Dr. Mark and Dr. Chip's Healthy Blogs

·          Are chiropractic adjustments safe?           Chiropractors go to professional college for up to 8 years to learn anatomy, physiology, and all the physical sciences to know how to adjust patients safely. There are also different forms of adjusting techniques that use heavier amounts of force down to techniques that use hardly any force at all. For instance, at Natural Health, we use the Activator adjusting instrument to adjust our patients which is a very low force metered adjusting technique with a stellar safety record. We also use a muscle relaxing technique to move the vertebra which uses no force. Both of these adjusting techniques are extremely safe.

The Critical Cervical Curve From the back, your spine should be in alignment. A sideways curve is called scoliosis and can produce nerve interference, affecting organs and tissues controlled and regulated by the nerves emerging from the spinal column in that area. But from the side we want to see four curves. Because the nerves passing through the neck influence the entire body, the spinal curve in the neck is especially important. Besides having uncompromised nerve flow to and from the body, the normal, graceful forward curve is essential so you can turn to the right and left to look over your shoulder. If you know someone who is far too dependent upon their rear view mirrors (or their car’s back up camera), or who tends to turn their upper body to look at you, encourage them to give us a call. A thorough examination can determine if they’ve lost their cervical curve and whether they’re a good candidate for chiropractic care.

What Causes Muscle Spasms?                         There are several main causes of muscle spasm that we check for at Natural Health. And of course were talking about any type of muscle spasm, Charlie horse, shin splint, or just plain old muscle cramp. There are many causes of these overactive muscles and some of them are there for a specific purpose.             Let’s start with muscle spasms due to nerve pinching from a subluxated spinal segment. On the surface it may seem like this is an aberrant phenomenon but is actually there to help stabilize the spinal area so that the nerve is not further damaged. These are normally in the spinal areas but could be affecting any of the muscles in the extremities as well. For instance a rotator cuff irritation may be coming from a spinal nerve irritation in the mid-part of th...

3 Ways to Get to Sleep Find you’re having trouble getting to sleep? Consider booking an appointment with our practice. You’ve darkened your bedroom. It’s quiet. You’ve set the temperature to a comfortable 68 degrees. You’ve avoided eating or exercising before bedtime. You get adjusted regularly to quiet down your nervous system. You’ve avoided the blue light emitted by your digital device. It’s time to fall asleep. Now what? If you’re someone who has difficulty getting to sleep each night, you’re not alone. Millions of people worldwide admit to some type of sleep problem. Sleep insufficiency can contribute to a variety of chronic diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, and obesity, as well as cancer, increased mortality, and reduced quality of life and productivity. Once you’re lying down, think about anything but falling asleep. Here are some helpful suggestions: 1. Starting at your toes and slowly moving towards your head, focus on contracting and relaxing...

What can I do to stop snoring? As you may or may not know, snoring is a possible symptom of underlying issues. In the natural healing world, we feel that anything can cause anything so to stop snoring, you must figure out the cause of the symptom in that individual. Possible causes would include enlarged adenoids and tonsils caused by immune system problems or allergies, extreme fatigue from overwork and stress and possible hypothyroidism, and possible subluxation of the upper cervical spine impinging upon the nerves that allow the body control itself normally. The goal in the clinical setting would be to figure out which one or more causes are involved in that individual. The thyroid connection is often overlooked and we find it to be a very common problem, especially in women. Eating foods that are inflammatory to the body, like refined sugar and flour, can cause the tonsils and adenoids to inflame and lead to snoring as well. So there are many causes and to stop the symptom of s...