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Workspace Ergonomics

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Sit at a desk all day long?  Have shoulder and neck pain?  These two questions tend to go hand in hand with each other.  Sitting at a desk can be detrimental to your health in many ways, but the placement of your work materials is important.  Here are a few easy changes that you can make to your desk:

1.  Move your mouse:  When your mouse is not placed properly, you have to strain to reach it. This will cause long-term strain to the muscles of the arm, shoulder, and neck.  By simply placing it closer to you, without having to reach for it, your muscles will become more relaxed. If you are at your computer all day, consider purchasing a ball mouse, these are ideal for optimal hand positioning.

2.  Adjust your armrests:  If your chair has armrests, make sure they are parallel to the floor.  Adjust them so that they keep your arms at a natural 90-degree angle.

3.  Prop up your computer screen:  Many times desk jobs include long, tedious hours staring at a computer screen.  If this is you, check out to see the position of your monitor.  The top of the screen should be roughly 2 inches above your eye level.  Anything lower will cause you to have a strain on your neck muscles.

4. Feet flat on the floor: As tempting as it is to cross your legs try to avoid this at all costs. Crossing your legs causes an imbalance in your pelvis and hips.  Which can, in turn, cause low back pain and interference to the nerves going to your digestive tract and reproductive organs.

4.  Take breaks:  Nobody should be sitting for hours at a time without getting up.  Every ten to twenty minutes, get up and stretch.  Take a short walk around the office.  Anything that gets you up and moving! We love Stand Up! The Work Break Timer app, that allows you to set reminders throughout the day to remind you to get up and move around. Here is a list of our favorite desk stretches, make a habitat to start integrating these into your routine breaks.

5.  See your chiropractor:  When you sit for the majority of your day, your body tends to be misaligned.  You start to develop improper motion, strained muscles and don’t feel your best.  By having a chiropractor remove misalignments to your spine, you will be feeling good and working better than you ever have before!

Our Fort Collins Chiropractors are here to help.  They can also come to your work and check out your ergonomics for you and your entire staff.  Our doctors love to bring new and beneficial information to peoples’ workspaces and offices, bring everyone a free lunch, and spread wellness to the Fort Collins community.  If this sounds like something you would like to do for your office, contact Impact Chiropractic at (970) 223-5501.

The Dirty Dozen Food List

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More than half of the calories in the average American diet are made up of “Ultra-processed” foods.  This “food” source also contributes up to 90% of all added sugar intake as well.  These ultra-processed foods mimic real food with the help of flavorings, emulsifiers, and other artificial additives.  These foods also contain an immense amount sugar, with 1 in every 5 calories found in the average ultra-processed food product being added sugar.  Added sugar not only causes weight gain, but it is also linked to diabetes, tooth decay, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. *

Dirty Dozen, Clean 15

Cut back on your sugar consumption by also minimizing processed foods you are eating.  This means fewer chicken nuggets, canned soup, soda, fruit snacks – and more natural whole meats, fruits, and vegetables.  Check out your local grocery store and stick to the outer edges of the store, focusing on organic options, especially for foods included in the “Dirty Dozen.” If added dollar amount to organic food is something you are concerned with, remember the rule of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen.

* The information above can be found in the BMJ March 2016 Press Release at the following link: https://www.bmj.com/company/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ultra-processed-foods.pdf

Want more health and wellness tips? See our full list of health resources to get you and your family the support you need to live healthy and happy lives.

A Friendly Chiropractic Adjustment Reminder

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You can’t sleep, your energy levels are low and you’re finding it harder to make it through your day.  The specialists insist there’s nothing wrong, but you innately feel like something’s out of tune.  Maybe it’s time to get a chiropractic adjustment!

chiropractic adjustment fort collins

D.D. Palmer, the Father of Chiropractic, recognized that repetitive physical, chemical, and emotional stress can alter the normal ‘tone’ within a person’s Nervous System (a.k.a. Subluxation).  This persistent irritation can lead to poor physical, mental and emotional performance.  The solution?  Restore normal tone to the Nerve System with specific, Chiropractic adjustments and better health will naturally follow!

Health is the ‘music’ that plays when all your cells, tissues and organs vibrate perfectly in unison – orchestrated by a finely tuned Nerve System.  If you’re feeling sluggish, weak and tired, a trip to the Chiropractor may just be the thing YOU need to get back in key.

Today’s blog post is from the Weekly Sticky at theweeklysticky.com.  Click here to check out more articles about your health and well-being.

When your body isn’t feeling at its absolute best, there is no way that your body is functioning properly.  Our Fort Collins Chiropractors use specific adjustments, special to each individual’s body, to correct any subluxations that are present.  Make an appointment today for an adjustment for yourself, or your entire family!

Birth Trauma: What Happens In Vagus Doesn’t Stay In Vagus

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The medical definition of birth trauma refers to damage of the tissues and organs of a newly delivered child, often as a result of physical pressure or trauma during childbirth. The term also encompasses the long-term consequences, often of a cognitive nature, of damage to the brain or cranium. Birth trauma can cause cranial nerve injury to branches of both the facial and vagus nerves. Cranial nerve and spinal cord injuries result from hyperextension, traction, and overstretching with simultaneous rotation. Approximately 80% of lesions involve the right side and ~ 10% are bilateral. The right side is most commonly affected due to the majority of doctors being right hand dominant. There are three major causes of birth trauma: Delayed birth, Oxygen Deprivation, and Birth-assisting tools.

prenatal birth trauma chiropractor fort collins

Delayed birth is one of the leading causes of birth injury due to the amount of pressure added to the fetal brain during an extended labor. The human brain was designed to withstand a certain amount of pressure for a certain amount of time. However, labors that last over 18 hours are considered long, difficult labors for both the mother and the baby and at 18 hours, the compression on the brain becomes too much to withstand. This is generally when the baby starts to show signs of fetal distress as the baby’s brain reacts in emergency mode thus elevating the baby’s blood pressure.

Oxygen deprivation is one of the most common reasons for some of the most severe birth injuries and occurs from either external forces (such as a kinked or prolapsed umbilical cord) or from internal forces such as low birth weight or underdeveloped lungs. Almost all brain-related birth injuries are related to oxygen deprivation and the victims can suffer the consequences for any period of time from only a few days to possibly their entire lifetime.

Birth-assisting tools have been commonplace during difficult deliveries for many decades. Although they are certainly beneficial when used appropriately, the percentage of birth injuries associated with these tools, in particular, forceps, has been a cause for concern. A pair of forceps is a birth-assisting tool that is open at the end and placed around the infant’s head to help guide the baby out during the mother’s contractions. The most common reason forceps are used happens when the mother is unable to push the baby out alone during delivery. This can happen for a variety of reasons including maternal exhaustion, a prolonged second stage of delivery, illness or infection, hemorrhage, or when drugs keep the mother from being able to push the baby out successfully. Fetal factors that indicate the use of forceps include a breech delivery or a troublesome reading in the fetal heart tracing. Often these factors (both fetal and maternal) are time-emergent and doctors justify the use of forceps as an emergency dictates. In almost all cases, forceps are not used unless there is a means to perform an emergency cesarean section surgery (C-section) should the use of forceps prove unsuccessful. Forceps deliveries may involve an increased risk of injury to the upper cervical spine and spinal cord. The application and/or misapplication of these and other similar extraction aids can cause upper cervical complications.

Each of these causes for trauma during birth has one alarming thing in common, possible dysfunction of the vagus nerve. Why is the function of the vagus nerve so important? It turns out, what happens in the vagus nerve doesn’t stay in the vagus nerve. The longest of the cranial nerves, the vagus nerve is so named because it “wanders” like a vagabond, sending out fibers from your brainstem to your visceral organs. The vagus nerve is literally the captain of your inner nerve center, the parasympathetic nervous system to be more specific. Like a good captain, it oversees a vast range of crucial functions, communicating nerve impulses to every organ in your body including the heart and lungs. When a baby experiences trauma during the birthing process, the vagus nerve is most commonly affected because it passes through a delicate location in the neck. Therefore the use of forceps, excessive pulling or twisting of the baby as they are birthed can add excessive pulling or torsion to the nerve which can cause lasting problems for the baby. Since the vagus nerve is such a significant piece of the body’s puzzle it is absolutely necessary to make sure that is it able to function properly without any disruption.  Luckily, there is a growing body of research on the positive effects of chiropractic adjustments on sensory processing, motor output, functional performance and sensory-motor integration which are all effects of vagus nerve dysfunction!

To minimize birth trauma for yourself or your baby – make an appointment with us today.

The Importance of Pelvic Floor Control

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Everyone can benefit from having strong pelvic floor muscles, but especially pregnant women.

“The pelvic floor muscles (the Levator Ani muscle complex) are known to have active roles in pregnancy and childbirth, as well as in spinal stabilization. When the pelvic floor muscles are damaged or stressed over time, health issues like incontinence and vaginal prolapses can crop up [1]. We know these are problems with massive emotional, physical, social and financial costs across the world and a significant cause of stress for these women.

prenatal chiropractor fort collins pelvic floor

For a woman in labor, the ability to relax pelvic floor muscles (as well as contract them) to allow the baby to move through the birth canal is incredibly important, especially as the baby crowns. If the woman can’t relax these muscles as the baby moves through, she will tire more quickly and may require more interventions to assist the birthing process [2]. Muscles that cannot relax could also interfere with a birth progressing without interference. In an ideal situation, strong pelvic floor muscles with an ability to relax would better prepare a mother for a natural, vaginal birth.”

Chiropractic care relieves subluxations, or misalignments of the vertebra which cause nerve interference, thus clearing up any miscommunications to the pelvic floor muscles.  Chiropractic adjustments help by giving the patient more control over their pelvic floor muscles, and in pregnancy can make vaginal childbirth easier.  Our doctors are Webster Certified and specialize in prenatal care, helping women become more comfortable during pregnancy, labor and delivery.

For those who aren’t pregnant, strengthening those pelvic floor muscles may mean a decreased risk of urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and vaginal prolapse.

The direct quotes above come from the Australian Spinal Research Foundation, you can find the article entirely here.

What Actually Happens During A Chiropractic Adjustment?

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A chiropractic adjustment, also known as a manual manipulation, or spinal manipulation, is a common therapeutic treatment for neck, upper to mid-back, and lower back pain.  A chiropractic adjustment refers to a chiropractor applying a controlled thrust to the vertebrae that have abnormal movement patterns or fail to function normally. The objective of this chiropractic treatment is to reduce the subluxation while increasing range of motion, reducing nerve irritability and improving function. A chiropractic adjustment typically involves a high velocity, low amplitude thrust to a misaligned vertebra and can include an accompanying, audible release of gas (joint cavitation) that is caused by the release of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide which releases joint pressure. It should be known that joint cavitation (the sound) does not determine the success of an adjustment as the goal of the adjustment is to realign the vertebra not necessarily to release nitrogen and other gases from the joint.chiropractic adjustment fort collinsChiropractors adapt treatment plans to meet the specific needs of each patient. The most frequently used chiropractic technique, spinal manipulation, is the traditional high-velocity low-amplitude (HVLA) thrust. The manipulation can result in an audible “pop,” as chiropractors use their hands to apply a controlled sudden force to a joint while the body is positioned in a specific way. A more gentle approach is called a spinal mobilization which is a low force technique. Some conditions such as pathology, the patient’s size, comfort, preference or presence of osteoporosis can require this more gentle technique.

The most common reaction of a chiropractic adjustment is aching or soreness in the spinal joints or muscles. If aching or soreness occurs, it is usually within the first few hours post-treatment and does not last longer than 24 hours after the adjustment. Application of an ice pack in addition to drinking lots of water post adjustment often reduces the symptoms relatively quickly.

Seeing a chiropractor regularly maintains alignment in the vertebra and therefore keeps the nervous system in an overall healthy state. Make an appointment with our team at Impact Chiropractic to help get your spine and nervous system functioning at its best!