Healthy Tips From Grace Chiropractic Center

What do you do each week or month to promote your health?  Chiropractic is a part of many peoples life to promote proper function of the musculoskeletal system, help prevent injury and make them stronger. If it hurts to move, your just not going to move as much. It’s always better to do what you can to prevent injuries than to only try to fix them when they occur. Go to your local hospital and make an appointment, ask them to make you healthier. See what they say, or the strange look they will give you. Go to Grace Chiropractic Center and say make me healthier, and we will show you how to improve your form, function, and activity level.

Good health comes from us, not to us  

 Good health does come from us, at least in part due to our lifestyle and daily routine.  One example is how our connective tissues hold bones together and they get use to the amount of force, position and stress in our daily activities. However, when we do activities that are a little out of the ordinary we can feel sore, develop tendinitis and develop into painful motion. Having spent a lifetime of healthy diet, exercise, clean living, enough rest and exercise will help each one of us reach our own potential. It’s difficult for our bodies to maintain a healthy state, if we don’t move enough, drink water, rest and reduce overall stresses in our busy lives.  Sometimes we don’t feel like moving enough because some part of our body hurts, or we’ve had an injury. Chiropractic can help get you back on your feet again or bring you up to where you want to be.

Warm weather is here and so it yard work.    It may have been awhile since the last time you dug in the flower bed, mowed the yard or worked outdoors. Pay attention to how hard you are working if you haven’t worked that hard in awhile. Often we don’t feel like we have over done it until later that night or the next morning. Our office is flooded with patients each spring because of this. I caution patients to self evaluate themselves as to how they are doing when working very hard. This can help prevent strains, spasms, excessive muscle fatigue and sciatica. It’s faster in the long run to do everything we can to prevent problems instead of fix them.

Cold season

During cold weather people are more confined indoors and in closer contact with one another. Be mindful of putting your hands in your  mouth, nose and eyes after being in contact with the public. The amount of time you wash your hands is more important than the type of soap you use.

Not feeling well rested when you get out of bed in the mornings?  Not sleeping well?

It maybe that your sleep posture is causing problems. One of the worse positions to sleep in is on your stomach. This may have become a habit over time but it can cause a number of symptoms. Some of these include: morning back stiffness, pain while bending over to get dressed and neck pain. When you find yourself on your stomach in bed change to a different position, on your side or back. Also to many pillows can cause excessive flexion in the neck and cause  symptoms aswell. Our lifestyle is one of the biggest influences on how well our bodies work.

Try staying off of your stomach while sleeping for two weeks and see if it doesn’t help!

Clay Gross D.C.

Good posture may help you feel better about yourself.    

Body Posture affects confidence in your own thoughts, study finds.  ( Science Daily Oct. 5, 2009)

“The results show how our body posture can affect not only what others think about us, but also how we think about ourselves”, said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

It is easy to watch how young students sit, stand, or walk and determine what type of state of mind they are in.  Generally students that have good posture tend to feel better about themselves and are more alert, active, motivated and driven.  Young people that slouch, slump and mostly asymmetrical in their body posture appear to be less intelligent, depressed, uninterested, unambitious and lazy. While these students maybe just as smart and alert as those with good posture, they do not give the appearance that they are.

You may also find that people treat you different when you appear more healthy than one with a lazy posture. So, look at your children, observe their posture and see if they don’t act better when they sit up straight!

Good posture is not a military stance. Your ear lobe should not be infront of your shoulders, but over your shoulders. When walking into a room your forehead should not be the first thing to enter the room. This is called head forward posture and is a major cause of neck fatigue.

Next, your shoulders should not be rounded forward but held even over your hips and your hips over your ankles.

Posture is a large topic and we will discuss it more in the future.

Dr. Clay

Grace Chiropractic Center, 309 West Main Street, Cabot, AR 72023