing.  Keep abdominals in and balance on one foot (stork stand) for 30 seconds.  Switch legs and repeat.
5. Get Adjusted By Your Chiropractor.  Everyday activities, stress, and toxins take their toll on our bodies.  Our joints and muscles tighten, become restricted, and become imbalanced.  Adjustments help to retore normal joint motion and can rebalance your spine and body.

I just returned from a 12-hour seminar on chiropractic research.  Wow!  A day filled with tons of exciting information.

The instructor, a veteran chiropractor and lecturer, detailed many different research studies covering varying topics such as:

• Chiropractic and back pain
• Chiropractic and neck pain
• Chiropractic for visceral (internal organ) problems
• Kinesio taping
• Manipulation for carpal tunnel syndrome
• Adjustments for chronic, arthritic hip pain
• Chiropractic care reducing athletic injuries and improving athletic performance
• Topical pain remedies
• Chiropractic care and shoulder pain
• Myofascial release techniques for treating trigger points
• Chiropractic care helping women during pregnancy
• Adjustments helps golfers improve their distance off the tee by nearly 10%

Look for some of these studies detailed on my web site and in a 3-ring binder conveniently placed in our waiting room.  If you enjoy proof and data, then this is for you!  Maybe there’s a sceptic you’ve been trying to convince to pay us a visit, this may just do the trick.  Ask me what topic you would like to know more about and I’ll do my best to forward you the research ASAP.

In the mean time, check out our web site’s ever-growing research page at NaturalTherapyDr.com

Your body parts are linked together by muscles and joints. Joints are the anatomical part of the body where two bones are fitted together. They are joined by tough ligaments, lined with cartilage, embraced by muscles, surrounded by a capsule and filled with synovial fluid for lubrication. They’re an amazingly designed and useful part of our bodies. Without them we wouldn’t be able to get around very well!

However, in our less-than-perfect and stressful world, our joints frequently take a pounding. Joints can be injured by sudden and severe stresses (slips, falls, or accidents) or by smaller continual forces (repetitive motions, improper posture, or overexertion). Either way, when joint function is impaired, you have problems.

The term joint dysfunction describes a joint condition that involves reduced motion, abnormal muscle tone, inflammation, calcium buildup, and scar tissue. Some more well known joint dysfunctions have names like “tennis elbow”, “frozen shoulder”, “carpal tunnel syndrome”, and “runner’s knee”.

Traditional medical care for these problems can involve therapeutic bracing the injured joint, medications for pain and inflammation, muscle relaxers, injections, physical therapy and surgery.

In our practice we take a natural and common sense approach. We use extremity adjusting as an integral part of our wellness programs. Extremity adjustments are a type of joint mobilization similar to spinal adjusting. We use extremity adjusting to care for shoulders, feet, ankles, hips, knees, fingers and wrists. The key in any joint adjustment is to help restore normal motion to joints that have become “locked-up”, “jammed”, or injured. This reduces pain, improves motion, relaxes muscles, reduces nerve interference, and promotes healing.

Extremity adjusting is a safe and very useful natural therapy, and can be an integral part of your wellness program.

Click here for more details on our extremity adjusting techniques.

It’s amazing that the concern over the safety of chiropractic still comes up time and time again. All you really have to do is look at chiropractic’s amazing track record and the extremely low cost of malpractice insurance for chiropractic doctor’s to know it’s safe.

I’ve been in practice since 1992 and continue to provide natural, safe and effective care to my clients.

Chiropractic, massage and other natural therapies are extremely safe. Chiropractic has been around since 1895 and is still the leading alternative to traditional medicine. At least on this side of the earth!

But just in case you fear getting a stroke when you get adjusted by your chiropractor please read on…

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Among the comprehensive findings is the groundbreaking study on vertebral artery dissection and stroke risk.

After six years and an exhaustive review of published neck pain research, including almost 32,000 research citations and more than 1,000 relevant studies, the Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain has released its findings, which address prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of neck pain, in a special supplement of the journal Spine.

The task force also conducted several original studies, including “Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke and Chiropractic Care: Results of a Population-Based Case-Control and Case-Crossover Study.” According to the task force, their findings suggest the risk of suffering a stroke following a cervical manipulation is attributable to a vertebral artery dissection (VAD) that is already in progress prior to the adjustment. The dissection likely results in neck pain that brings the patient to the chiropractor’s office seeking relief.

The authors also documented only a handful of stroke cases following chiropractic cervical manipulation in a massive study population spanning nearly 100 million person-years. Even more impressive, the data suggest that while spinal manipulation may increase the risk of an embolism in those with a VAD in progress, which can then lead to a stroke, the association between the stroke and the office visit was no higher in patients who sought the care of a chiropractor than in patients who sought the care of a general physician.

quoted from an article by Kathryn Feather, Associate Editor of Dynamic Chiropractic; emphasis mine.

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Did you catch that? Chiropractic care is proven to be extremely safe. It has always been safe. Even those “scary” neck adjustments are safe… when done by a highly skilled professional.

To put risk in perspective, think about this: around 100,000 people die each year from drugs and medical mistakes. That’s 274 people every day… or 11 people every hour! And some believe this number is very conservative as it only counts the actual reported mistakes.

So there’s really no doubt to the safety of your chiropractor’s adjustments. Unless you smell alcohol on his/her breath… then my advice would be – run for the door. Then call me.