Category: Wellness

Chiropractors and Whiplash

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A chiropractor knows that one of the most common injuries suffered in car accidents is a whiplash, especially in rear-end collisions. A whiplash occurs when the head and neck are snapped from the back to the front. The movement is similar to what a whip looks like when it is cracked, hence the term whiplash. Although whiplash most often occurs in crashes, they can also happen in other types of accidents, trauma, falls, or assaults.

Experienced chiropractors know that many times, the patient does not immediately realize they have been injured. It can take weeks – sometimes months – before the symptoms become persistent enough to raise concern in the patient or cause other issues. If you have suffered whiplash in an accident, contact our office to find out how we can help.

What Happens to the Spine When Whiplash Occurs?

During the accident, as the neck is being whipped upon impact, there may also be damage being done to the spine and tissues surrounding the spine. This can include:

  • Bulging or herniation of discs
  • Misalignment of the spine (this is referred to as subluxation)
  • Injury to bones in the spine
  • Muscles and ligaments in the neck are pulled
  • Nerves become irritated or damaged

Symptoms of Whiplash

Whiplash can be mild to severe, but even a mild case of whiplash can be dangerous if left untreated. Because it can take so long for symptoms to appear, it is very important that you see a chiropractor if you have been involved in a crash or any other type of incident which could have caused a whiplash injury. A chiropractor can perform a thorough exam, including X-rays, and evaluate any injuries.

Common symptoms of whiplash include:

  • Blurred vision
  • Depression
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Dizziness
  • Fatigue
  • Headaches
  • Inability to move or turn the head fully
  • Neck pain
  • Numbness or tingling in the arms, hands, and fingers
  • Pain when turning the head
  • Pain in the arm, shoulder, and upper back
  • Ringing in the ears

Many of the symptoms for whiplash can be attributed to other issues and that is why a lot of patients don’t even consider whiplash, especially if the car accident they were in was a minor one. If you have been cleared by a physician, but develop any of the above symptoms, you may have suffered whiplash and need treatment in order to find relief.

Contact a chiropractor right away. There is a strong possibility that these symptoms and a diagnosis of whiplash means your spine will need adjustments in order to correct the injury and eliminate symptoms. If you delay getting checked out, it could cause more serious health issues.

Let a Chiropractor Help You

If you have been in an accident or suffered any other trauma, even if you think you are fine, contact a chiropractor to set up an appointment to make sure that you have not suffered any damage to your spine or elsewhere. If you’ve experienced a car accident that caused your injury, it may also be a good idea to reach out to a car accident lawyer Washington D.C. residents rely on for aid.

Thanks to our friends and contributors from Cohen & Cohen, P.C., for their insight into car accidents.

Hit the Snooze Button

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Sleep

What Does All This Sleep Mean?

Sleep plays a role in many of our bodies functions, such as our long-term memory, cognitive function, alertness and reaction time, hormone regulation and tissue regeneration to name a few. It also accounts for roughly a third of our lives. Many of us think of going to bed as the end of the day, when in reality it is the start of the following day. To assess whether or not you are getting enough restful sleep ask yourself “do I feel rested when I wake up in the morning or more rested before going to bed?” If you feel less rested in the morning you are likely not getting enough sleep or enough restful sleep and should consider implementing one of the following tips.

Researchers suggests that 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep per night allows the body to appropriately go through the proper sleep cycles for maximum restfulness. The first sleep cycle is known as the non-rapid eye movement. NREM lasts 70 to100 minutes, and accounts for majority of total sleep time. During NREM heart rate and blood pressure begin to drop and allows your heart to relax. During this cycle, motor skills that were learnt the previous day are engrained. Additionally, the body becomes disconnected and is able to achieve a true resting state. During which point, growth hormone (GH) is at its highest. The elevated levels of GH enable tissue maintenance and building soft tissue, immune system support and fat, cholesterol and carbohydrate metabolism. The final sleep cycle is the rapid eye movement (REM) cycle. The REM cycle occurs 4 to 6 times per night and lasts 10-16 minutes. Here, the body is twitchy and the mind races. Heart rate and blood flow to the brain is increased due to the increased brain function. As mentioned previously, this cycle allows absorption of complex thoughts, creativity, and perceptual skills acquisition. As you can see sleep is a complicated procedure that our body and mind must prepare for to allow for restful sleep.

Preparing to fall asleep is just as important as actually sleeping. It’s best to start preparing for bed when the sun goes down and it starts getting dark out. At this time, melatonin production increases. Melatonin is a (natural) hormone produced by the body, which stimulates the urge to fall asleep. Melatonin production can be decreased by blue light. Sources of this light include fluorescent and LED bulbs, and all electronic devices. Because blue lights decrease the production of melatonin it is important to limit the amount of exposure during the time you are preparing for bed; following sunset. Ways of avoiding blue light contact at night include the use of blue light blocking glasses, changing the setting on your phone to night shift or downloading a blue light filter app such as the one from justgetflux.com. Blue light is just one of the many reasons why you may have trouble falling and staying asleep. Here are a few ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ to maximize your sleep.

DO

Get consistent – Creating a routine that promotes you falling asleep each night within a 30-minute window of going to bed and waking up consistently at the same time each morning. Creating consistency allows the body to maximize the production of melatonin, and have it peak at the same time each day. This will ultimately allow the body to maintain a stable circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is our bodies 24-hour clock that dictates when we wake up and fall asleep. Think about those times when you naturally wake up in the morning without your alarm. That is your internal clock that has become programmed to that time.

Get active – Vigorous physical activity during the day will help you sleep. Physical activity stresses the nervous system and the body. By doing so, this promotes the body’s desire to rest from the implied stress.

Clear your mind – If you spend hours thinking about all the things you need to get accomplished the next day this one is important. A simple fix for this is to create a to do list. By doing so this you promote a restful state for your mind, and allows your body to relax because you know longer have to worry about forgetting to do something. Or worrying about what all needs to be taken care of because it’s all written down.

Block out your surroundings –  White noise machines are a great way to mask noises and avoid being startled when sleeping. They also can be soothing for individuals, which promotes relaxation for the body. All of which will contribute to a more restful sleep. If you don’t want to splurge on a machine, utilizing a fan is a great alternative.

Optimize your temperature – Prime sleeping temperature is between 65 to 68 degrees. A cool room is in important for restful sleep so that your body can appropriately dissipate heat and get into the rapid eye movement (REM) cycle. Getting enough time in the REM cycle is important because brain function is ramped up, allowing complex thoughts to be absorbed, perceptual skills acquired and creativity to be at work.

Turn your mind off – Reading before going to sleep is a very effective way of turning your mind off and separating yourself from all the events that happened throughout the day. Doing so allows your parasympathetic (rest and digest) system to kick in and aids in maintaining that 30-minute window of falling asleep that was talked about earlier. It is also a great alternative to spending time on social media, which will help reduce your exposure to blue lights prior to bed.

DON’T

Eat a large meal – Eating a large meal prior to bed turns your digestive system on and delays you from falling asleep. When your digestive system is turned on, it shifts your body’s focus from relaxing to processing what you just consumed. Additionally, avoid high volumes of fluids prior to sleep because the urge to urinate mid sleep cycle will inhibit a full night of uninterrupted sleep.

Consume caffeine – The half-life of caffeine is 6 hours, meaning that the increased heart rate, alertness and energy will take 6 hours to lose half of its effect and can prevent some individuals from falling asleep.

Spend time in front of a screen – As previously mentioned, blue light inhibits melatonin production and therefore it’s important to minimize your exposure prior to bed. It’s also important for our brains to slow down and enter a relaxation state as we get ready for bed. Watching TV is stimulating to the mind, so it is a good idea to avoid TV and your electronic devices for an hour before your established bed time.

If you feel you are not getting enough sleep and aren’t feeling rested in the morning consider implementing some of these strategies. However, while you are mastering your bedtime route and increasing your sleep productivity, napping make help to fill those hours you need. It has been shown that napping has a summative effect and can make up for lost sleep from the previous night. A quick power nap, of less than 30 minutes, is best for a ‘recharge of the battery’. If you are wanting to have a longer nap that fits into the sleep cycle, nap for at least an hour and a half. That length of nap includes both the NREM and REM cycle, so you will achieve the benefits of resting both the body and the mind. Keep in mind, it is important to consider the time you nap and whether it will inhibit your ability to fall asleep in the 30-minute window you have set out for bedtime. Naps should not take away from getting a good sleep at night.

If all else fails and you are still struggling, it’s recommended to seek the care of a trained professional.

Resources

Sleep: A Clinical Management Factor. Sleep Sciences and Research

www.howsleepworks.com/types_nonrem.html

http://www.bluelightexposed.com/#what-is-bue-light

The Adjustment

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What do chiropractors do, and how can we help you?

Chiropractors are experts of the spine. We go to school for a minimum of 3 years prior to being accepted into chiropractic college. From there, we go through a rigorous doctorate degree that encompasses many of the same core classes as a medical doctor as well as other specialized classes that have to do with the musculoskeletal system and how to adjust and align the spine.

Throughout that doctorate degree, we learn the specifics of how the brain talks with, and controls your body. Such as how your body has an inhibitory reflex when you touch a burning candle. Your body is equipped with an automatic draw reflex that makes you pull your hand away from the flame without consciously withdrawing your hand. We also learn how the individual vertebra move on one and other and how altered movement of those vertebra can cause pain, dysfunction, altered biomechanics and can also lead to an increased rate of joint degeneration.

When we talk about joint dysfunction (subluxation), we look at a joint that is fixated and that does not move independently from its adjacent segment. These fixations can be caused from stress, inflammation, trauma, repetitive movements and poor posture. When we have these subluxations, they can cause increased pain in the area of restriction, refer pain to another area of the body, it can cause increased muscle tension on surrounding muscles. The increase in muscle tension can be a protective mechanism in which the muscle tightness up because the joint feels vulnerable or it can be caused from a malposition of the spinal segment itself.  Altered spine motion can also alter your biomechanics (the way your body moves).

When your body is aligned and each segment is moving within its normal range. Our bodies have balance in the sense that there is no undo stress on any particular muscle or joint. When we develop these misalignments and fixations our bodies start to compensate for the subluxation. In the area of restriction there is likely be a segment of hypermobility above or below to compensate for the restricted segment or you may start to shift your weight to one side of your body more than the other to create a sense of balance.

You see the body is very smart and will do whatever it can to continue to function as normal as possible, but this often comes at the expense of another joint or part of your body. That is where we come in, as chiropractors we correct those areas of restriction and help to get the patient moving and pain free as best we can.

Each joint in out body has receptors that have various functions that provide feedback to the brain. These mechanoreceptors provide feedback on how much stretch is in each muscle surrounding the joint, the position of the joint in space which allows us to maintain balance and be able to move in space with coordination and balance. These receptors also send pain signals when they are irritated such as when there is lack of motion in a segment or the segment is subluxated. When we assess the joint and finds the restriction we are then able to apply a high velocity low amplitude (HVLA) adjustment to the segment in the direction of malposition or fixation to realign and create motion through the joint. The adjustment also sends feedback to the brain through the mechanoreceptors that tell the surrounding muscles to relax and also inhibits the pain receptors. The final outcome of a HVLA adjustment facilitates proper motion of individual segments, relaxation of surrounding musculature, improves biomechanics and ultimately leads to a decrease in pain.

So, if you have a back, there is a good chance that chiropractic care is going to help you.

-Daniel Hounjet, Core Health Intern

 

 

Listen Up!

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Auditory Acuity of self.

I’ve been around the health and fitness industry a long time, which means I’m getting old, but it has allowed me to personally commit all the mistakes I see patients come into the clinic with.   For the purposes of this article, let’s call the health, fitness, and food industries the wellness industry. The only constant about the wellness industry is that it’s always changing.  Information evolves, trends come and go, and maybe something we thought was “healthy” turns out to be false.  Your circumstances play a significant role in how you apply the information and methods available, which like the topic itself, is in a constant state of flux.

So how do we navigate this chaos?  Start by understanding that it’s a journey.   Be ready to try various methods of self-care, nutrition, and exercise knowing that you’re going to fail and frustrate yourself with things that have worked so well for others.  You’re not everyone and you have to find what works with for you AND your circumstances with wherever you are in your life at that time.   Don’t give up, keep trying new things, keep learning, keep discovering, and push on.

Now I could write a novel covering each of these industry topics, but I want to focus on exercise for this post and more specifically listening to your body.  I have been SO bad at this the past few years and it has been costly.   Low back pain, rib pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, waking up every day with some sort of ache or pain and continuing to mindlessly train and push my body past its limits.   This affects how comfortable I am when I work, when I do recreational activity, and when I’m spending time with my kids.

Why? Unless you’re a professional athlete, isn’t the purpose of exercise and training to better your life outside the gym?  Aren’t we supposed to train to build ourselves up not break ourselves down?   Sure, there are going to be workouts and training sessions that push you to your limits and you’re going to be sore and beat up but that should be the exception, not the rule.   I wouldn’t want to see that go away and I don’t think it has to for you to still maintain an effective fitness routine, improve and push yourself to be a better version of your current self.    Intensity and pushing the limits is a critical part of any successful training program.  However, in my opinion, depending on your circumstances (sleep, stress, nutrition, self-care, age, recovery, etc) we must pick and choose our battles.

All too often I have a patient present after starting a new training program that they’ve been going 100mph at since day 1 and their body finally hits the brakes and things start to deteriorate.   Learning to decipher when your body is telling you to slow down because of mental fatigue vs physical fatigue can be tricky.   But if you’ve gone into training 4 days in a row, maxed out your heart rate every session, lifted as heavy as possible, ran as far and as hard as possible, done zero mobility, had no body work done, ate horribly, slept poorly, then chances are that is your nervous system telling you to take it easy.  The reason this warning is so critical is as the window of fatigue widens, so does the vulnerability for injury.   When it’s broken down it sounds like common sense, but when we are in the heat of the moment surrounded by peers and coaches we tend to push it all aside and go through the motions.

One approach that I’ve really been gravitating towards lately is identifying an intended stimulus prior to working out.  Before beginning I take stock on how I’m feeling and try to match my training stimulus to that.  How recovered do I feel?  Do I have any pain or stiffness? How did I eat this week/weekend? How much did or didn’t I sleep?   If the grading on all those questions are positive, then I may attack that workout with full intensity and really push it.    If I feel like I’m falling short on a few or all those topics, then I’ll scrap what was planned and reprogram for what I can handle.   If the scaling or changes you need to make is going to significantly change the workout in a class setting, then you may need to attend an open gym or workout from home that day.  Don’t put yourself in a situation where you’re going to succumb to peer pressure and put yourself at risk for injury or burnout.  But if you can make a few small modifications and still be in your class or group setting then go for it, you’re not going to be letting anyone down!

Start practicing this week.   Take stock of your overall wellness that day or week and come up with an intended stimulus for your training.  Quality movement is going to be the foundation for longevity and nothing derails a training program faster than injury.   I’m still learning from my mistakes and I’m looking forward to continuing my journey, now with more acuity to what my 33-year-old body is telling me.

 

Yours in Health,

Dr. Crane

The Power of the Present

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The Warrior Way

Breathe in.  Breathe out. Right here.  Right now. Begin again and again, all throughout the day

There is a definition of a “warrior” that exists out there in the world which I love and has helped shaped who I am and how I show up in this world.  No, it’s not the Rambo or Atomic Blonde kind of warrior. This definition of a warrior comes from the work of Angeles Arrien – an anthropologist and best-selling author of books such as The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary.  

Her definition of a warrior is showing up present, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  If you are hearing this definition for the first time and are like “Whoa!” – I know the feeling. Or maybe your response is more like “What does this even mean?  Or how do I begin to show up as a warrior in my life?” – well, these were my questions as well.

The Warrior archetype is one of leadership.  We arrive into and harness our leadership skills by staying in our power; by showing up and choosing to be present; by extending honor and respect; and by being responsible and accountable.  It’s also about making compelling invitations.

For me, showing up and choosing to be present wasn’t natural.  Instead, choosing to be aloof or acting intimidating through being narcy or sarcastic.  Being a natural-born leader was also not in the cards. So upon hearing this definition, I knew it would be something I would have to work on constantly and develop and grow into over time.  

So where do we begin?  For me, it starts with my physical body.  If you read more about my story here, you learn how in discovering my body, I discovered my soul.  Engaging in physical connections to the body that we love doing and bring us joy is one part of this equation.  For me, I find these connections to the body through CrossFit, tennis, paddle-boarding and yoga. The other essential ingredient to showing up physically is eating healthy, delicious and nourishing foods.   

In moving my body and fueling it with nourishing foods, I’m able to engage better with my emotional and mental bodies.  There are also practices and tools, such as breathwork and meditation I practice regularly, that aid in my ability to show up fully present.  In doing so, I’m less stressed, in less fear, worry and excitement and I’m not burning up energy foolishly. This benefits me most in my work life and in my relationships.

Last but not least, is being spiritually present.  This is the most intangible of the ways we show up and choose to be present.  For me, I have found direction and connection to being spiritually present by harnessing and developing the power of purpose.  This not only has meaning of the heart, but also a mission of service. It’s the compass in which I direct and align my physical, mental and emotional bodies.

So why live the Warrior way?  It’s about freedom, and the ability to choose and lead from my heart.  It’s about how I make the most of this time I’ve been given to live on this earth.  It’s how I stay emotionally connected and resilient during times when I am being tested the most.  And it’s about how I stay buoyant, focused and attuned to the power of gratitude, especially in a sea of chaos and demands.  

If you are seeking ways to be more of a Warrior in your life, I strongly encourage you to schedule a free assessment here.  In our assessment we will explore what is present and missing in showing up and choosing to be fully present in your life. Possibilities of developing and mastering practices of the Warrior include, but not limited to:

  • Physical Connections to the body that bring joy and that you love
  • Food, Cooking and Nourishment
  • BreathWork
  • Meditation
  • Purpose

I look forward to hearing more about your story, someday soon.

 

-NK