Archive by Author

The #1 Question Asked of Chiropractors

An age old question that we get time after time is:

“Why should I return, especially if I feel fine?”

Delays have dangerous ends. –William Shakespeare

You entered our office feeling terrible and now you feel great. So why does your chiropractor suggest coming in again?”Why can’t I return when I’m feeling bad?” you may ask.

“I Feel Fine” Health Carei feel fine

We’ve all seen people looking like death warmed over who say they “feel fine”; yet they have no energy, sleep poorly, are tired, depressed, have aches and pains, headaches or backaches.Too many people who “feel fine” have a sudden heart attack, stroke, debilitating pain or are diagnosed with a serious disease.Sadly, too many people have lost touch with how they really feel. They’ve lost sensitivity or ignore their body’s subtle signs of dis-ease. Don”t make that mistake!

Why More Visits?I feel fine, car accident

Most people first visit our office after they’ve had years of long-standing subluxations. By that time “gunk”(scar tissue or fibrosis) builds up around the spinal discs, nerves and joints and prevents complete healing. That”s one reason why 86% of those in automobile accidents still have symptoms ten years later. (1)

I feel finePosture

Long-standing subluxations also cause postural changes and tender muscle areas (trigger or tender spots). (2)You may “feel fine” but when someone touches a “hot spot”you jump! Scar tissue may require months or years of adjustments before your spine is strong again. (3) The longer you wait, the more scar tissue “gunk”builds up. (4) Because of that there’s a good chance that you”ll be back in our office in the not-too- distant future with symptoms that may take longer to go away (“I don’t understand it doc, the last time I felt better after a couple of visits”).

Why settle for less?

Many people visit chiropractors only when they’re sick or in pain. That’s a lot better than using drugs or surgery, but chiropractic has so much more to offer. Keep your body free of subluxations so it may continue healing; so that it may promote a healthier body, with less stress, more energy and greater resistance to disease.Why be content to be merely free from pain when you can also ensure better health, vitality, and strength for yourself and your entire family for their entire lives?Are you and your family carrying the silent killer, the subluxation? Only a chiropractic check up can tell; come in for a checkup – and bring the family too!

 

 

  1. Watkinson A et al. Prognostic factors in soft tissue injuries of the cervical spine. British Journal of Accident Surgery. 1991;22(4):307-309.
  2. Hiemeyer K et al. Dependence of tender points upon posture – a key to the understanding of fibromyalgia syndrome. Journal of Manual Medicine. 1990;5:169-174.
  3. Dishman R. Review of the literature supporting a scientific basis for the chiropractic subluxation complex. JMPT. 1985;8:163-174.
  4. Kelman Cohen I et al. Wound healing, biochemical and clinical aspects. New York: W.B. Saunders
Co., 1992:110.

NEW SEASON ASPARAGUS AND PEAS RISOTTO

aspargusServes 4-6

  • 6 cups vegetable stock, preferably homemade
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 cup Arborio rice
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed, stalks cut into 2-inch lengths
  • 1 cup fresh/thawed frozen peas
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, plus more for garnish
  • 2TBS fresh lemon juice
  • 1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • 1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  1. Bring stock to a simmer in a medium saucepan.
  2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat in another saucepan. Cook onion, stirring frequently, until soft, 6 to 7 minutes. Add rice, cook, stirring, until edges are translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add wine; cook, stirring, just until evaporated.
  3. Add 1/2 cup hot stock; cook, stirring, until almost absorbed. Continue adding 1/2 cup stock in this manner until liquid is creamy and rice is al dente, about 20 minutes total (you may not need to add all the stock). Add asparagus with the last addition of stock, and the peas about 5 minute before risotto is done if using fresh or 1 min for frozen.
  4. Remove from heat; stir in lemon zest and juice, parsley, cheese, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with additional cheese and lemon zest.

Relief through Chiropractic: Case Studies

Researching Chiropractic

Chiropractic clinical case histories have been a regular feature of our patient newsletter since its inception. There seems to be no limit to the health problems that respond to chiropractic care. How many people suffering, on drugs, facing a life of limitation could be helped by chiropractic care? Probably most of them.

Erb’s Palsy and chiropractic

Erb’s Palsy is a paralysis of the arm caused by nerve damage (to the brachial plexus) in the neck. It is most often caused by obstetrical mistakes. These injured children grow into adults with permanent nerve and arm damage – a shorter and smaller arm – unless corrected. This is the story of one lucky baby.

In this case a 5-month-old girl diagnosed with right-sided Erb’s Palsy was brought in for care to a chiropractic office. Under chiropractic care the infant’s symptoms resolved within two months. (8)

Reference: Resolution of Erb-Duchenne Palsy in a 5-month-old female following subluxation based chiropractic care. Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic. 2016;1:9-13. 

Headache and neck pain in an eight-year-old girl

An 8-year-old girl was brought in for chiropractic care suffering from neck pain and headaches. According to the patient’s mother, her daughter reported her headaches and neck pain had been going on for four months with approximately two episodes per week.

Medical examinations did not find any problem and the doctors recommended treating the neck and headache symptoms with Tylenol. Following four chiropractic visits, the child’s neck pain and headaches completely resolved.

Reference: Simmons-Stone D, Alcantara J. Resolution of chronic cervicogenic headache & cervicalgia in a child following chiropractic care. Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic. 2016;1:1-4. 

Neurofibromatosis

A 3-year-old boy with a history of Neurofibromatosis Type I, asthma and ear infections was brought in for chiropractic care. His asthma attacks were so severe he required ER hospital visits two times per month.

He received chiropractic adjustments two to three times per week. Within one month after beginning care he no longer had violent exacerbations of his asthma and was able to sleep through the night. As of this writing he continues to improve and has decreased his inhaler usage. (10)

Reference: Kachinsky B, Kachinsky J. Improvement in a pediatric patient with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 and asthma: a case report. Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic. 2011;1:1-4.

Traditional Eating: Spring Butter

Spring is coming and soon it’ll be the time to get one of the healthiest foods on the planet: spring butter. In some cultures, it is considered sacred.

 spring butterWhat is spring butter?

Spring butter is different from regular butter because the cows in the spring cow eat new growing grass filled with healthy growth enzymes full of lots of minerals and vitamins. The butter looks different – golden yellow as opposed to pale yellow or the straw colored you see in the supermarket. It also tastes much better.

 Where can you get it?

Ideally you get it from a local farm where the cows spend their days in the fields eating the various plants that they are attracted to. The cows’ milk is rich in butterfat and the butter is a nutrient dense “superfood.”

Don’t live near a farm? It would be worth traveling to one; the butter can stay in your freezer all year.

 

Pregnancy and Chiropractic

pregnant womanIf there’s any class of patients that need chiropractic care the most it’s pregnant women.

Pregnancy changes a woman’s life in many ways. One way is a special chemical called “relaxin.”

Relaxin is a hormone produced by the ovaries and the placenta that effects the female reproductive system especially during pregnancy. In preparation for childbirth, it relaxes the muscles, joints and ligaments in the pelvis, softens and widens the cervix and relaxes the smooth muscle in the uterus. It does even more by increasing heart and kidney blood output.

In males relaxin enhances the motility of sperm in semen.

Sometimes there’s a down side to relaxin. If the spine and pelvis are unbalanced, or subluxated, then the relaxin can make the subluxations and distortions worse! The result is spine and pelvic pain which is too common in pregnancy. Additionally, the unbalanced body needs more energy for walking, standing, sitting and moving causing fatigue and exhaustion.

Chiropractic can help

Chiropractic can help ensure that the pregnant body is balanced and that the pelvis is relaxed and open to its maximum so the developing baby has the ideal amount of room in which to develop. That is why clinical reports reveal that breech presentations have been corrected, with the fetus turning into a healthy position, as a result of chiropractic adjusting procedures. Clinical reports show chiropractic also helps with breastfeeding and the return to a pre-pregnancy figure. (1-7)

References

  1. Thomas JC. The Webster Technique in a 28-year-old woman with breech presentation and subluxation [case report]. JVSR. April 7 2008:1-3.
  2. Brynhildsen J, Hansson A, Persson A, Hammar M. Follow-up of patients with low back pain during pregnancy. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 1998;91(2):182-186.
  3. Phillips C. An effective drug-free approach to premature contractions. ICA Review. 1998;54(5):76-81.
  4. Phillips C. Back labor: a possible solution for a painful situation. ICA Review. 1997;53(4):51-56.
  5. Cohen E. Case history: premature labor. Chiropractic Pediatrics. 1995;1(4).
  6. Reynolds JP. What is the role of osteopathic manipulative therapy in obstetric care? JAOA. 1974;74.
  7. Guthrie RA, Martin RH. Effect of pressure applied to the upper thoracic (placebo) versus lumbar areas (osteopathic manipulative treatment) for inhibition of lumbar myalgia during labor. JAOA. 1982;82(4):247-251.

Questions and Answers about Chiropractic

Chiropractor treating a patient

Q: Where did chiropractic come from?

A: Chiropractic was rediscovered and named in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa by DD Palmer, a magnetic healer and teacher who performed the first chiropractic adjustment on his deaf janitor. When the man’s hearing returned Palmer began to investigate the relationship between health and the spinal column.

Q: Why “rediscovered?”

A: Spinal healing had been practiced for thousands of years in nearly every civilization on earth. It has stood the test of time, having been a blessing to millions of people for millennia. But its ancient techniques and principles became lost as humanity became enthralled with drugs and surgery. Dr. Palmer revived and began to teach this old/new healing art.

Q: Was chiropractic accepted at first?

A: People flocked to the first chiropractors. Here was a non-drug, non-surgical approach to healthcare that was safe and effective. The number of Doctors of Chiropractic grew from one man in the American Midwest to thousands in a short time. Chiropractic especially grew in popularity during the 1919 flu pandemic when people under chiropractic care had almost no mortality while people under medical care suffered many deaths.

Q: Did the medical profession accept chiropractors?

A: The medical profession saw chiropractic’s drug-free approach as a threat to their monopoly in healthcare and attacked chiropractors claiming they were practicing “medicine and surgery without a license.” Many chiropractors were actually jailed, fined or imprisoned – but they refused to surrender. Eventually the laws were changed to permit more freedom for non-medical healthcare professionals.

Q: So there is peace now between the healing arts?

A: Not exactly. As more and more people turn to non-medical practitioners the medical profession is finally accepting competition. The medical monopoly is slowly but steadily breaking.

There are different philosophies of health and healing; chiropractic/natural healing approaches and medicine are on opposite sides of the spectrum and disagree strongly on many healthcare issues. The result is that people have access to more information from other perspectives, are often better informed and can make better decisions.

Zika–Head for Hills!

Zika, SARS, Swine flu (twice), AIDS, bird flu, H1N1 – it’s coming.

By Dr. Tedd Koren

Head for the hills, don’t travel, don’t go out, stay home, hide under the bed, wear a condom: the next invisible killer is coming.   Oh boy, here we go again.

Every year or so the media goes ballistic and reveals that epidemiologists, researchers, and health departments are sloppy, shoot-from-the-hip, do poor research, haven’t a clue and will do and say nearly anything to get attention. Actually that’s what the media should be telling us. Instead they are part of the problem because they repeat the junk science they are told as if it’s the gospel truth. What happened to investigative journalism?

George Carlin famously said, “Americans panic easily.” Panic sells. Panic sells magazines and newspapers, and drives people to web sites, drugs and vaccines. Panic raises ratings so people will “stay tuned” and therefore advertising revenues rise.

People are excited, scared, terrified, curious, wondering, hopeful and nervous. Aren’t the presidential elections enough? I guess not.

Ho hum      

As with all the other media driven “pandemics”, when the dust settled it was no big deal. The Zika virus scare is no different; it’s a zilch (which is what my spell checker spelled out when I first typed the word Zika.)
In Brazil 4,000 cases of microcephaly were reported due to the Zika virus.

Ooops, we didn’t report it correctly. The number is 207.

Ooops, we found Zika in only 17 of them. Some pandemic.

But now reports are that heavy use of pesticides are related to the microcephaly. The DPT vaccine causes microcephaly – why didn’t the media report that?

Zika is one of millions or billions of viruses found all over the world. We’re full of viruses – and that doesn’t mean they cause anything. The media continues to spin out stories because that’s what the media does.

Stacked Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

Ingredients

1 large red pepper, chopped, seeds removed
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 medium yellow squash, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups red enchilada sauce
9-10 small corn tortillas
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, and onion on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss until vegetables are coated. Season with salt and pepper. Roast vegetables for 30-40 minutes, or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove vegetables from oven and let cool to room temperature. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
  2. Grease an 8×8 square baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine roasted vegetables, black beans, cumin, chili powder, garlic, jalapeño, and cilantro. Stir and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Spread 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce into the bottom of the baking pan. Add a layer of tortillas, to completely cover the bottom of the pan. You might have to cut the tortillas to make them fit. Top with 1/3 of the vegetable/bean mixture and 1/3 of the cheese. Make a second layer of tortilla, enchilada sauce, vegetables/beans, and cheese. Top with a layer of tortillas, enchilada sauce, vegetables/beans, and cheese. Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray and cover the pan.
  4. Bake enchiladas for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the enchiladas are bubbling. Remove enchiladas from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Cut into squares and serve warm.

30-Minute Quinoa Enchilada Skillet…..very yummy

recipes for quinoaThis entire quinoa skillet dish is cooked from start to finish in 30 minutes, all in ONE pot! It’s a healthy, nutritious & flavorful family-friendly dish!

Related: Quinoa: Health Benefits, Nutritional Profile

  • 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
  • 5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 cup enchilada sauce
  • 1 15-oz. can black beans, drained
  • ½ cup corn kernels
  • 1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1 ¼ cup shredded cheese
  • Optional toppings: avocados, sour cream/greek yogurt on top, parsley for garnish

Directions

  1. In a 12-inch nonstick skillet with a lid, heat 1 tablespoon of oil (I used coconut oil, you can use the oil of your choice) over medium heat and add the sweet potato and garlic, stirring together with the oil to coat. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring and watching the garlic so it doesn’t burn.
  2. Add the quinoa, vegetable broth, salt, pepper, ground cumin, paprika and chili powder and stir to combine.
  3. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the temperature to a simmer, cover, and continue to simmer to 15 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the quinoa and the quinoa has popped and begins to look fluffy.
  4. Add the enchilada sauce, black beans, corn kernels, and diced tomatoes. Stir in and cook for another 5 minutes until heated through.
  5. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the dish and cover the skillet so that the cheese melts.
  6. Serve with optional garnishes such as parsley, avocados and sour cream/greek yogurt on top. Enjoy!

Notes

  1. This dish freezes well, but I would not add the cheese if I was freezing. After thawing, add the cheese when reheating the dish.
    2. This dish tastes even better as leftovers!
    3. Feel free to add in your own ingredients. You can add diced bell peppers, onions, anything in your fridge you need to finish!

Make it and tell us how you liked it! Post pictures too!

The Funnies (Go ahead and laugh)

laughing budda statueYour monthly dose of laughter! Let’s hear your giggle.

 

Is it true that cannibals don’t eat clowns because they taste funny?

If it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?

Isn’t Disney World a people trap operated by a mouse?

Whose cruel idea was it for the word “lisp” to have an “s” in it?

Since light travels faster than sound, isn’t that why some people appear bright until you hear them speak?

How come abbreviated is such a long word?

If it’s zero degrees outside today and it’s supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?

Why do you press harder on a remote-control when you know the battery is dead?

Since Americans throw rice at weddings, do Asians throw hamburgers?

Why are they called buildings, when they’re already finished? Shouldn’t they be called builts?

Why are they called apartments, when they’re all stuck together?

If the universe is everything, and scientists say that the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into?

Go ahead and share, we dare ya!