Entries from December 2009

Day 12 Take Care of Yourself and Enjoy the Holidays Taking care of yourself during the holiday season helps to keep your mind and body primed to deal with stress and muscle tension.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the portion of the nervous system that controls the body’s visceral functions, including action of the heart, movement of the gastrointestinal tract and secretion by different glands, among many other vital activities.

Day 11 Travel Right Sitting in cramped cars, trains or planes for long periods of time can be the recipe for muscle aches and pains. Taking a few simple precautions can make traveling fun and pain-free. The American Chiropractic Association offers the following health and wellness advice: Treat travel as an athletic event

Day 10 Wrap the Right Way Wrapping gifts can be a fun task in anticipation of the holidays, but it can also lead to back and neck pain. There are easy ways to avoid discomfort. Start by improving your posture.

An increasingly popular view is that growing older doesn’t mean feeling old!  Every 8 seconds a baby boomer turns 50 and many Boomers don’t want to stop “doing” as they age.  They want to do whatever they can to stay active and young.  Over the next 20 years I expect this trend to only increase! A simple truth is that chiropractic adjustments help keep people active and maintain full range of joint motion.  Aging and degenerative changes are not synonymous….degenerative changes do not appear unless the joint has been damaged by trauma.  The best way to keep the body working well as you age is to keep your body moving during your life.  The loss of flexibility and the inability to move freely means people become less active as they age. Don’t you remember Jack LaLane?  He must have been the original exercise guru!  And a tidbit of info you may not have known about him…he is a chiropractor!! YOUR BODY IS MADE TO MOVE – AT ANY AGE! Dr. Zach Benson

50 athletes were tested.  They were divided into two groups:  one received chiropractic adjustments, the other served as controls.  Eleven tests were used to measure aspects of athletic ability including:  agility, balance, kinesthetic perception, power, and reaction time.  After 6 weeks, the control group showed minor improvement in 8 of the 11 tests.  The chiropractic group exhibited more than 30% improvement.  Get your athlete checked by a chiropractor! P.S. 31% of NFL teams have a chiropractor officially on staff! Dr.

Drug-less chiropractic is a health care service based on the principle of taking care of the spine and aiding the nervous system so the body will draw upon its own ability to heal itself. An overwhelming percentage of the world’s population suffers from the condition known as “subluxation”, which is “misalignment of spinal vertebrae” resulting in nerve pressure or irritation. These subluxations or “nerve irritations” interfere with the normal function of the body and therefore with normal health.

Think you’re too old to exercise?  Think again!  One report in the American Journal of Epidemiology examined 472 elderly men.  The study determined that an individual’s current level of activity has a greater impact on longevity than the level of activity during the previous five years.  And, men who shaped up later in life had a lower risk of death compared with their sedentary peers. Even small increases in activity off big!  A 10% weight drop cuts the number of years an obese person can expect to live with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and with type II diabetes.  Slight weight loss also significantly reduces an individual’s odds of stroke and coronary heart disease

As a prevention specialist, I encourage patients to exercise daily.  However, many patients have a hard time sticking to a workout regime.  My suggestion is to change your motivating focus. More times than not, focusing on losing weight or toning up fails to provide long-term motivation.  Instead, focus on the “big picture”.  Exercise to live longer and have more energy.  What better incentive is there than extra years of disease free living to relish with loved ones?  Benefits of Exercise: *live longer *stay active longer *look young longer *stay sharp longer *be happy longer Dr

Day 9 Enjoy Winter Activities The holiday season brings with it lots of winter activities such as sledding, skiing, skating, and shoveling.