Archive for March 2018
Yoga Do Yoga Don’t When it Comes to Back Pain
Yoga is a back pain sufferer’s best friend
Its versatility is its greatest asset: you control the intensity and determine what part of your body you want to target. In this way, people with back pain can use yoga to increase spinal flexibility, strengthen the core stabilizing muscles and boost circulation in localized areas of pain. This type of exercise perfectly aligns with the core tenets of chiropractic, which is why yoga is a chiropractor-approved and recommended form of self-care. However, certain yoga movements can actually worsen back pain, and it is important to know which moves are a no-go when using yoga to treat your back pain.
Holistic Pregnancy Care in Westwood
From the first postural changes to postpartum care, we are there
We want to keep back pain out of your pregnancy! This may seem like an ambitious feat- but we say why not aim as high as possible so that if we fall short, you will still have a more comfortable pregnancy than most. Pregnancy poses a singular challenge for your spine; the two main factors are loss of stability at the base of the spine and the growing weight in your belly. As your body prepares for delivery, hormones contribute to the loosening of ligaments in the pelvis which destabilizes the support network at the base of your spine which contributes to spinal alignment. Pile on top of this an additional 25-35 pounds of body weight (the average to accomodate a growing fetus) and you have a recipe for back pain that causes such insidious conditions as:
- Sciatica
- Acute lower back pain
- Posterior pelvic pain
The pain usually reaches its most severe point during the second half of pregnancy and can persist for months after your baby is born. Chiropractic seeks to mitigate the severity of this pain so that you can focus on the spiritual side of your pregnancy.
Your Family Deserves Holistic Healthcare
Chiropractic is holistic healthcare for your whole family
Every member of the family has specific concerns regarding their spinal health. Parents are concerned with the onset of spinal degeneration, the herculean task of childcare and the monotonous, repetitive trauma inherent in many jobs. Simply commuting can place a burden on the spine that is then repeated twice a day for an indefinite amount of time.
Children, on the other hand, are much more active and less inhibited by spinal problems. Rather than worrying about degeneration, they struggle with the problems of spinal development, including abnormal curvature and early spinal injury. They also spend significant amounts of time sitting at school, learning and reinforcing the habits that lead to poor posture from an early age.
Being proactive about spinal health helps everyone in the family maintain a high level of spinal health, no matter the particular pressures that they face on a daily basis. And the best way to be proactive about spinal health is using chiropractic care!
Avoiding Common Posture Pitfalls
Posture is power- it’s time you started paying attention
Our lifestyles often get the best of us and nowhere is this more evident than in our posture. As an office of chiropractic, we are often able to tell a person’s lifestyle from the second they walk in the door- they are most likely exhibiting it in their shoulders and neck, and sometimes in the gut. And while we can’t help ourselves from thinking biomechanically, it behooves you to think about your own posture and its role in your wellbeing. Awareness is the single greatest make-or-break factor in determing postural health- it’s time you started paying attention.
Chiropractic as Preventive Healthcare
Back pain doesn’t just show up out of nowhere
Many of us would be hard pressed to pick a specific time when our chronic back pain started. That’s because the factors which contribute to back pain have been slowly accumulating in our bodies for years. As we took no proactive action against them, they one day reached a breaking point. It is important to realize that while the breaking point is most often brought on by an acute injury- throwing your back out while lifting for example- it is more likely a combination of internal factors exacerbated by a single external one. This systemic explanation for injury guides everything we do at OFW Chiropractic.
Chiropractic Care Represents a Golden Opportunity for Children
Take it back to the beginning
Before all the pain and stiffness set in your spine was young and in a state of balance that allowed you seemingly unlimited opportunity without the risk for injury. But the forces that sought to undo such balance and wellbeing were already at work and we were busy growing up ignoring the warning signs (or rather, our parents were ignoring the warning signs?) As we got older, we did not take a proactive approrach to caring for the growth and development of our spine, setting an attitude that would come to define our spinal health in adulthood. Let’s flip this script.