By Dr. Ben Lerner
Four (4) Invaluable lessons I learned from great people with great things to say:

1. “You’re only young once – take care of it.”  (I’ll bet you thought he was going to say “Enjoy it.”  So did I.) -FROM A HEALTHY, WEALTHY, ULTRA-ACTIVE 80 YEAR OLD MAN
2. “People spend half their life spending all of their health to acquire wealth and the second half of their life spending MORE THEN their wealth trying to get their health back.” -FROM A WORLD-LEADING DOCTOR
3. “The #1 cause of bankruptcy and financial stress are costs related to health problems. So it’s simple – make your health your 1st investment.” -FROM A WORLD-LEADING, WEALTHY FINANCIAL ADVISOR
4. “What do you mean organic food is too expensive? Your health is not a place to save money! You’ll spend 10 times as much later at the hospital!! (On drugs and surgery)” -FROM A SUPERMOM (Single mom, successful business woman, with 4 great kids)

The Boston Herald reported a study from Fidelity Bank that showed a typical couple needs $225,000 in CASH (in addition to insurance and medicare) to cover medical expenses after retirement¹ and this number — which was $215,000 last year — is increasing at a rate of 4.7% a year! At that rate (4.7%/year in 12 years) you will need approximately $400,000 in cash at retirement to pay medical costs NOT covered by insurance or medicare. If medicare fades out, as many are predicting, you will need far more than that. In search of a quick fix, many people first will state that we just need better health care coverage; however, this plan is unattainable as our country cannot give every American an additional $200,000 – $1,000,000 in medical benefits.

THE real problem is neglecting the last place you put time and effort — your health — which is why it fails and gets so expensive later.
PROOF:

• Cheap food, cheap groceries, and cheap supplements are the #1 sellers.
• A gym industry article stated recently that only 13% of the U.S. exercises regularly
• 7% go to the Chiropractor (Even though to my knowledge 100% have a spine)
• You get the cheapest insurance you can find and then that their recommendations and the doctors on the list are going to make – the cheapest is the lowest quality.  These guidelines are designed to save the insurer money… not to get you healthy.
• Passion for the quick fix despite the huge risk.  Pharmaceutical companies make trillions even though the side-effects on every drug commercial and bottle read: “CAUTION: Your nose will fall off, you will become homicidal, get cancer, die early, commit suicide, and see aliens.”

Rising medical costs are not the issue, destructive lifestyles along with doctors that are trained in disease care and not health care are. Information to take away from this article: if you want to be wealthy, take care of yourself today to avoid poor health and, consequently, expensive medical conditions tomorrow. Not only will you save $100′s of thousands, you will save your life!

Make the right investment now, remember what my mentors said:
“….take care of your youth (health and vitality)”
“….spend time on your health”
“….spend money on your health – make health your first investment (a few thousand today will equal $400,000+ tomorrow… and you won’t be dead)”
“…don’t save (go to the cheap doctor on the insurance or buy the cheap food and vitamins) when it comes to health.”  You might save $12.50 on your grocery bill and $20 at the doctor … but you’ll be dead.

The facts are in and one thing is for certain – Americans aren’t happy.  In truth, we’re extremely depressed.

At first glance, you’d assume it was the struggling real estate market, the shrinking dollar, the war in Iraq, and the war on Wall Street.  Yet, other countries, with far more to worry about then we do, do not report anywhere near U.S. levels of mental and emotional disorders.  For example, the percentage of people with clinical levels of anxiety, depression, etc. in America is 7 times that of those in the Nigeria!

As the numbers of reported adults and children with mental disorders  skyrocketed, pharmaceutical companies and then doctors responded with bringing anti-depressant drugs (SSRIs) to market quickly.  According to a recent report, these drugs make up 6 out of the top 10 prescription drugs sold today.

In recent times, antidepressants have come under harsh scrutiny for causing suicide and they’ve been implicated as being behind many of the recent school shootings and big media deaths like Anna Nicole Smith, her son Daniel Smith, Heath Ledger, the pro-wrestler Chris Benoit, and Andrea Yate’s children.  This has resulted in SSRIs getting a “Black box” warning on them and has left thousands of people looking for alternatives to very real emotional pain.  Americans want to know, “How can we get happy again.”

Even more light was shed on the issue of depression in the London Times, Feb. 26th, 2008 on the front page in an article titled, “DEPRESSION DRUGS DON’T WORK….”

They stated, “Millions of people taking commonly prescribed antidepressants might as well be taking a placebo, according to the first study to include unpublished evidence.”

“The new generation of antidepressant drugs work no better than a placebo for the majority of patients with mild or even severe depression, comprehensive research of clinical trials has found.”

“American and British experts led by Professor Kirsch examined the clinical trials from  four commonly used SSRIs, including fluoxetine (better known as Prozac), venlafaxine (Efexor) and paroxetine (Seroxat).”

“Given these results there seems little reason to prescribe antide-pressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed,” Professor Kirsch said. “The difference in improvement between patients taking placebos and patients taking antidepressants is not very great. This means that depressed people can improve without chemical treatments.”

Rarely, is someone simply born and destined for depression.  There are a number of known causes that leave someone that way.  Now, science is addressing that by getting to the cause of the problems people can get well without chemicals.  More importantly, people can stay well and stop this scourge of emotional disorders that have become so pervasive in the U.S. and around the world.

Like so many other conditions common to western living – cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s, depression is very much a degenerative illness grown more popular by modern lifestyle.   We’re not here to prescribe drugs or take people off of them.  In fact, it’s dangerous to stop taking antidepressants cold-turky.  You should work with your doctor to reduce and slowly eliminate these drugs while doing what’s necessary to get well with both lifestyle change, natural care, and food and supplements designed to improve brain chemistry.

Multiple areas of modern lifestyle effect brain chemistry and hormones.  Toxins, processed food, nutrient deficient diets, spinal conditions, sedentary lifestyle, and emotional trauma alone and more commonly, combined, all radically affect your body’s physiology and all around mental health.  Not surprisingly, care that directly impacts the nervous system like Chiropractic has also been found to effect emotional health and depression.  You may not know this, but many studies have been done on Chiropractic and it’s impact on depression.

Studies on Chiropractic and Depression

1. Study of 2,818 patients found chiropractic care significantly improved patients’ well being: Seventy-six percent of the  patients studied reported improved combined wellness changes in all categories assessed, emotional well being improved 26 percent, negative feelings toward self improved 23 percent, depression improved 20 percent, difficulty sleeping improved 11 percent and family relations improved 21 percent.
2. A published 15 person study concluded “that a positive relationship exists between a correction of th occipitoatlantoaxial subluxation complex and a reduction in depressive symptoms in some people”.
3. Another 98 subject study published in Molecular Psychiatry found that when an addiction treatment program was supplemented with frequent chiropractic adjustments over a 30-day period, the patients displayed an unprecedented
4. 100 percent program completion rate. In addition, initially rampant depression and anxiety dropped significantly.
5. From the 1920s to 1960s, several chiropractic mental asylums existed in the Midwest of the U.S. Surviving documentation shows a North Dakota judge reporting a 65% recovery or improvement rate at one asylum, compared to 27% at a standard asylum.
6. Chiropractic Improves Brain Wave Patterns, Brain Function: 2004 study finds that Chiropractic adjustments have a positive effect on the Central Nervous System (CNS), specifically on the four primary  frequencies of brain function.  After receiving a chiropractic adjustment, post EEG scans revealed improvement in all areas of the volunteer’s brain function. Particularly, the researchers noticed an increase in the meditative Alpha brainwave patterns that are associated with a greater degree of relaxation, health and healing.
7. A related study in Journal of Neuroscience conducted at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, found that physical changes in the brain caused by chronic pain are likely to lead to depression as well as other pain- related symptoms.

While Chiropractic is not a treatment for depression, it’s an important part of overall mental and physical function.

From Maximized Living Blog

We don’t use the word “sick” in our ML homes or offices. It is a bad label. You’re not a victim. If you’re not feeling well, don’t call yourself the victim of disease. Take responsibility for whatever caused you to get into that state, make the necessary changes, and allow your body to heal itself.

We had a patient who came to us absolutely certain she was stuck with all of her health problems. She felt powerless against her host of diagnoses. There was lupus, migraines, fibromyalgia, and related hormonal issues. Yet there was a clear connection between her lack of commitment to being well and the symptoms she was experiencing.

I encouraged her that she could heal. But, she really believed in her medical diagnosis. She really believed she was “sick.” Finally I said, “If I put my head on your body and as a result started treating your body like it should be treated, what would happen?” She got it. She immediately said, “I would get well.” She took responsibility, dropped the victim mentality, and no longer considered herself damaged goods. The discipline she needed quickly followed.

As you look at our weekly lifestyle recommendations, consider the need to renew your mind daily.  You’re valuable. Why would you treat yourself any differently than you would a valuable race horse, sports car, or professional athlete?  How would you feed something that complex with that much worth?  Would you maintain them?  Manage them well?  Do all you can to make sure they perform at their peak?  Of course you would!  You wouldn’t want to ruin something so valuable in this market!

By giving you 5 critical “Essentials” for living, we’re showing you a path that makes your body a winner.  We don’t say “sick” – we say, “expressing symptoms.”  This makes you ask the question, “What can I do to get better?” or “How can I boost my immunity to guard myself from illness in the future?”  A much more powerful position to take than, “My darn four year old keeps bringing bacteria back from pre-school,” or “We’re playing pass the virus at our house.”

Our families of committed patients rarely struggle with illness.  If they do, they get back to the 5 Essentials:

#1 – Get your mind right about restoring health instead of ‘treating” symptoms with     even more hazardous drugs
#2 – Get adjusted – extra if necessary
#3 – Get back to quality foods that heal instead of man made foods that cause congestion
#4 – Get moving
#5 – Consider what toxins – sugars, caffeine, alcohol, cleaners, medications, etc., may have helped to lower immunity and create too heavy a toxic burden

Your body is the actual most valuable item you have in challenging, chaotic times like these.  Invest in it, honor it, value it, and it will give you the return you’re looking for.  Fight for your health so you don’t end up fighting for your life!

Source

By Dr. Ben Lerner and Megan Rall

One of the most POWERFUL aspects of Maximized Living is that it helps you totally transform how you view and understand your health.  Let me give you an example:

Think about your car.  Imagine if all you were ever told about your car were things like “it does not matter what kind of gas you use”  or “oil changes are a waste of money”  and “don’t pay attention to any of those WARNING lights!”  Are you getting the idea?  You would then end up DESTROYING your car LONG before it was intended.  Some basic Prevention and WELLNESS would have saved you thousands of dollars and maybe even your life, depending where the car DIED!

So how does this relate to you, your life, your health and Maximized Living?  Well, you have a very similar choice. Many of us have been raised in a culture that has said “eat whatever you want” or “exercise is hard” or “just take a pill for that!”  This type of advice has lead to many, many bad and deadly decisions and lifestyles.

Maximized Living and Maximized Living Doctors strive to provide you the absolute best, cutting edge, effective and usable information regarding health, wellness and recovery from disease.

So let’s look at a real life example: A “typical American family”  has 2 parents that are obese, over half of them are on at least 1 medication, 1 of their 3 children is obese, many have been diagnosed with learning or behavioral “diseases” and many of them are even medicated.  They are eating the typical American diet of bad fats, LOADS of SUGAR and tons of chemicals, colorings, and preservatives.  And this are just the “typical families.”  They have been sold a lie.  They are not INVESTING in health.  They are waiting to PAY FOR DISEASE.

Sometimes people look at “wellness” or even Maximized Living as a COST.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  It is a choice on how you are going to care for your “car” or HEALTH.  As all of you know our “sick care” costs are rising every year and many times by double digit percentages.  You literally cannot afford to go on like this.  So what are the options?  Well in the USA the leading cause of bankruptcy is MEDICAL COSTS.   AND MOST OF THEM WERE INSURED!

The only solution that makes any sense is INVESTING in health.  Maximized Living offices across North America have countless examples of families literally saving tens of thousands of dollars a year and countless pain and suffering by understanding exactly what has been explained here.  They invest a couple of thousand a year in health now and will save tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands later.  And then, there is the added bonus of NOT DYING!

Strains

Back pain most often occurs:

• From strained muscles and ligaments
• From improper or heavy lifting
• After a sudden awkward movement
• Sometimes a muscle spasm can cause or be associated with back pain.

Structural problems

In some cases, back pain may be caused by structural problems, such as:

• Bulging or ruptured disks. Disks act as cushions between the vertebrae in your spine. Sometimes, the soft material inside a disk may bulge out of place or rupture and press on a nerve. But even so, many people who have bulging or herniated disks experience no pain from the condition.
• Sciatica. If a bulging or herniated disk presses on the main nerve that travels down your leg, it can cause sciatica — sharp, shooting pain through the buttock and back of the leg.
• Arthritis. The joints most commonly affected by osteoarthritis are the hips, hands, knees and lower back. In some cases arthritis in the spine can lead to a narrowing of the space around the spinal cord, a condition called spinal stenosis.
• Skeletal irregularities. Back pain can occur if your spine curves in an abnormal way. If the natural curves in your spine become exaggerated, your upper back may look abnormally rounded or your lower back may arch excessively. Scoliosis, a condition in which your spine curves to the side, also may lead to back pain.
• Osteoporosis. Compression fractures of your spine’s vertebrae can occur if your bones become porous and brittle.

Rare but serious conditions

In rare cases, back pain may be related to:

• Cauda equina syndrome. This is a serious neurological problem affecting a bundle of nerve roots that serve your lower back and legs. It can cause weakness in the legs, numbness in the “saddle” or groin area, and loss of bowel or bladder control.
• Cancer in the spine. A tumor on the spine can press on a nerve, causing back pain.
• Infection of the spine. If a fever and a tender, warm area accompany back pain, the cause could be an infection.

Source: Mayo Clinic

Linda Bacon, Ph.D, dreads swimsuit season, but not because she has anything against the beach.

Instead, the California-based nutritionist fears what the season brings: scores of otherwise health-conscious citizens who subject themselves to deprivation diets (like the Master Cleanse) or intense exercise regimens, often in blazing hot weather, to look slimmer in revealing clothes.

Many unwittingly end up harming their health — and possibly even their hearts.

“Early June and January are the two times of year people do crazy, desperate things to get thin fast,” says Bacon, a nutrition professor at the City College of San Francisco, California, and the author of “Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.”

“They go on fasts, yo-yo diets, detox programs, and ‘cleanses’ without realizing that there are serious consequences to weight loss and nutrient restriction.”

That crash dieting doesn’t work and can be dangerous is a message that gets lost in the national clamor over rising rates of overweight and obesity.

Thinking of trying a lemonade fast or cabbage soup diet? Here’s what to keep in mind if fitting into your skinny jeans or your Speedo is high on your summer agenda.

Crash diets may harm your heart

Cardiologist Isadore Rosenfeld, MD, a professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York City, and author of the forthcoming “Doctor of the Heart: A Life in Medicine,” opposes crash diets (less than 1,200 calories a day) and detox plans like the Master Cleanse.

The Master Cleanse involves consuming a mixture of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper — and nothing else — for several days.

Health.com: America’s healthiest superfoods for women

He says these very low-calorie regimens are based on the false theory that the body needs help eliminating waste.

Research suggests rapid weight loss can slow your metabolism, leading to future weight gain, and deprive your body of essential nutrients. What’s more, crash diets can weaken your immune system and increase your risk of dehydration, heart palpitations, and cardiac stress.

“A crash diet once won’t hurt your heart,” Dr. Rosenfeld says. “But crash dieting repeatedly increases the risk of heart attacks.”

Bacon adds that long-term calorie-cutting can eventually lead to heart muscle loss. “Yo-yo dieting can also damage your blood vessels. All that shrinking and growing causes micro tears that create a setup for atherosclerosis and other types of heart disease,” she says.

Chip Stinchfield, a 55-year-old shop owner in New Canaan, Connecticut, has experienced the cardiac effects of dieting firsthand. On the advice of friends, he went on a Master Cleanse for days and exercised vigorously. Another time he ate nothing but cottage cheese, beets, and peanut butter. Both were “quick, easy fixes” that helped him drop up to 10 pounds fast.

But both diets also gave him shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and “the feeling like I was going to have a heart attack.”

Under pressure from his family, who thought his dieting might disable or kill him — like many extreme dieters, Stinchfield kept his doctor in the dark about his radical habits — he eventually went back to sensible eating.

Beware of fad diets

Experts have known for decades that extended crash diets can be dangerous — especially when the diets become a fad.

In the late 1970s, an osteopath named Robert Linn published “The Last Chance Diet,” a best seller that advocated a miraculous “liquid protein diet.” Following the lead of their favorite celebrities, millions of people bought quarts of Dr. Linn’s liquid formula and embraced the diet (or one of many copycat versions), averaging just 300 to 400 calories a day.

The diet seemed to work wonders — some people reported losing as many as 10 pounds a week on the formula. But then the news of sudden deaths began to trickle in.

Health.com: 6 diet trends you should never try

An investigation led by the Food and Drug Administration turned up nearly 60 deaths among liquid dieters. Although some of the deaths occurred in people with underlying diseases such as atherosclerosis (and therefore could have been coincidental), government researchers who examined otherwise healthy dieters who died of ventricular arrhythmias found that the pattern of deaths suggested “the effects of protein-calorie malnutrition on the heart,” including atrophy of the heart muscle.

Experts have since tried to pinpoint the dangers of crash diets (technically known as “very low calorie” diets). Shortages of potassium, magnesium, and copper have been suggested as possible causes of the arrhythmias seen in crash dieters, and studies have also found that the diets can cause a drop in blood pressure and sodium depletion.

The true extent of the risk posed by crash diets is unclear, however. Much of the research has been conducted in obese people — a population that can actually benefit from these extreme diets — and in most studies the health of the participants is carefully monitored.

Experts stress that very-low-calorie diets should only be followed with a doctor’s supervision. But crash dieters are more likely to consult their friends than a doctor — which can get them into trouble.

Brooke Robertson, 23, learned these lessons the hard way. Last spring the Auckland, New Zealand, mom reportedly suffered a minor heart attack after she lost 100 pounds on a diet of Red Bull and the occasional fistful of dry cereal.

Despite the international publicity, Bacon doesn’t think desperate dieters will consider Robertson a cautionary tale. “There’s absolutely no benefit to fasting or detoxing,” she says. “Extreme diets are simply bad for you and they don’t work. But every year people engage in magical thinking.”

How to lose weight — safely

If you’re overweight, slimming down is critical for your overall health. Even moderate weight loss can lower your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer.

But it’s important to lose weight safely, which usually means slowly: Most experts recommend dropping just 1 to 2 pounds a week. And despite what some brand-name diets claim, the best way to do so is to exercise regularly and stick to a diet that limits saturated fat and sugars and emphasizes fruits and vegetables, lean meats and fish, and whole grains.

“The key to losing weight is a combination of diet and exercise,” says Dr. Rosenfeld. “One alone will not do it.”

Here’s a way to target the neck and shoulders: dumbbells.

Strength training using dumbbells not only reduces pain, but also improves the function of your neck and shoulder area.  Here are 5 exercises that you can do with dumbbells to reduce pain and improve function in the neck and shoulders.

1. The one-arm row

2. Shoulder abduction

3. Shoulder shrug

4. Reverse fly

5. Upright row

Start with light hand weights and increase the weight of your dumbbells only after you are comfortable with the lighter weights.  The starting weight should be 6 to 12 pounds.

Perform these exercises 3 times per week.  Mix up your workouts.  Do exercises 1, 2, and 5 one day, and then the next day do exercises 1, 3, and4.  Switch back and forth each time you exercise.

When starting out, do 2 sets of each exercise 8 to 12 times.  As you get stronger, add a third set.  Once you can do an exercise comfortably for 3 sets, then increase the weight slightly.

These exercises are a great compliment to your chiropractic adjustments.  Try them out and see how it goes!  If you have any questions about the exercises, email me or ask me at your next appointment.

Have a great day!

Dr. Jason Gerard DC

Sources:

Science Daily December 28, 2009

Journal of Applied Physiology November 2009; 107(5):1413-9

I wonder if the two pilots flying Northwest Airlines Flight 188 had a feeling in the back of their minds that said, “Isn’t there something I’m supposed to be doing right now, but I can’t remember what it is?”

After all, their flight was scheduled to land in Minneapolis, but both pilots were so busy on their laptops that they overshot their destination by 150 miles.

How pathetic is that?  You would think the pilots would have been paying attention to minor details like:

* The fact that they were flying at 35,000 feet and were responsible for the safety of 144 passengers on board.

* Flight control had been trying to contact the pilots for over an hour

* People were trying to call the pilots on their cell phones

* The pilot’s instrumentation in the cock pit showed that they had veered off course

* The time on their watch would suggest they were late for something they were supposed to do…land the plane in Minneapolis and hour ago.

This was such a debacle that the White House was being briefed and F-16 military fighter jets were ready to take off…because the flight was off course, off schedule, and out of contact.

This is definitely an “Are You Kidding Me” moment.  But we’ve all seen this story before by countless individuals.  Think about it.  How many people do you know who set goals, talk about their dreams, and plan out their objectives for a better life only to become distracted?  They’ve veered from their flight plan and find themselves off course and off their schedule.

Does this sound familiar to you?  Because all of us have had a time when we find ourselves a long way from the plans we made and the goals we set.

I think it’s a great idea to make plans and goals to improve your life.   But remember, there is a good chance that circumstances will cause you to veer from your plan.  And when that happens, don’t stress out about it.  Just make the decision to get back on course.

Dr. Jason Gerard DC

In the past, there have been rumors about cell phones causing health problems like cancer.  But there was never any proof that this was true…until now.

A new research study from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) shows that many of the new cell phones assault your skull and brain with harmful electromagnetic waves.

They found that the electromagnetic waves penetrate your skull and can double your risk of getting a brain tumor.

They also found that if you use a cell phone for more than 10 years, which most of us will do, the risk of having a health problem goes up.  Researchers have discovered that people who use a cell phone for more than a decade have a significantly higher chance of developing a brain tumor.

What’s even scarier is what happens to kids that use cell phones on a regular basis.

Because young skulls have much less thickness than adult skulls, it is much easier for electromagnetic waves to pass through the skull and harm the brain.  Numerous studies confirm that young children absorb more radiation than adults do.

They’ve found that a 2 minute phone call on a cell phone can alter the natural electrical activity in your child’s brain for one hour.  So if your child uses their cell phone for just 20 minutes a day (600 minutes a month), that’s 5 hours of unnatural brain activity every month.

You may be thinking, “But I use a wireless ear piece.”  The problem is, the earpiece relies on radio waves for transmission, so it still negatively affects you.

So what should you do?  I’m not suggesting that you give up your cell phone.  That’s just not practical in today’s day and age.  But here’s what you can do:

* Get a cell phone that emits as little radiation as possible.  You can see a list of the best and worst phones at this link here:

http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone

* If you put your phone in your pants pocket, your coat, or your purse, TURN IT OFF if you don’t plan on using it for awhile.  If someone is trying to call you and your phone is off, you can call them back.  You don’t need to be “connected” 24/7, unless your job requires it.

* Use a wired headset instead of a wireless headset.  Make sure the wire is at least 12 inches long.

* Send text messages instead of calling.

* Keep your calls short.  If you plan on having a long conversation and you have access to a land line, then use the land line.

* Limit your child’s use of cell phones.  They won’t like it, but explain to them why this is important.  If you have a teenager, tell them to text more often than calling.  This will limit their electromagnetic exposure.

Hope you found this information informative.  Email me with your thoughts, comments, or questions.  I’d love to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jason Gerard

Here are the references for the research studies that confirm this information:

Cell Phone Radiation – Science Review on Cancer Risks and Children’s Health – Environmental Working Group http://www.ewg.org/cellphone-radiation  

Khurana VG, Teo C, Kundi M, Hardell L, Carlberg M. “Cell phones and brain tumors: a review including the long-term epidemiologic data.” Surg Neurol. 2009 Sep;72(3):205-14

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) 2008; Lahkola 2007.

deSalles 2006; Gandhi 1996; Kang 2002; Martinez-Burdalo 2004; Wang 2003; Wiart 2008

Why is this? 

I think it’s because we were never taught to take care of our back on regular basis…like how we take care of our teeth.  The simple fact is most people neglect their spinal health.  They take a “reactive approach” which means they do nothing until a problem is already there.

The better approach would be to take care of not only your spine but your health on a regular and consistent basis.  Aging and stress break down our bodies and unless we are doing something positive to keep our bodies healthy, then we are on a crash course with back and body problems.

If you’ve had really bad back pain, you know what a life changer it can be.  It’s miserable.  It negatively affects everything.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Here are some simple things you can take to reduce or eliminate your back pain:

* First, it starts with “how you think.”  The bottom line is you can’t ignore your spinal health.  There is a price to pay for neglect.  The best approach to health is “attention” instead of neglect.  You will want to take care of not only your spine but the rest of your body on a regular basis…even when you are feeling good.  After all, you brush your teeth everyday and your teeth don’t have pain.  After all, who says you need to be in pain to take care of yourself?

* Next, use services that work great for back pain.  Chiropractic care has been PROVEN countless times to be the BEST choice for back pain.  So when you have back pain, make sure you get adjusted.  And when you are feeling good, get an adjustment once a month to MAINTAIN your good health.  A monthly adjustment will not only prevent major back “flair ups” but will also keep your spine healthy.  Massage therapy and acupuncture can also help with back pain and stiffness.

* Exercise regularly.  Your body was meant to “move.”  Your joints like motion, so if you aren’t moving and exercising regularly, your joints will stiffen up.  This includes your back.  So make sure you are active and exercising.  Even something simple like taking a walk every day is better than doing nothing.

* Stretch regularly.  It’s important that you keep the muscles in your back and legs limber and flexible.  The tighter these muscles get, the bigger chance you have of developing back pain.  Make sure you stretch after you exercise.

* Pay attention to how you lift things.  Make sure you bend with your legs and not at the waist.   Keep the object you are lifting as close to you as possible.  And try not to bend and twist.  Instead, turn your entire body.

* Check your mattress.  It’s important that you have a quality mattress that gives you BOTH comfort and support.  A bad mattress can be a cause of developing back pain.

* Watch your posture.  A bad posture doesn’t just look bad; it’s bad for your back too.  Pay attention to how you stand and sit.  If you work at a desk all day, or on a computer, make sure you maintain good posture.

I promise that if you incorporate these strategies into your daily routine, your back will feel great!

If you have any questions or comments, just email me.  I’d love to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jason Gerard, DC