Tag Archives: chiropractic

Pregnancy and Chiropractic

If there’s any class of patients that need chiropractic care the most it’s pregnant women.

Pregnancy changes a woman’s life in many ways. One way is a special chemical called “relaxin.”

Relaxin is a hormone produced by the ovaries and the placenta that effects the female reproductive system especially during pregnancy. In preparation for childbirth, it relaxes the muscles, joints and ligaments in the pelvis, softens and widens the cervix and relaxes the smooth muscle in the uterus. It does even more by increasing heart and kidney blood output.

In males relaxin enhances the motility of sperm in semen.

Sometimes there’s a down side to relaxin. If the spine and pelvis are unbalanced, or subluxated, then the relaxin can make the subluxations and distortions worse! The result is spine and pelvic pain which is too common in pregnancy. Additionally, the unbalanced body needs more energy for walking, standing, sitting and moving causing fatigue and exhaustion.

Chiropractic can help

Chiropractic can help ensure that the pregnant body is balanced and that the pelvis is relaxed and open to its maximum so the developing baby has the ideal amount of room in which to develop. That is why clinical reports reveal that breech presentations have been corrected, with the fetus turning into a healthy position, as a result of chiropractic adjusting procedures. Clinical reports show chiropractic also helps with breastfeeding and the return to a pre-pregnancy figure. (1-7)

References

Thomas JC. The Webster Technique in a 28-year-old woman with breech presentation and subluxation [case report]. JVSR. April 7 2008:1-3.
Brynhildsen J, Hansson A, Persson A, Hammar M. Follow-up of patients with low back pain during pregnancy. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 1998;91(2):182-186.
Phillips C. An effective drug-free approach to premature contractions. ICA Review. 1998;54(5):76-81.
Phillips C. Back labor: a possible solution for a painful situation. ICA Review. 1997;53(4):51-56.
Cohen E. Case history: premature labor. Chiropractic Pediatrics. 1995;1(4).
Reynolds JP. What is the role of osteopathic manipulative therapy in obstetric care? JAOA. 1974;74.
Guthrie RA, Martin RH. Effect of pressure applied to the upper thoracic (placebo) versus lumbar areas (osteopathic manipulative treatment) for inhibition of lumbar myalgia during labor. JAOA. 1982;82(4):247-251.

Questions and Answers about Chiropractic

Q: Where did chiropractic come from?

A: Chiropractic was rediscovered and named in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa by DD Palmer, a magnetic healer and teacher who performed the first chiropractic adjustment on his deaf janitor. When the man’s hearing returned Palmer began to investigate the relationship between health and the spinal column.

Q: Why “rediscovered?”

A: Spinal healing had been practiced for thousands of years in nearly every civilization on earth. It has stood the test of time, having been a blessing to millions of people for millennia. But its ancient techniques and principles became lost as humanity became enthralled with drugs and surgery. Dr. Palmer revived and began to teach this old/new healing art.

Q: Was chiropractic accepted at first?

A: People flocked to the first chiropractors. Here was a non-drug, non-surgical approach to healthcare that was safe and effective. The number of Doctors of Chiropractic grew from one man in the American Midwest to thousands in a short time. Chiropractic especially grew in popularity during the 1919 flu pandemic when people under chiropractic care had almost no mortality while people under medical care suffered many deaths.

Q: Did the medical profession accept chiropractors?

A: The medical profession saw chiropractic’s drug-free approach as a threat to their monopoly in healthcare and attacked chiropractors claiming they were practicing “medicine and surgery without a license.” Many chiropractors were actually jailed, fined or imprisoned – but they refused to surrender. Eventually the laws were changed to permit more freedom for non-medical healthcare professionals.

Q: So there is peace now between the healing arts?

A: Not exactly. As more and more people turn to non-medical practitioners the medical profession is finally accepting competition. The medical monopoly is slowly but steadily breaking.

There are different philosophies of health and healing; chiropractic/natural healing approaches and medicine are on opposite sides of the spectrum and disagree strongly on many healthcare issues. The result is that people have access to more information from other perspectives, are often better informed and can make better decisions.

Latest News From Charmaine: April 2016

Greetings All

Trying not to hold my breath…but dang it looks like Spring has FINALLY arrived!

Spring Has Arrived

If you look around you will notice the first harbingers of spring…crocus, daffodils, forsythia and a very light green to many of the trees as they slowly start budding. Hopefully the most recent freezing weather does not affect the fruit crops of the state or the trees that blossom early, like magnolias, etc.

With all the gentle Spring days here, there are lots of wonderful days to get out and walk, or maybe even bike before we can really get into the garden to plant anything new…also time to finish that fall cleanup that didn’t happen!

Think thru a task before jumping in

While I am not a fan of timidity or overly cautious attitudes…please think thru a task before jumping in and possibly ruining your back/ day/weekend. Happily, we are available to get you out of that pickle, although our first choice would be prevention- not “fixing”.

Quick Spring Trip

The last few days of April, 4/28 thru’ 30^th we will be heading down to S.C. for our college “Homecoming” or Lyceum as it’s called. So, we will be open in the am on that Thursday 4/28 as a schedule change…signs will be up in the office as a reminder.

Sophia heading off soon

Meanwhile, Sophia is on countdown to graduation and will continue to work with us for a few more weeks before heading off to Northwestern.

Congratulations to Allen

Congratulations to Allen H who has received an Artistic Scholarship to NMU……we have talented people in our midst.

Share your story with us!

OH YES this comes to mind…we have several patients who are state or national or even world champions in a variety of activities/sports….or have received special recognition (like Hall of Fame recognition)….we would love you to share your story with us and the greater Chiropractic Community if you are willing…..talk to me or Dr. Ray.

See you in the office, on the table, on the mat or under the barbells!!

Researching Chiropractic: Case Studies

Chiropractic clinical case histories have been a regular feature of our patient newsletter since its inception. There seems to be no limit to the health problems that respond to chiropractic care. How many people suffering, on drugs, facing a life of limitation could be helped by chiropractic care?

Probably most of them.

Morton’s neuroma.

Morton’s neuroma is a nerve tumor in the foot. It is a painful condition that people describe as “walking on a marble.” It usually affects the ball of the foot, often between the 3^rdand 4^thtoes and may cause a sharp, burning pain or numbness. The medical or podiatry approach is to give corticosteroid (cortisone) injections or surgically to cut out the tumor.

This is the case of a 63-year-old woman who suffered with Morton’s neuroma in her right foot for ten years. She sought chiropractic care for a variety of health complaints.

For one month her vertebral subluxations were addressed and reduced using specific chiropractic care. During this period her Morton’s neuroma symptoms completely disappeared and in addition she reported improvement in her digestion, sleep and ability to move without pain.

Source: Lanoue B, Treahy-Geofreda T, Russell D.Resolution of Morton’s Neuroma in an elderly patient receiving Activator Methods Chiropractic Technique to correct subluxation: a case study. Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research. January 4, 2016:1-5.

Failure To Thrive

Oral thrush and inconsolable crying in a 4-month-old. This is the case of a baby medically diagnosed with “failure to thrive” (FTT). FTT is determined when a baby’s weight or size is significantly below that of other children of similar age and same gender. The infant was reported to have had birth trauma from a nuchal cord – the umbilical cord was completely wrapped around the fetal neck (360 degrees).

The child was 4-months-old when she was brought to the chiropractor. She was suffering from inconsolable crying, oral thrush (an overgrowth of the fungus candida albicans in the mouth and throat), chronic diarrhea and was dangerously underweight.

Chiropractic examination detected vertebral subluxations at C1-C4 (upper neck) and T3-T4 (upper back).

She received chiropractic adjustments from the first visit and afterwards was checked for vertebral subluxations that were corrected when indicated for seven weeks. Her FTT symptoms began to resolve after the first visit and completely resolved by the seventh week of care.

Source: Neally R, Alcantara J. Resolution of failure to thrive in a 4-month-old infant following adjustment of subluxation: case study & selective review of the literature. Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic. 2015;4:149-153.

Hypothyroidism reduction under chiropractic care.

A 44-year-old woman presented herself to the chiropractor with complaints of upper shoulder and pain between the shoulder blades that occurred after a motor vehicle accident 23 years earlier!

In addition, she had been prescribed ArmourThyroid® in order to treat symptoms of low thyroid function (hypothyroidism).

Cervical or neck x-rays revealed that she had an 80.7% loss of normal neck curve (hypo-lordosis) in addition to vertebral subluxations.

The patient received spinal adjustments to reduce her vertebral subluxation complexes (VSC), and to improve her spinal and postural alignment over a seven-month period.

Thirty days into care the patient began exhibiting signs/symptoms of an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism). Her chiropractor suggested that she have her thyroid function checked by her endocrinologist to see if her prescribed thyroid medication should be re-evaluated. After serum lab evaluation, the patient’s endocrinologist instructed the patient to significantly reduce her thyroid medication.

Source: Bak AD, Engelhardt PR. Improvement in cervical curve and hypothyroidism following reduction of subluxation utilizing chiropractic Biophysics: a case study & selective review of the literature. Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research. December 10, 2015:226-237

We’d like to hear about your experiences with chiropractic care.

CHIROPRACTIC AND VALENTINE’S DAY –WHAT IS THE CONNECTION?

In this month of love and romance the key word that connects Chiropractic and Valentines Day is CONNECTION.

People and relationships are what nourishes and keeps everyone alive. Connections, which may be keeping a plant growing, a goldfish, a child or a spouse. That’s why women live longer than men and married men with cancer live longer than single men with the same cancers. If you have connections, you keep going. (Bernie Siegel MD)

There are so many ways we can be disconnected from physical, mental and spiritual wholeness:

Unnatural childbirth
trauma
lack of bonding
poor nutrition
lack of love
comfort and security

Lack of stimulation will interfere with our optimal physical/emotional/spiritual development and growth. Our genes will partially sleep, our life will be clouded, our heart will be contracted, our vision will be limited. To the degree that our connection is interfered with –we are less alive. We have dis-ease, we are out of sync to our inner potential and cannot adapt as well to life’s stresses.

When a chiropractor locates and corrects your subluxations that cause blockages, interference and imbalances… you are more connected and more alive.

Call us to make an appointment and get reconnected with yourself.

Get to Know Your Spinal Column

The illustration might look like a strange collection of wires and body parts but it shows how your body communicates and connects so that all your parts work together to make you healthy and whole.

Your internal organs send messages to your brain and your brain sends messages back to your internal organs. This back and forth goes through a vast communications cable made up of hundreds of millions of nerves: your spinal cord. This is how your parts are connected.

The Information Highway: Your Spinal Column

This incredible “cable” of nerves or spinal cord goes down your back. You can’t see your spinal cord because it’s encased in a protective bony canal called the spinal column made up of 23 bones called vertebrae.

Your spinal column includes

7 neck or cervical vertebrae
12 mid-back or thoracic vertebrae
5 low back or lumbar vertebrae

Under the lumbars is a fused triangular bone called the sacrum and below that is your tiny tail bone or coccyx.

Also let’s not forget that between your vertebrae are discs – little shock absorbers to prevent your bones from crashing into one another every time you walk.

Get Adjusted after any Accident

Watch out! Injuries, accidents and stress of all kinds can misalign your vertebrae so they won’t move properly. If that happens you might have nerve irritation that can interfere with the function of many nerves, glands, muscles and organs. The result is a subluxation causing lowered immunity and detoxification, pain, and less balance, strength and energy. With subluxations your body parts are less connected to each other.

Your chiropractor’s job is to make sure your vertebrae are in the right place and are moving properly so that there is no nerve stress.

Using various tools (and years of specialized training) doctors of chiropractic can locate spinal nerve stress or subluxations and, using their hands or various instruments, realign the vertebrae and reduce spinal nerve pressure. This is called an adjustment. The adjustment reconnects you to … you.

Reconnect with yourself

Millions of people are disconnected from themselves. They are carrying spinal nerve stress in their bodies and don’t even know it. Do you or your loved ones have this condition? Your chiropractor can find out with a simple analysis. It could make the difference between a life of health and vitality and one of dis-ease and weakness.

Stop by for a chiropractic connection adjustment. Make 2016 a more connected year.

Drs Ray and Charmaine return from 34th Homecoming

We have just returned from a wonderful time at our Alma Mater Sherman College of Chiropractic. The weather was just gorgeous and the atmosphere on campus ..electric. Apart from some 20 hours of continuing education credit classes that we attended, we had a chance to interact with some of our favorite friends and colleagues.
The overarching theme of the weekend was ensuring that we made the most of opportunity to provide our patients with the best information possible about posture, the rationale behind what we do and to really educate patients to the fact that Chiropractic is so much more than for headaches and back pain.
An interesting study in Illinois showed that when Doctors of Chiropractic were used as primary portals of entry into the health care system…….hospital stays dropped dramatically as did surgeries and most importantly of all prescriptions dropped by 85%. Needless to say vested interests were not happy AND the major bummer that came out of that is that is that Illinois will no longer cover chiropractic care.. When you do good work, some people are threatened and unhappy.

Lanjopoulos Chiropractic

Chiropractics, Yoga, Tai Chi, Healthy Living