Green Thumb Best Practices

To all those with a green thumb, spring and summer seasons are a favorite time of year! It’s the time for planting and tending to a garden. Doing yard work can be relaxing and enjoyable, however, after a long winter of not engaging in these activities, there can be risks to your back, spine, joints, and muscles.

Warm Up Your Muscles and Joints 

Stretch Stretch Stretch! Taking the time to stretch and essentially warm up before beginning each gardening session can make all the difference in avoiding muscle pain and strains. In general It can also help you keep your back, neck, and spine healthy, balanced and free of subluxations.

Once you are finished doing gardening/yard work, another stretching session can help you to avoid stiffness, tightness and muscle pain that evening or the next day.

Use Good Form 

When gardening activities and doing yard work responsibilities, proper form is necessary to avoiding injury. Try hard to not bend at the waist when lifting or planting. Instead, keep the spine straight and bend at the knees. Keep all joints tracking straight as you garden or do yard work; try not to twist or lean at awkward angles.

Manage Sun and Heat Exposure 

As the summer continues, hot temperatures will only come and be a hazard while gardening. Be sure to wear proper sun protection to avoid sunburn, drink lots of water to stay hydrated and take breaks as appropriate so that you don’t overheat.

Chiropractic Q&A

We hear a lot of questions about chiropractic care, so here is a list of our frequently asked questions, asked and answered!

Q: What conditions do chiropractors treat?
A: Doctors of Chiropractic (DCs) care for patients of all ages.  DCs are especially well known for their expertise in caring for patients with back pain, neck pain and headaches, particularly with their highly skilled chiropractic adjustments. They also care for patients with a wide range of injuries and disorders of the muscles, ligaments and joints. These painful conditions often involve or impact the nervous system, which can cause referred pain and dysfunction distant to the region of injury. DCs also counsel patients on exercise, healthy habits, and occupational and lifestyle modification. 

Q: Is chiropractic treatment safe?
A: Chiropractic is widely recognized as one of the safest drug-free, non-invasive therapies available for the treatment of neuromusculoskeletal complaints. Although chiropractic has an excellent safety record, no health treatment is completely free of potential adverse effects. The risks associated with chiropractic, however, are very small. Many patients feel immediate relief following chiropractic treatment, but some may experience mild soreness, stiffness or aching, just as they do after some forms of exercise. Current research shows that minor discomfort or soreness following spinal manipulation typically fades within 24 hours.

Q: Is chiropractic treatment appropriate for children?
A: Yes, children can benefit from chiropractic care. Children are very physically active and experience many types of falls and blows from activities of daily living as well as from participating in sports. Injuries such as these may cause many symptoms including back and neck pain, stiffness, soreness or discomfort. Chiropractic care is always adapted to the individual patient. It is a highly skilled treatment, and in the case of children, very gentle.

Q: Do insurance plans cover chiropractic?
A: Yes. Chiropractic care is included in most health insurance plans, including major medical plans, workers’ compensation, Medicare, some Medicaid plans, and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans for federal employees, among others.

Q: How is a chiropractic adjustment performed?
A: Chiropractic adjustment or manipulation is a manual procedure that utilizes the highly refined skills developed during the Doctor of Chiropractic’s intensive years of chiropractic education. The chiropractic physician typically uses their hands or an instrument to manipulate the joints of the body, particularly the spine, in order to restore or enhance joint function. This often helps resolve joint inflammation and reduces the patient's pain. Chiropractic manipulation is a highly controlled procedure that rarely causes discomfort. The chiropractor adapts the procedure to meet the specific needs of each patient. Patients often note positive changes in their symptoms immediately following treatment. 

 Q: Is chiropractic treatment ongoing?
A: The hands-on nature of the chiropractic treatment is essentially what requires patients to visit the chiropractor a number of times. To be treated by a chiropractor, a patient needs to be in his or her office. In contrast, a course of treatment from medical doctors often involves a pre-established plan that is conducted at home (i.e. taking a course of antibiotics once a day for a couple of weeks). A chiropractor may provide acute, chronic, and/or preventive care thus making a certain number of visits sometimes necessary. Your doctor of chiropractic should tell you the extent of treatment recommended and how long you can expect it to last.

Q: Why is there a popping sound when a joint is adjusted?
A: Adjustment (or manipulation) of a joint may result in the release of a gas bubble between the joints, which makes a popping sound. The same thing occurs when you “crack” your knuckles. The noise is caused by the change of pressure within the joint, which results in gas bubbles being released. There is usually minimal, if any, discomfort involved.

When you visit a chiropractor because you’re having a specific problem or you just want to improve your overall health and well being, you are already taking an outstandingly positive approach to your health.  Most people are unaware of all of the benefits of keeping your spine and nervous system healthy, the regular chiropractic care.

Here are a few  health benefits you can receive from chiropractic:

• Improved Moods
  It may sound weird and far fetched, but chiropractic, actually makes you happier. There are studies to back this up. It helps to improve hormone balance. Decreasing the bad hormones like cortisol and increasing the good hormones, such as dopamine and norepinephrine makes a big difference in how the brain and body works and how a person feels.  
  
  
  

• Sleep Better
  Chiropractors focus on your spine, correcting any misalignments that are present and boosting the spine’s overall health. This allows the pain and tension that build in the spine to be released, and the more comfortable the body, the easier it is to relax and fall asleep.
  
  
  

• Have More Energy
  In my experience, when someone is under chiropractic care for a while they begin to notice some of the positive side benefits of chiropractic, including more energy and less fatigue. As one knows, the better you sleep, the more energy you have.
  
  
  

• Avoid Drugs and Hospitals
  Chiropractic is a drug-free approach to pain relief and pain management. 
  For many people, their addiction and wish for pain medications stems from seeking pain management for an injury or chronic condition, such as back or knee pain. If you’re not in pain, you won’t go to the hospital, to get drugs to help relieve said pain. 
  
  
  

• Less Pain
  When the spine is misaligned due to accidents and injuries, pain frequently develops. You overcompensate in other areas, causing pain in those regions as well as the underlying issue. We develop bad habits with the way we sit and and our posture, chiropractic helps us keep everything in line and not overcompensating elsewhere.

That's A Lot of Back Pain!

• Worldwide, back pain is the single leading cause of disability, preventing many people from engaging in work as well as other everyday activities.

• Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work. One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.

• Experts estimate that up to 80% of the population will experience back pain at some time in their lives.

• Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic—meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.

• Most people with low back pain recover, however recurrence is common and for small percentage of people the condition will become chronic and disabling.

• Low-back pain costs Americans at least $50 billion in health care costs each year—add in lost wages and decreased productivity and that figure easily rises to more than $100 billion

Research found from the American Chiropractic Association

Let's Talk Chiropractic Care...

It's one thing to know how to effectively get rid of back pain once it plagues your life and well-being. It's another, better thing altogether, to have the ability to prevent instances of back pain from even occurring to begin with. Scientists have yet to come up with a magical and fool-proof method for completely preventing all the health issues and problems which could possibly hinder someone's health and well-being. This is why we can and should be taking our health into our own hands with preventative care measures. As it turns out, one of the easiest and most effective ways to do this is by seeing a doctor of chiropractic on a regular basis.

Typically, most people wait until they are in pain or their “back goes out” before they do anything about it. Imagine if this approach was how we dealt with our dental health. We would wait to brush our teeth until we already had a toothache or cavity. This sounds crazy but that is exactly the same concept. Our spine is a very important, delicate structure and unlike teeth, it isn’t replaceable. Not everyone needs the same kind of preventative visits. Some people are very physically active, and may require more visits than those who are only mildly active. Your chiropractor is the person to talk to about how often you need to be seen to receive preventative care.

Active Chiropractic Care vs Maintenance Chiropractic Care

Active care includes relief, correction, and stabilization of a condition. This care requires frequent visits that reduce in frequency as the patient improves. In addition to the chiropractic adjustments, treatment during this phase of care usually requires additional services such as therapeutic modalities as well as physical therapy rehabilitative exercises. A doctor-prescribed treatment plan is necessary during this care phase and treatment intervals typically do not exceed 2 weeks. This is the only type of care that is considered by the insurance industry to be "medically necessary" and potentially covered by any insurance benefits.

Maintenance care is meant to prevent future relapses and maintain the condition after active care has been completed. This is also known as wellness or preventative care. This care requires periodic check-up visits in order to prevent future relapses and/or maintain the health status that was achieved during active care. Maintenance care visits are usually anywhere from 2 weeks intervals to 3 month intervals, although most patients would ideally benefit from monthly chiropractic check-ups to stay in optimal health and wellness. The insurance industry considers maintenance/wellness/preventative chiropractic care to be "not-medically necessary" and therefore does not cover these types of visits - similar to your car insurance not covering oil changes and tune-ups which are required for proper vehicle maintenance.