Archive for August 2018
Back Pain Prevention for Golfers in Westwood
Golf stresses the spine
Golf is one of the sports for which we treat the most injuries. No matter your age, golf creates a unique system of stress for the spine. The swing itself requires an enormous amount of power generation respective to the body, with the torsion of the hips and the downward force of the shoulders. Throughout a day on the course, you are doing a fair bit of bending, lifting and twisting and all of these are unnatural motions for the spine. That means that you need to be proactive about preventing injury on the golf course.
Lifting With Your Brain to Avoid Back Injuries
Lifting with your brain: what does it mean?
At its core, it means being more mindful about your spine when performing daily activities. Unless you were raised under a rock, you probably heard the phrase: “lift with your legs, not your back.” Yet how many of us continually ignore this wisdom, and lift with a motion that may save us a few seconds, but risks our spinal health unnecessarily. Anyone with a spinal condition or back pain will tell you that lifting is one of the most painful motions they can undertake- it is in your best interest to avoid this pain at all costs. So step one is being more mindful about how you lift, and not ignoring that ubiquitous wisdom after all.
When to Worry About a Stiff Neck
Stiff necks are ubiquitous in adult populations
Aging and lifestyle are traditionally to blame- white collar office jobs have contributed to more hours spent with poor, forward head posture than ever before. Then you add in the technology wave that has brought us to rely on cell phones for communication and entertainment and the recipe thickens: our necks are now up against it more than ever. And while a stiff and sore neck is certainly annoying, we are often able to ignore it and get on with our day. Some of us may even stretch to momentarily alleviate tension, but the underlying cause of the stiffness and soreness will remain, unless we are more proactive about preventing it. But what if your sore neck is sending a warning sign that you aren’t seeing? Here’s how to know when a stiff neck could be a serious problem.
Why Choosing Natural Pain Relief Matters
The natural pain relief advantage
No matter who you are, you can’t afford pain. From a lingering ache to a debilitating disc injury, pain is going to take its toll on your life. That’s why pain relief is such a huge field within modern medicine (and such a major arm of the pharmaceutical industry). And while pain relieving medications are indispensable to some, others become gripped by their addictive properties and find themselves at the mercy of myriad side-effects. What’s more, a painkiller is only a mask- it doesn’t actually resolve anything. It simply treats the symptom (pain) so that you can get on with your life. From a wellbeing perspective, this is very important. But natural pain relief takes a different approach: it seeks to resolve the source of the symptoms, thereby creating more profound, permanent changes that will offer longer-term pain relief.
Navigating Postpartum Life with Chiropractic at Your Sie
No woman should go through the postpartum phases alone
The postpartum period is broken up into three phases: the first 6-12 hours; the following 2-6 weeks; and then up to 6 months after that. This period can be fraught with mental turbulence and physical discomfort, much of which stems from the third trimester of pregnancy and the ensuing childbirth. With a newborn baby child in your hands and a new body and life to get used to, it’s no wonder that the majority of women struggle during this time. Over 85% of women report health problems (at least one) during this period. For some unlucky women, these health problems can become chronic, having long-term impacts on mental and physical health.
Keeping Tech Pain Out of Your Life
Tech pain: what is it?
The average American is now said to spend up to 23 hours a week texting, typing, sending e-mails and engaging with social media. An entire day out of the week devoted to screens, keyboards and all the stress that comes with them. Whether it is part of your job, or part of your lifestyle, you may be familiar with the physical pain and discomfort that evolves out of your habits.
- Muscle stiffness and soreness
- Lower back pain
- Gamer’s thumb and sore fingers
- Text neck
- Tension headaches
- Eye strain
…the list just goes on. Because technology is so far from nature, almost all of our interactions with it are going to be unnatural and therefore difficult for our body to manage. We therefore have to be proactive about protecting our bodies against the incursions of tech pain. Here’s how:
Why We Offer Stress Management
Stress wreaks havoc with every system in our body.
From a spinal health standpoint, mental stress causes a tightening of the muscles in the body as part of a natural defense mechanism. This tightening is not problematic if it lasts for a few minutes, but chronic stress causes our bodies to remain in a near-permanent state of tension. When we allow this to happen, our tight muscles will pull our spine out of alignment, leaving the door open to painful conditions that stem from nerve impingement. In effect, it increases the already worrying rate of spinal degeneration that we all undergo with age. If this is not reason enough to do something about your stress levels, read on for more motivation.