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Posts Tagged ‘Wentzville chiropractor’

Do You Know Your Spinal IQ?

Your IQ that’s measured in school has to do with problem solving – mental gymnastics. Your spinal IQ also has to do with problem solving. These are “problems” of the physical kind.

How far to bend over to lift those grocery bags out of your car’s trunk? How much muscle force is necessary to pick up and carry your five-year-old child? What specific muscles are needed to maintain your “downward dog” position for 30 seconds in a yoga class? How far can your back muscles stretch when you do a back bend at the ballet barre? These are the problems your spinal IQ tries to solve.

Spinal IQ is an inborn ability. Our bodies were designed for the rigors of physical work – they are very smart and very adaptable. One of our built-in control systems is the specialized set of nerve endings known as proprioceptors.

Proprioception is our internal awareness of position in three-dimensional space.1,2 This three-dimensional positioning allows us to keep our balance when we walk or run. Proprioception tells our muscles and joints how to work together to throw a baseball from third to first, to drive to the basketball hoop and sink a lay-up, or to hit a tennis ball to the corner of the opponent’s service box to win the point.  Read more...

Save the Planet

Did you ever think your health and well-being are important factors in the health and well-being of the planet? It is true. The choices each of us makes each and every day are important for our family’s welfare as well as the welfare of our neighborhood, our community, our city, our country, and our global society.

We don’t often consider that a healthy personal lifestyle, relating to fitness and nutrition, has an impact on the environment and the global biosphere. But our personal choices and actions do matter. Our life-affirming choices to get fit, be fit, and eat right affect everyone and everything around us. How you get to work is a perfect example.

Of course, most of us drive to work, as it’s a lifetime habit, and we do not even think about it. But, driving always produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – every gallon of gas burned pumps 17 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Biking to work and walking to work are fitness-promoting activities that have a double benefit.1,2 You’re exercising on your workdays and you’re actively helping to reduce GHG emissions and stabilize the Earth’s climate.  Read more...

How to Stay Well in Winter

Simon and Garfunkel [and later, The Bangles] had it right. Winter light is hazy – it’s more diffuse. The sun is lower in the sky and the sun’s rays reach the Earth at an angle, losing much of their power. And of course, there is less sunlight during each 24-hour day of winter than during the rest of the year.

All these facts make it more important during winter to ensure that you’re getting your daily dose of sunlight. Humans depend on sun exposure to satisfy daily requirements of vitamin D.1 Vitamin D deficiency is classically associated with loss of bone mass, and is also associated with rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 1 diabetes.2

Humans need sunshine. It is not just a matter of aesthetics or a personality quirk like being a sun-worshipper. In Southern California and the rest of the Southwest there’s plenty of sunshine all year round. Everywhere else in the United States, though, direct sunlight is much harder to find.

Humans also need their exercise. And, as time is a precious commodity for all of us, it makes sense during winter to exercise and get your daily dose of sunlight at the same time.  Read more...

Lab Tests

You are at the doctor’s office because you think something might be wrong. Rationally, you know tests are probably necessary, but getting the tests done sometimes provokes a lot of anxiety in all of us. We want to know the results, but are very concerned about the outcome.”You need blood work” your doctor remarks casually. Your insides do an immediate flip-flop and you feel as if you’ve just begun hurtling down a very steep roller-coaster.

And when the results come back, it’s tough to understand the medical jargon, particularly if the tests are “positive”. We have all had the experience of “going south” and not listening to another word that’s said after the initial “your test results are positive”. Our minds are racing ahead, imagining all the awful possibilities.

Rarely, a considerate physician will be able to put the lab results in a less-worrisome perspective for the patient. For patients, it’s important to know some key facts, facts that will empower you any time you need lab tests done.

First, statistically one out of every 20 tests performed will be reported as “abnormal” – even though the result is “normal” for the person being tested. If you are perfectly healthy and have 20 tests done on your blood sample, one of those 20 test results will be “out of the normal range” based on statistics alone.1  Read more...

Weight Loss That Stays Lost

America’s weight problems are now so well-known they are even fair game for jokes at the Oscars. “Americans really know how to fill up a seat,” jibes Ellen DeGeneres, host of the 2007 Academy Awards.

The statistics are alarming. Sixty-five percent of Americans – 130 million in 2001 – are overweight. Fifteen percent of American children are overweight (up from four percent only 20 years ago). Health care costs related to overweight Americans has ballooned to $117 billion (that’s billion) in 2003. And the numbers keep going up. The scales don’t lie.

And yet, diet and weight-loss books fill our nation’s bookstores. Low-carb diets. High-protein diets. The cabbage soup diet. The grapefruit diet. The raw foods diet. Most people we know have tried one or more of these. The new diet works for a while, then we can not take the deprivation any longer and break the diet. Then, horrifyingly, all the weight we lost comes right back, and we’re right back where we started. Or possibly even a few pounds heavier. The very good news is that a real, long-lasting solution exists. The basics of this healthy approach to long-term weight loss have been known for decades. This solution is not a diet. It doesn’t have a catchy name. There are, though, a few “magic” secrets to this food plan that works.  Read more...

Surviving The Holidays

The day after Thanksgiving is a milestone of sorts in America. It reminds us of just how quickly the year has gone by, and how close we are to the holiday season. This realization- coupled with the fabulous sales at major department stores and malls everywhere- helps make the day after Thanksgiving our biggest shopping day of the year. And until we flip the calendar over to a new year, the chaos just doesn’t let up.

“Our bodies have the capacity to do a little more than we normally do,” says Dr. Scott Bautch, past president of the American Chiropractic Association’s (ACA) Council on Occupational Health. “But our bodies do not adapt very well to doing more than we normally do. Since the added demands of this season can stress the capacity of our bodies, we need to do everything we can to help ourselves. Eat right, drink plenty of water, stretch, exercise and take a few minutes to slow down and reflect on what the season is all about.”

So relax and enjoy the holidays! Dr. Bautch and the ACA encourage you to consider the following tips to help keep you and your loved ones healthy, happy and safe this season.  Read more...

Traveling and Your Back

Traveling can be rough on your body. Whether you are traveling alone on businessor on your way to a sunny resort with your family, long hours in a car or an airplane can leave you stressed, tired, stiff and sore.

“Prolonged sitting can wreak havoc on your body,” says Dr. Scott Bautch, immediate past president of the American Chiropractic Association’s (ACA) Council on Occupational Health. “Even if you travel in the most comfortable carrier and opt to fly first class, certain pressures and forces from awkward positions can result in restricted blood flow. One of the biggest insults to your system from prolonged sitting is the buildup of pressure in the blood vessels in your lower legs. Contracting and relaxing the muscles can help to get the blood flowing properly.”

Dr. Bautch and the ACA suggest the following tips and advice to fight the pains and strains of travel before they occur.

Warm Up, Cool Down and Treat travel as an athletic event. Warm up before settling into a car or plane, and cool down once you reach your destination. Take a brisk walk to stretch your hamstring and calf muscles.  Read more...

Travel Safe

Here come the holidays – Thanksgiving, Channukah, Christmas, and New Year’s. And the travel – Thanksgiving is one of the biggest travel days and the day before Christmas is just as busy.

If you’re flying, you know what to expect – long lines, delays, crowded flights. But knowing what is to come doesn’t necessarily provide reassurance. Traveling – particularly traveling by plane – makes many people crazy. Sitting in the terminal, waiting for your boarding call, you can see the deep lines of care, worry, and anxiety etched into peoples’ faces.

However, whereas air travel may not be the most enjoyable thing in the world, there are many action steps individuals and families can take to de-stress the experience. Traveling doesn’t have to mean losing your mind and getting all wound up with tension and mental and physical strain.1,2

Here is a Top Eight List of things to do in the days before your flight and then during your flight – Before the flight -  Read more...

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or Repetitive Stress

You are getting ready to launch your new business. And, being a savvy entrepreneur, you’ve been spending a lot of time doing research on the Internet. Entering searches, following links, cutting-and-pasting, typing, mouse-clicking, dragging-and-dropping.

By the time you are ready to “go live” youve begun to notice a dull ache in your wrist (the one that does most of the mouse-ing). Theres an annoying tingling sensation in your thumb and the tendons in your forearm hurt whenever you move your fingers.

“Oh, no,” you think. “Ive got carpal tunnel syndrome.”

However, the news is probably not as bad as that. It is much more likely youve developed repetitive stress syndrome, which can be effectively treated by a chiropractor.

Repetitive stress syndrome is often misdiagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome by family physicians, internists, and even very many orthopedists. The doctor thinks, “wrist pain and thumb pain, must be carpal tunnel”. This path of least resistance leads to much unnecessary neurologic testing, needless medication, and unwarranted surgeries.  Read more...