Wellness
Chiropractic treatment aims to restore the body to its natural state of optimal health, and it is more than just a way to relieve pain. To maintain a healthy and pain-free life, you should follow an overall wellness lifestyle that includes regular chiropractic care, eating a healthy diet, taking vitamin supplements, keeping your weight under control, and managing stress. Here are some basic tips to help you keep your body healthy and full of energy.
Regular Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care is a type of healthcare that focuses on your overall health. Studies have shown that it can be very effective in treating a variety of musculoskeletal problems such as back pain, neck pain, and headaches. It can even help with things like high blood pressure, childhood ear infections, and asthma.
Chiropractors use different methods to help your body heal itself and stay healthy. These include manual adjustments, massage, exercise rehabilitation, and nutrition. They also provide advice on how to live a healthier lifestyle. By removing any blocks to your body’s natural healing ability, chiropractic care can help your body work the way it’s supposed to. Just like with exercise and a healthy diet, it’s important to make chiropractic care a regular part of your life. When you do, you can avoid many aches and pains that other people experience. You can also enjoy more of the activities you love. Your spine experiences normal wear and tear every day, so regular chiropractic care can help you feel better and stay healthier for a long time.
Be sure to have Good Posture
To maintain good posture, it’s important to avoid slouching or hunching over. When you have poor posture, it puts a lot of stress on your spine and causes chronic muscle tension, leading to pain and stiffness. This happens because your back muscles have to support the weight of your upper body instead of your spine bones. The further your posture deviates from normal, the more stress you put on your back and the more pain you experience.
To understand this concept, imagine holding a briefcase. If you had to carry your briefcase with your arms outstretched in front of you, your shoulder muscles would quickly become exhausted. This is because holding the briefcase far away from your body places an undue stress on your shoulder muscles. But if you held the same briefcase down at your side, your muscles would not tire as quickly because the briefcase is closer to the center of your body, and the weight is supported by the bones of your skeleton instead of your muscles.
A simple exercise to improve your posture is the Wall Posture Exercise. All you need is a flat wall. Stand with your back against the wall, and move your heels, shoulders, and head back until they touch the wall. Hold this posture, step away from the wall, and try to maintain this posture throughout your day. Regular practice of this exercise can help you maintain good posture, reduce stress on your spine, and prevent pain and stiffness.
Reduce stress
Life today puts a lot of pressure on us, making us feel stressed and frustrated. Things like worrying about job security, being overworked, and arguing with loved ones can create stress. A recent survey by the American Psychology Association found that 54% of Americans are concerned about the amount of stress they experience, and two-thirds of Americans say they are likely to seek help for stress.
Stress can come from physical sources, like not getting enough sleep, having a poor diet, or being sick. Mental stress can also be caused by worrying about things like money, the health of a loved one, or a major life event, such as losing a spouse or losing your job. Even everyday responsibilities and pressures can cause stress, even if we don’t realize it. When this happens, our body automatically increases blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, metabolism, and blood flow to our muscles. This response is meant to help us react quickly and effectively to a high-pressure situation.
After years of research, it is clear that stress can have negative effects on our bodies. While we may not always be able to avoid stressful situations, there are things we can do to reduce the impact stress has on our bodies. One of the most effective ways is to learn how to relax. Relaxation techniques can be found in the Stress Reduction section of this website, and can help you manage stress better.
Healthy Body Weight
Being overweight can cause a number of health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and colon cancer. But did you know that it can also lead to low back pain? The spine is designed to support a certain amount of weight, and when it has to carry extra weight, it can become damaged over time. Being overweight can also contribute to conditions such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, and spondylolisthesis.
If you’re carrying extra weight, you may also experience fatigue and difficulty breathing during exercise. This can lead to a lack of activity, which can indirectly contribute to back pain. If you’re overweight and experiencing low back pain, talk to your doctor about ways to lose weight and improve your overall health.
A good mattress can make or break your sleep
To have good health, it’s important to get enough quality sleep. One way to improve your sleep is to have a good mattress. When you have a sleep debt, it can cost you both physically and financially. Therefore, it’s important to make sleep a priority, not just something to fit into a busy schedule. Getting good sleep can not only reduce back problems, but it can also help you be more productive, alert, and safe during the day.
Here are some tips for choosing the right mattress for you:
• Your personal preference should be the main factor in choosing a mattress. The best mattress for you is the one that helps you sleep without pain and stiffness.
• Look for a mattress that provides enough back support to reduce low back pain. A good mattress should support the natural curves and alignment of your spine. Medium-firm mattresses usually provide more relief from back pain than firm mattresses.
• Know when it’s time to get a new mattress. If your old mattress sags in the middle, it’s probably time to buy a new one. Putting boards under a sagging mattress is only a temporary solution and can cause more back problems and low back pain in the long run.
• Be careful of mattress advertising tricks. Claims that a mattress is “orthopedic” or “medically approved” should be viewed with skepticism. There hasn’t been much medical research or clinical trials on the topic of mattresses and low back pain, so you need to decide whether any extra features on a mattress make it more comfortable or supportive for your back.
Wear orthotics
Custom-fitted orthotics are inserts that you put in your shoes to help keep your feet working correctly. When you stand, walk, or run, your feet are the foundation of your body, supporting and protecting your spine, bones, and soft tissues from damage. Your feet work better when all their muscles, arches, and bones are in the right position. Your foot has three arches that provide great support when they’re properly maintained. These arches form a strong, supportive vault that distributes the weight of your entire body. If one arch is compromised, the other arches must compensate and are subject to additional stress, which can lead to further issues.
Orthotics can help stabilize and balance your feet, which can enhance your body’s performance, reduce pain, and contribute to your overall wellness. Since people spend a lot of time in shoes, it’s important to make sure they provide good support. One popular brand of orthotics is Foot Levelers. These orthotics support all three arches in your feet, creating a stable foundation for proper body posture.
Drink more water
Drinking enough water helps keep your body healthy. Ideally, a person should drink around ten cups of water per day, or just over a half gallon. Water makes up 60% to 65% of your body weight and is crucial for transporting nutrients, regulating temperature, and facilitating chemical reactions in your body. Most people don’t drink enough clean water, which is essential for flushing out toxins and waste from your body. Although many people drink coffee, tea, juices, and soft drinks, these contain other ingredients that can offset the potential benefits of water. Drinks containing caffeine, like coffee and tea, can even cause water loss. To ensure you’re drinking enough water, try to consume around ten cups of water a day or a 1.5-liter bottle of water, especially if you exercise heavily. Drinking enough water is a simple and cheap way to help your body stay healthy.
Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
Most people know they should eat more fruits and vegetables in their diet, but they often don’t. Fast foods and snack foods have become more popular, and many people have lost their taste for fruits and vegetables, especially vegetables. It’s not uncommon for some people to go for weeks without consuming a single serving of fresh vegetables, but this is not good for your health.
The human body needs a diet that is high in fruits and vegetables. Many compounds unique to plant foods are necessary for the body to operate correctly. If you don’t consume enough of these plant compounds, your energy level will suffer along with your overall health. You may be surprised at how much better you feel when you cut down on fast foods and snack foods and increase your fruit and vegetable intake.
If you find it challenging to work in several servings of fruits and vegetables into your routine every day, you may find it helpful to supplement your diet with a “greens” supplement, which is a highly concentrated powder of fruits, vegetables, and antioxidants. Increasing your consumption of fruits and vegetables is an essential way to improve your overall health. The key is to make it part of your lifestyle by making it a new habit.
Cut back on sugar
The USDA recently reported that the average American eats 134 pounds of refined sugar each year, which is about 20 teaspoons of sugar every day. This is a lot of sugar! For example, a 12 oz. can of Pepsi™ has 10 teaspoons of sugar, and a 2 oz. candy package has 11 teaspoons of sugar. Eating too much sugar is not healthy and can cause obesity, Type II diabetes, heart disease, kidney stones, dental problems, fatigue, and reactive hypoglycemia. To decrease your sugar intake, you can avoid foods with lots of refined sugars, like soda, candy, cake, and donuts. You should also look for sweetened foods that use apple juice or stevia instead of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup.
Take a multivitamin
In today’s world, our bodies face many challenges that they were not designed to handle. We are exposed to toxic chemicals, electromagnetic fields, highly processed foods, and constant stress. Although a balanced diet is important, it may not provide everything our bodies need to stay healthy. That’s where supplements come in. Supplements, like multivitamins, can provide the extra nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and probiotics, that our bodies need to function properly. To stay healthy in today’s fast-paced world, it’s important to give our bodies the help they need with the help of supplements. More information about the importance of vitamins can be found on this site.
Get out into the sunshine
The sun provides an important nutrient for your mind and body, and it travels to you from over 93 million miles away at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. This nutrient is called sunlight. Sunlight is essential for regulating proper hormone function, calcium absorption, bone health, and your sleep-wake cycle. If you don’t get enough sunlight in your daily “light diet,” you can suffer from deficiency symptoms such as seasonal depression, poor quality of sleep, and reduced work performance.
Unfortunately, most of the light we are exposed to every day comes from man-made sources like fluorescent, sodium, and incandescent lights that don’t produce full-spectrum sunlight. Studies have shown that these limited-spectrum artificial light sources can make students irritable in school, reduce productivity among factory workers, and make office workers sluggish. For example, elderly people who spend their days indoors during the winter experience a drop in calcium absorption, while those who spend time under full-spectrum lighting experience an increase in calcium absorption.
Getting enough full-spectrum light can give your mood a tremendous boost. Light can help reduce stress, help you feel happier, and improve your ability to concentrate. To make sure you get enough light in your diet, doctors recommend the following tips: spend at least 15 minutes outside every day, even on cloudy days; use a light box during the fall and winter seasons if you tend to get the winter blues; and stop wearing sunglasses as they create very unnatural light for your eyes. Sunglasses should only be worn when you need to protect your eyes from physical harm or very bright light.
Maintain Your Heart Health
To keep your heart healthy, you need to make good lifestyle choices. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the US, but you can do something about it! There are four main things you can do: exercise regularly, keep a healthy body weight, stop smoking, and take high-quality vitamin supplements.
Exercise is important for your heart health, just like it’s important for your muscles and bones. Regular exercise helps your body use oxygen and burn calories more efficiently, which reduces the stress on your heart and helps lower your blood pressure.
If you carry around extra body fat, you’re putting extra strain on your heart. For every pound of fat you have, your body needs one more mile of blood vessels to supply it. So if you’re 20, 30, or 50 pounds overweight, that’s a lot of extra work for your heart!
Vitamins E and C, and folic acid are the most important supplements for your heart. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that helps prevent cholesterol in your blood from becoming dangerous. Vitamin C is important for strengthening your arteries and preventing cholesterol deposits, especially in arteries close to your heart. And folic acid helps lower the levels of a harmful byproduct called homocysteine in your blood.
To make sure you’re getting enough of these vitamins, take a multivitamin that contains at least 400 IU of vitamin E, at least 500 mg of vitamin C (or 1000 mg for even better results), and 40 mcg of folic acid. So make sure to exercise, maintain a healthy weight, stop smoking, and take your vitamins to keep your heart healthy!
Stop smoking
Stop smoking! Smoking is like living in a burning building all day long. It makes your skin wrinkle prematurely, damages your lung cells, and causes heart disease, cataracts, and cancer. Smoking also causes back pain by drying out your spinal discs. Bone is a living tissue that depends on other body systems to function normally, and smoking interferes with those systems. Physical exercise and hormones, which help form bones, are also affected by smoking.
Smoking reduces oxygen and increases harmful substances like carbon monoxide in the blood, leading to dehydration of the spinal discs. This causes them to degenerate over time. Smoking can also cause a loss of bone density in women going through menopause, leading to osteoporosis.
Quitting smoking is difficult, but not impossible. Many people have done it before, and you can too. Effective medical programs and complementary therapies like hypnosis can help. Contact us today to quit smoking and improve your health!