The Arise Wellness ReportAm I at a Dead End?
Dr. James Mayne, D.C. As a chiropractor I often see new patients who “have tried everything” already, even chiropractic, and it has not worked. Most have already spent a great deal of time and money seeing physical therapists, personal trainers, acupuncturists, massage therapists…the list goes on and on. They have seen some of the most talented doctors and practitioners around, but for whatever reason those treatments have not worked. By the time these patients find their way to my office they are frustrated, angry, and depressed. They feel like they have failed or spent money on nothing because they are still in pain. Sadly, many have been told that nothing else can be done. I can commiserate; I have been in a similar position myself. Often, this story begins with something like a joint injury, a sprained neck, or a locked-up hip. The injury may be minor or very traumatic; it may derail a person immediately or build up over years or even decades. The pain and dysfunction start affecting a person’s leisure activities. They stop playing sports, begin to slow down, and become more inactive. Everyday activities like work, gardening, and dressing in the morning can become difficult. People stop enjoying life. Without movement a body breaks down faster. Metabolism, muscles and the brain become sluggish. This cascade of events leads to further pain and depressed mood states. Soon, anything can “flare up the pain” and the lack of activity leads to gaining a few pounds each month. As the months and years add up the body gets in worse and worse shape. This is the part of the story where I meet many new patients. Frustrated, in chronic pain, overweight, out of shape, and wary of something else that may not work. It is time to break this cycle and get to the root cause of the problem. Time to conduct an exam, find out why this cycle is occurring, and then identify how best to combat it. One of the most common things I hear from a new patient after their physical exam is, “Wow, I have never had an examination with that much detail before.” A detailed exam is critical to identify the cause of the problem. My job is to address this damage, get the body moving again, and allow the body to begin healing. Once the body can again function properly, a person can begin to return to their normal lives and activities, increasing mood, decreasing stress, and decreasing pain. If this story resonates with you, or someone you know, please call for a new patient exam. We would love to be able to identify what is going on and see if we can help. Written by Dr. James Mayne of Arise Chiropractic 250-275-7616 (Inspired by my good friend and colleague Dr. Tyna Moore). Do Children Need Chiropractic Care?
Dr. Deane Studer, D.C. A baby’s potential lies within, yet it is dependent on many nurturing factors. Babies, infants, and children go through important growth stages. Therefore, monitoring their spinal alignment will allow for optimal growth and development. The health benefits of chiropractic care should be considered as a conservative and natural approach within our health care system, even for young people. Doctors of chiropractic understand that prevention is more important than the reaction to a health issue or problem that has been accumulating over time. An example of this is stress. Stress, like a chronically misaligned spine, has a variety of negative impacts on the physical body. Research shows that stress can be mitigated if consistent care and attention are given to the health and well-being of an individual from an early age. For this reason, chiropractic care is vital for children. Health problems tend to run in families and similarities in health patterns then follow children as they grow into adults. The spinal problems seen in adults can begin as early as birth. During normal childbirth, the obstetrician may pull on a baby’s head and neck when it is extended and rotated, which can lead to structural and soft-tissue misalignments of the baby’s spine. Babies born via caesarean section must be pulled out very fast, with a firm grip sometimes requiring suction, because they are very slippery. As a result, traction forces can cause adverse reactions and asymmetrical soft-tissue tension to the developing neck. If an emergency caesarean section is necessary, the baby’s neck will have experienced both the compression from the contractions during labour and the traction forces from the extraction procedure. Growing babies need plenty of food and sleep. Observe your baby while he/she is eating for signs and symptoms of potential health issues. When breastfeeding, notice if the latch is easy and symmetrical. Difficulties nursing on one side could indicate that your baby has a neck misalignment due to lack of rotation in the neck. Another side-effect of spinal misalignments is spitting up food while feeding. Along the spine where the diaphragm connects, the esophagus allows food to move into the stomach without restriction. Difficulty sleeping and/or excessive crying is your baby's way of communicating their discomfort and could be the result of spinal stress on their delicate nervous system and/or spinal cord. Adjusting the spine of babies, infants, and children takes experience and is performed differently than it would be for an adult. In a baby’s spine, only a slight amount of pressure is needed to correct spinal misalignments of the spinal bones. With older children, a small amount of pressure with a gentle push is all that is needed to restore normal spinal and nervous system function. It is important to remember that chiropractors do not treat diseases. The focus is on correcting spinal misalignments in order to prevent and treat health problems. Children who receive regular spinal adjustments for posture, along with proper nutrition, exercise, and sleep will be set on a path to grow up structurally and functionally sound. Chiropractic Helps Healing from Sprains and Strains
Dr. James Mayne, D.C. If you have sprained a joint recently, you know they can be problematic for a while. We constantly need to use our ankles, hips, backs, shoulders and necks. Your body has its own natural way of healing, but here are some tips to help the process along: 1) Ice. Immediately after injuring a joint, it swells and heats up. This causes pain, and pressure receptors fire up. An ice pack directly over the sore joint for 20 minutes helps decrease the swelling and numb the area, both of which decrease pain levels. 2) Heat. When a joint is sprained the muscles in the surrounding areas are also damaged. After the initial swelling is under control and the acute phase of healing is over, generally at least 10 days after the injury, placing a heat pack over the stiff, sore muscles will draw blood flow to the area and speed up repair. Again, look to apply heat for 20 minutes at a time. 3) Fish oil. A natural food or vitamin store should carry high quality fish oil. Take 3000mg of EPA + DHA per day. This helps fight inflammation in a damaged joint. Note: Be careful of this product if you have a shellfish allergy. 4) Proteolytic enzymes. Many natural enzymes can be found at the natural food or vitamin store. Some examples are bromelain, serapeptase and curcumen. These enzymes are present in natural foods, like pineapples and curry, and have natural anti-inflammatory effects. Again, be wary if you havecertain food allergies. 5) Movement. While it is not advisable to constantly agitate a damaged joint, the more a body moves around the faster it has been shown to heal. If gentle activities like walking or swimming are non-agitating they should be encouraged, as a quicker metabolism means faster healing. This is where chiropractic treatment comes into the picture. Getting the joints to move optimally means freer mobility, and with that comes more activity and faster healing. Chiropractic care has been demonstrated over and over again, in many different studies, to increase the body’s ability to move and heal. A proper adjustment to a damaged joint will allow it to instantly begin moving and healing faster and better. Chiropractic can help with sprains of the ankles, neck, shoulders, back, hips, and all the joints of the body. Please come see us so we can help improve your health and speed up your healing. Healthier Today than Yesterday?
Dr. Deane Studer, D.C. When pain strikes us with surprise, we often struggle in understanding why. Keep in mind that our spinal bones are held in place by numerous muscles controlled and directed by the nervous system. Bones, muscle and nerves influence each other in a dynamic balance. When everything is properly aligned and our main weight-bearing joints are vertically stacked, the natural laws of human design are preserved. We balance ourselves in gravity without any thought or appreciation but with due consideration it is an incredible act. Every joint in our body sends the nervous system information constantly while standing to maintain a stable posture. Our muscles work in pairs to equalize the subtle alignment of the bones so that they fit just right to maximize strong posture. Over our lifetime we become habituated in many ways and beyond our comprehension. Repetitive habits introduce and hard-wire our bodies into tight and inflexible ways. Posture is simple--it is how we balance ourselves in space. It is intuitive and responsive to our environment. Strong posture offers more mechanical advantages than weak posture. Have you ever seen a picture of yourself or a friend and noticed that one shoulder is higher than the other? The best way to know this is through a posture assessment and by getting a posture picture. Awareness is the first step to correcting poor posture, which could be the cause of your health issues. Our clinic has a special interest in spine and postural correction. With our simple posture test, we often reveal imbalances that are causing your pain or health concern. We look forward to helping you and your family! Can I Really Be Hurt In A Fender Bender?
Dr. James Mayne, D.C. One of the most common things mentioned by patients when I meet them is “it was only a small car accident, I wasn’t really hurt.” Many times when people come in to see us they have been in pain for a long time, yet don’t have a major accident to explain why they were hurt in the first place. Often, it is not one trauma that causes problems with the neck or back, but many small strains or sprains. Cars today are designed to have bumpers fly off, airbags to cushion the steering wheel, and engines to slide under the car rather than into our legs. Smaller car accidents may not allow these safety measures to deploy, leaving our bodies to absorb the shock. This can leave us with minor muscle strains or joint sprains to deal with after the accident. A sprained neck, for example, can occur from a minor fender bender and leave us only feeling stiff for a few days to a few weeks. If the soft tissues heal in a way that leaves us without the proper curve in our neck, the next minor slip or fall can strain the neck even further. Over time, and with a few more of these strains (which can be caused by something as simple as sitting incorrectly in front of a computer), inflammation can build up over the months and years until we have headaches or neck and back pain that just don’t seem to go away. This is often the stage when a person seeks out chiropractic care. As Chiropractors, address the pain by improving the structure and function of the spine—undoing the damage that had occurred many years earlier. Essentially, we help improve your spine’s health. Overall, many people who seek our care for relief of chronic pain have a history which includes minor car accidents. They would have been helped in a more efficient manner had they been treated shortly after their accident. Minor car accidents have a cumulative effect on the body, and the sooner they are looked into, the better chance we have of helping with them. No fender bender is too small, so if there is any stiffness or discomfort afterwards, please come in. This is what we help with. Successful Treatment for Chronic Pain
Dr. Deane Studer, D.C. Are you afflicted with a nagging injury that impacts your mobility and daily function? By utilizing my knowledge of Active Release Technique, in combination with specialized instruments, I target soft tissue dysfunction and try to find the root cause of your pain. You and I will work together to minimize your suffering and help improve the problem. Healthy muscle tissue should be like a rubber band—stretchy, supple, and similar to an elastic band. But, as muscle tissue adapts to tears, strains, and sprains, scar tissue can build up, and this reduces the quality of how well your joints move. Joints consist of two bones coming together with a precision that miraculously gives us fluid-like motion. The two bones do not quite touch but are bathed in a special fluid that is produced by the cartilage cells at the end of the bones. A well-maintained joint is vital for motion. If you lose your ability to move, your joints wear out, resulting in arthritis. In my 21 years of practising Chiropractic and applying multiple techniques, one of my specialities is identifying and treating new and old injuries. Recovery varies accordingly, yet relief is often immediate. I look forward to working with you to optimize your health. Why I Became a Chiropractic Doctor: My Case in Point
Dr. Elliot Lysyk, D.C. I grew up in a medicine cabinet. As a child, I was given at least 3 rounds of antibiotics per year for ear, lung, and sinus infections. I was always “sick”. I missed a lot of school. I had tubes put into my ears as a final measure to stop the ear aches, but that didn’t work. There was even talk of removing my tonsils, which are now known to be vital immune organs (as if you’d actually be born with organs you didn’t really need!). I had regular headaches despite perfect eyesight. I also had been diagnosed with “dust allergies” for which I was given an injection each week. My shoulder used to swell up like a baseball and would hurt after each needle. I still have no idea what was being injected into my body. Neither does my mother. All I know is that I continued having allergy symptoms. The treatments I was being given was aimed at trying to kill the germs that are around us all, all the time, by the gazillions. They were treating my symptoms with throat sprays, fever medications, cough suppressants, antibiotics, sinus congestion tablets, nasal sprays, injections, etc. There was little consideration for why my body wasn’t FUNCTIONING properly. No attempt was made to find out why my body’s immune system was suppressed. My parents didn’t know to ask. My health got worse. I was never referred on to any form of “alternative care”. I was never offered anything but medications. I suffered for years, continuing to take round after round of medication for which there were always unpleasant side-effects—until I chanced across a Chiropractor who was actually helping me for something else: mid-back pain because of heavy lifting injury. Because of the help I received with my spinal pain, I began inquiring into the philosophy of Chiropractic. This was my portal into a profession that taught me to believe in my body’s ability to heal itself. At the time, I was applying to become a medical doctor. Instead, I switched fields, moved far from home, and trained for years to become a Chiropractor. You might not believe this, but ever since that move over 15 years ago, I have not taken a single medication. I never got an ear infection again. My frequency of colds and flus drastically decreased. Imagine that? Could it have been that I never needed any of those interventions? Was it possible that they were interfering even further with my body’s innate functions? Now I know all medications aren’t bad. I see various patients every day that are on medications that are improving the quality of their lives. I do feel that medications are often too quickly prescribed, and interventions offered too quickly, without first seeking to improve the patients’ environment or allow enough time for the body to heal itself. I discovered that the main reason my body was struggling was because there was nerve pressure in multiple areas of my spine. The toxicity of the drugs was further hampering my immune system. They were making me sicker!! Think about it. All the medications I was taking were designed to reduce the symptoms, to kill the bacteria, good flora or bad, but not necessarily help my body function better. This approach has been shown to actually delay healing and recovery, not to mention the toxic effects drugs can have to vital organs of your body. I have devoted my life to bringing this awareness to families, giving them a natural health option. I have trained extensively to find out what can be done to improve the body’s ability to heal, without first reaching for drugs. Chiropractors work to help your body get stronger and healthier by removing the damaging nerve stress that hampers great nerve firing within your body. I am happy to note that more and more Chiropractors, Medical Doctors, Naturopaths, etc are working together for the health of our patients, mutually assisting them towards healthier options than what I went through. The tides are changing! Over the coming months, my team and I look forward to revealing secrets to gain health and improve your body’s function, naturally. |
|