HEALTH & WELLNESS

WIRED FOR LIFE

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The following article was written at The Weekly Sticky.  This explanation is a simplified way to understand how your nervous system works throughout your body.

why go to a chiropractor “Electricity flows through power lines and messages of communication flow through phone cables… but the ‘power’ that flows through Nerve fibers is far more intricate, intelligent and critical to your Life.”

Nerves carry ‘smart’ signals – organized instructions and data which relay from the brain to the body and from the body back to the brain.  this complicated loop forms the communication network needed to guide every physiological function in your body from respiration to perspiration… assimilation to elimination… tissue breakdown and tissue repair.  Innately, trillions of messages flow through your nerve system every second of your Life, in an automated effort to keep you alive without your conscious input.  So how important is it to maintain this amazing system?

reviews on chiropractic care This is the realm of Chiropractic care – the protection and preservation of these ‘Life wires; so that you can experience perfect function, abundant health and well being. The doctor inside you can accomplish just about anything as long as your internal power lines remain clear.”

Proper communication between your nervous system and every other cell/tissue/organ of your body is vital to your health.  If you are experiencing any sort of miscommunication in your body, see your local chiropractor.  Impact is proud to have two Fort Collins chiropractors.

TOP 5 REASONS TO SEE A CHIROPRACTOR

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1. PAIN RELIEF

This may be the most popular reason why people go to their chiropractor.  Misalignments to the spine cause stress to muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves throughout the entire body. These misalignments can cause pain and soreness.  Instead of taking pain medications, that just cover up the cause of the problem and can cause negative side effects, chiropractic care is a safe and effective form pain management.

2. POSTURAL CORRECTIONS

Poor posture is extremely common for people of all ages.  We spend too much time at our computers, sitting down, being sedentary, and looking down at our phones.  “Text neck” is becoming a regular occurrence in the younger generations as they grow and develop with poor posture.  Regular spinal correction chiropractic care can improve uneven shoulders, unbalanced hip height, hunched backs, and curves throughout the spine.  Proper alignment will let the body perform at its best.

3. LESS STRESS/IMPROVED MOOD

Short term stress is not necessarily a bad thing, but long term stress becomes problematic to your health.  Stress starts to wear down all systems throughout the body.  When the body is misaligned, those systems can’t replenish themselves.  By balancing these systems, your body can take on these stressors, and it won’t be debilitating.  Less stress will also improve your mood.  Hormones will balance out so you won’t have as many mood swings, irritability, anxiety, etc.

4. INCREASED SLEEP/MORE ENERGY:

Chiropractic care, again, balances out the systems of the body.  Sleep centers found in the brain, determine when a person is awake and when a person is asleep.  These nerve communications need to be undisrupted in order to work properly.  Chiropractic adjustments help to restore the proper function of the nerves, so you get a better nights rest and wake up feeling more rested.  A better night’s sleep will give you more energy throughout the day.

5. PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

Chiropractic is good for every person, of every age, at any stage of their life.  We see infants, toddlers, adolescents, adults and the elderly… anyone with a spine can benefit from chiropractic care.  The body is meant to perform at its absolute best at all times, so when it isn’t, you need to find the cause of what is going on.  Instead of chasing around symptoms that are already occurring, prevent them by keeping the body healthy.  The best way to stay healthy is to take care of yourself before problems start showing up!

PROPER POSTURE

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Proper posture is important for people of all ages.  When you have proper posture, your entire body can function the way it is intended to.  Here in Fort Collins, Impact Chiropractic knows posture is the window to the spine.  If you have poor posture, you will have a poorly functioning mind and body.

fort collins chiropractor

The ACA’s website explains all you need to know about your posture.

“WHY IS GOOD POSTURE IMPORTANT?”

“Good posture helps us stand, walk, sit, and lie in positions that place the least strain on supporting muscles and ligaments during movement and weight-bearing activities. Correct posture:

  • Helps us keep bones and joints in correct alignment so that our muscles are used correctly, decreasing the abnormal wearing of joint surfaces that could result in degenerative arthritis and joint pain.
  • Reduces the stress on the ligaments holding the spinal joints together, minimizing the likelihood of injury.
  • Allows muscles to work more efficiently, allowing the body to use less energy and, therefore, preventing muscle fatigue.
  • Helps prevent muscle strain, overuse disorders, and even back and muscular pain.

To maintain proper posture, you need to have adequate muscle flexibility and strength, normal joint motion in the spine and other body regions, as well as efficient postural muscles that are balanced on both sides of the spine. In addition, you must recognize your postural habits at home and in the workplace and work to correct them, if necessary.”

“CONSEQUENCES OF POOR POSTURE”

“Poor posture can lead to excessive strain on our postural muscles and may even cause them to relax, when held in certain positions for long periods of time. For example, you can typically see this in people who bend forward at the waist for a prolonged time in the workplace. Their postural muscles are more prone to injury and back pain.

Several factors contribute to poor posture-most commonly, stress, obesity, pregnancy, weak postural muscles, abnormally tight muscles, and high-heeled shoes.  In addition, decreased flexibility, a poor work environment, incorrect working posture, and unhealthy sitting and standing habits can also contribute to poor body positioning.”

“HOW DO I SIT PROPERLY?”

  • Keep your feet on the floor or on a footrest, if they don’t reach the floor.
  • Don’t cross your legs. Your ankles should be in front of your knees.
  • Keep a small gap between the back of your knees and the front of your seat.
  • Your knees should be at or below the level of your hips.
  • Adjust the backrest of your chair to support your low- and mid-back or use a back support.
  • Relax your shoulders and keep your forearms parallel to the ground.
  • Avoid sitting in the same position for long periods of time.

“HOW DO I STAND PROPERLY?”

  • Bear your weight primarily on the balls of your feet.
  • Keep your knees slightly bent.
  • Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart.
  • Let your arms hang naturally down the sides of the body.
  • Stand straight and tall with your shoulders pulled backward.
  • Tuck your stomach in.
  • Keep your head level-your earlobes should be in line with your shoulders. Do not push your head forward, backward, or to the side.
  • Shift your weight from your toes to your heels, or one foot to the other, if you have to stand for a long time.

“WHAT IS THE PROPER LYING POSITION?”

  • Find the mattress that is right for you. While a firm mattress is generally recommended, some people find that softer mattresses reduce their back pain. Your comfort is important.
  • Sleep with a pillow. Special pillows are available to help with postural problems resulting from a poor sleeping position.
  • Avoid sleeping on your stomach.
  • Sleeping on your side or back is more often helpful for back pain.
  • If you sleep on your side, place a pillow between your legs.
  • If you sleep on your back, keep a pillow under your knees.

“CAN I CORRECT MY POOR POSTURE?”

“In a word, yes. Remember, however, that long-standing postural problems will typically take longer to address than short-lived ones, as often the joints have adapted to your long-standing poor posture. Conscious awareness of your own posture and knowing what posture is correct will help you consciously correct yourself. With much practice, the correct posture for standing, sitting, and lying down will gradually replace your old posture. This, in turn, will help you move toward a better and healthier body position.”

At Impact, our doctors can assist you with proper posture.  We can give you exercises which will improve your posture and help you stay in proper alignment. We can also assist you with choosing proper positions while doing activities at home and work, in order to help reduce risk of injury to your body.  Our goal is to have everyone in Fort Collins to have a healthy, balanced spine and nervous system.  You can’t look good on the outside if your spine doesn’t look good on the inside!

REDUCING STRESS

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During the winter months, stress accumulates in nearly all households.  It’s inevitable that life produces stress, and we need to be able manage it. Impact Chiropractic can help you and your family get back to healthy and happy lives.

“We all need to do more to overcome the effects of stress. We have to learn to find balance in our work and personal lives. Certainly there are some things that you simply cannot do anything about such as the unexpected death of a loved one, natural disasters, and accidents. However, everyone can and should carefully examine their lives and make an honest attempt to reduce the stress producing circumstances that make unnecessary demands upon them. Determine which things you can do something about and concentrate your time and energy on them rather than on things you cannot control. We need to emphasize wellness, relaxation, and positive thinking, whatever the circumstance.

Chiropractic should also play an important role in your stress management. When a stress-inducing event occurs, muscles contract, breathing becomes faster and deeper, heart rate increases, and digestion is halted. Continually contracted muscles cause subluxation, which lowers your ability to deal with stress. Of course, just as different situations produce varying amounts of stress for different people, different stress management techniques will have varying degrees of effectiveness. Some people may benefit from exercise while others respond to meditation, deep breathing, or spending time on an enjoyable hobby. Chiropractic, however, can work for everyone because it reduces nerve system stress. Reducing nerve system stress allows the body to adapt to our daily stress overloads more efficiently.

Chiropractic care, positive thinking, and other stress management techniques can create a sense of well-being and lead to a longer, more productive, happier, and healthier life.” – Jeff Ptak, DC. Pathways to Family Wellness magazine, Issue #08

HEADACHE SOLUTIONS

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Many people think that migraines and headaches are normal occurrences, and that everyone gets them. While they are common, they are definitely not normal.  People in Fort Collins experience common headaches all of the time, and they just begin to live with them.  These headaches and migraines can actually affect a person’s entire day, and sometimes they may need to even skip work.  When a person has to skip work frequently, the economic burden begins to build.  There are both direct health care costs and indirect costs of absenteeism.

“The direct cost of migraines ranges from $127 to $7,089 per victim, and the indirect cost due to absenteeism $709 to $4,453 per victim, making migraines an economic burden to the individual, the insurer, the employer, as well as local, state and federal entities who experience a lowered tax base from lost wages. It was also reported that between 2005 and 2006, there were 1,729,555 physician office visits, 186,603 advanced imaging procedures, 59,589 other diagnostic procedures, and 22,168 hospital days with a primary diagnosis of migraine or headache; all of which are paid by private or public insurers, or out of the pockets of individuals. In short, the costs are staggering and a burden to the economy.”

One study shows that “chiropractic was 57% more effective in the reduction of headaches than drug therapy. In addition, it was reported that, with the drug group, “58% experienced medication side effects important enough to report them … Using the 57 % increased effectiveness that chiropractic has over drug therapy (leaving out the overlap that chiropractic could help without drugs) and the $24 billion U.S. employers pay for headaches and migraines annually, the savings from chiropractic care would approach $13.7 billion annually” (original source here).

Chiropractic care is not only beneficial to your body, but also your wallet.  When you begin to realize that chiropractic care will save you money in the long run, it only makes sense to get you and your entire family checked.  More money saved means you can enjoy more of the fun activities Fort Collins has to offer!

4 HEALTH & WELLNESS TIPS FROM A PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE

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Impact Chiropractic sponsors MMA fighter, Jesse O’Rullian. Jesse took some time to write a guest blog post about his top “Health and Wellness” tips from an athlete’s perspective.  He is a coach at Trials Martial Arts & Fitness and is also starting a blog of his own.  He has been a patient of ours since March and has already seen great

Tips from pro athletes results in his training and performance, not to mention his overall health and well-being.  He has wonderful insight on how to get the most out of your workouts and keep your body healthy while you’re doing it. Enjoy!

We have all found ourselves at some point in our lives on an elliptical at the gym telling ourselves “This is good, I’m exercising, I’m being healthy.” The reality is we would rather be in our underwear eating cheetos. It’s easier and more comfortable to live a sedentary lifestyle. However, we need discomfort in order to grow and live a healthy lifestyle.

1. WHERE IS THE LOVE?

The first thing I would tell someone trying to improve their health and wellness is to find something that they love to do. When you really love what you are doing it becomes less of a task and more of a joy. By enjoying what you are participating in it becomes easier to turn that activity into a habit. Yeah, I could give you a miserable diet and exercises, but those aren’t sustainable. True, lasting health and wellness can only be achieved through a lifestyle change. “But Jesse, there is nothing I have really found yet that I really love to do.” That’s okay! I am a firm believer in trying new things. You’ll never know unless you try and allow yourself to change.

Trying new things can be overwhelming. It feels like puberty all over again whenever I try new activities. I feel awkward and think everyone is watching. “What if I’m terrible? I might fart. I have no idea what I’m doing.” Maybe you’ve fared better than I have in which case I congratulate you and secretly resent you.

I’ve found that the best success has come from setting daily micro goals for each session. Maybe it’s to focus on my breathing or to keep my chin down. If I got my butt kicked but worked on my daily goal then the day was a success.  Some of the best advice I have been given by a coach is to ensure I am having fun. Whenever I am able to do this time flies by and I rarely realize how hard I am working.

Getting burned out? Get outside! Another way to love your training is to shake up the routine with some cross training, Athletes frequently cross train to get out of the gym, break a sweat, and clear the mind. If you’re feeling burnt out, try dedicating just one day a week to train both your body and mind while outside.

2. STABILIZERS, SYMMETRY, AND BALANCE

Strength training is imperative to health and wellness. However, few people focus on symmetry. Whether you are starting a new training regime or maintaining one, it is imperative that you start with a good foundation. Structurally, we must be sound and one of the easiest ways to ensure this is to get some x-rays done. Know what is going on with your spine and your overall alignment. This will help mitigate injuries and give you an initial blueprint of how to structure your training. A few snap, crackle and pops later and you will be amazed by the results.

I have seen a lot of injuries happen on the mats. I have also seen a lot of people re-injure themselves (myself included). The more I train the more I have learned that we are only as strong as our weakest links. Having symmetrical movement in our shoulders, knees, hips, ankles, and spine is paramount. If one area of our body becomes out of alignment over time it can offset the entire body. All of these joints have so many accessory muscles, tendons, and ligaments. By having an unsymmetrical body it places the burden on the other areas of the body. Over time this can really progress the unsymmetrical alignment and lead to injury. What does that mean for your training? Lose the ego and lose the weight. Try using lower weight and work on more on balance and stability. Foam rollers are your friend and post-training stretching should be mandatory but I’m not your real dad, so do what you want.

Tim Grover, coach of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade has worked with professional athletes for well over a decade. Over the years he and his team have found that one of the most common injuries for professional athletes is a rolled ankle. Due to this fact, his training sessions regularly included band work with an emphasis on their feet and ankles. So much of our power and balance starts and ends with our feet. There are a lot of exercises and habits you can do to invest in yourself. Something as simple as drawing the alphabet with your big toes while you watch T.V. can really pay long-term dividends.

3. PERFORMANCE GOALS OVER BODY IMAGE GOALS

Making healthy lifestyle choices is a lot easier when you have a goal that isn’t just to look good. Train for performance rather than appearance. As a professional athlete, I have seen fighters with different body types. I have also seen people walk into the gym who at first glance appear to be absolute monsters but once tested they are unable to bridge the gap between fitness and athleticism. Looking good in the mirror and being able to fight are two different things. We’ve all heard the timeless adage of how we should never judge a book by its cover.

The Boxer Butter Bean was a great example of this.

 

I know that it is easy to get caught up with body image goals. Don’t get me wrong–it’s important to feel good about yourself and like who you see in the mirror. Deep down however, I think we all know there is more to it than that. What we seek is a moment. A moment to be truly present. A moment where it is just you and nothing else. A moment where you aren’t thinking about bills, people, or any other of things. You are just there being the best you can be. It is this moment that causes us to train for these performances. Whether you fight, run, do yoga, or whatever it is you need to do and use it as a means to be present. Life gets messy and so do we. We will have our share of both victories and defeats. What we can control is to be present and to do our very best.

4. BE A DOER

“ A non-doer is very often a critic-that is, someone who sits back and watches doers, and then waxes philosophically about how the doers are doing. It’s easy to be a critic, but being a doer requires effort, risk, and change.”–Wayne Dyer

One thing that will help you become a doer is to keep a journal and write down your goals.

Keeping a training journal of your diet, training, thoughts, and goals is one of the easiest ways to help quantify your results. Go to the gym with your workout planned and written out. Then write down your results and how you felt. Collecting data is one of the best ways to ensure that your regiment is efficient. Each individual’s journey for health and wellness is unique to them. What works for me may not work for you. While there may be some universal maxims with health and wellness, don’t be afraid to try something new. In essence, fake it till you make it.

“I’ve never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.”, Daniel Boone.

Another reason keeping a journal is beneficial is that it will help you create a routine and accountability. It has been said that creating a habit takes 21 days. Having goals written down has really helped me stick to my guns and hold myself accountable.

 In summation, Abraham Maslow the father of self-actualization noted that our suffering often reveals our “greater strengths”. Everyone has unique capabilities and potential. Each person’s journey towards health and wellness will be unique to them alone.

Without the love of what you are doing, fitness and wellness will be a task rather than a joy. By loving what you do, having strong stabilizers, symmetry, and balance it will be easier to map a training regime and prevent injury. Lastly, by focusing on functionality over aesthetics it will allow for individuals to experience more serenity.

“Necessity of discipline, deprivation, frustration, pain, and tragedy. To the extent that these experiences reveal and foster and fulfill our inner nature, to that extent they are desirable experiences…The person who hasn’t conquered, withstood and overcome continues to feel doubtful tha he could.” (p.4)