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Improve Your Quality of Life

Older Adults: Improve Your Quality of Life Chiropractic care contributes to improved quality of life for older adults. As evidence, simply compare the list of common medical conditions among those in their mid-60s and beyond to the list of the benefits of routine visits to a chiropractor. They look a lot alike. For instance, the World Health Organization reports that common health conditions among seniors include neck and back pain, osteoarthritis, and depression. Others include vertigo and cancer. Meanwhile, the chiropractic community across the web touts their ability to combat those exact same sources of chronic and acute pain, some of which result in immobility and loss of strength due to lack of physical activity. For older adults looking to enhance their quality of life, all it takes is trust in the local spinal alignment specialist to not only treat but also prevent pain and discomfort throughout the body. What is Quality of Life? Quality of life is an abstract concept; it means something different to everyone depending on his or her experiences, dreams, and age. In an effort to peg a definition of “quality of life” among older adults, consider the U.S. News and World Report article detailing how retirees ages 65 and older spend their time. According to the report, retirees spend approximately two and a half hours a day on home improvements, such as housework, gardening, and food preparation. They spend nearly one hour every day shopping, 45 minutes socializing, and 30 minutes volunteering. Retirees also exercise about 22 minutes a day. Other activities include relaxing, watching television, and bathing and dressing. Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that among adults aged 65 years and older, “walking and gardening or yard work are, by far, the most popular physical activities.” Not to mention playing with grandchildren. These activities require bending over, balancing, standing for periods of time, and raising arms overhead to pull on a shirt. Though seemingly simple movements, for older adults they are not necessarily pain-free. Meanwhile, the CDC expresses the importance of regular physical activity among older adults. So, how do older adults both conquer the pain and stay active and healthy to maintain a high quality of life? This is where natural healthcare provided by a chiropractor can help. Common Medical Conditions Among Older Adults Chiropractors believe many older adults can live a normal life without being overly protective of their bodies if they commit to treating and preventing pain that comes with age. They can achieve this with the help of regular visits to the chiropractor. In fact, an estimated 14% of patients treated by U.S. chiropractors are 65 and older, according to a study on PubMed Central, a journal archive of the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine. While the most common reason they seek treatment is to address musculoskeletal pain, chiropractors employ an intervention called spinal manipulative therapy to address symptoms of a range of conditions, including: Lower back pain Upper back pain Neck pain Knee pain Dizziness Depression Constipation Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Parkinson’s disease Multiple sclerosis Pneumonia Urinary incontinence Osteoarthritis Although chiropractors are most commonly known for their expertise in spinal manipulative therapy, they also are uniquely qualified to address the patient as a whole. For instance, more than 90% of chiropractors report providing nutritional advice and recommend nutritional supplements, according to the PubMed Central report. Most also recommend therapeutic exercises and advise patients to engage in physical activity. Chiropractors are concerned about the big picture of their patients’ health and wellbeing. Improving Quality of Life with Chiropractic Care When older adults place trust in a chiropractor, they can work together to create an individualized, safe plan to help them meet their quality of life expectations. Here are some of the benefits of regular chiropractic care: Mobility restoration through improved flexibility, join alignment, and alleviation of tight muscles. Improved muscle strength and range of motion through strengthening exercises to target weak muscles. Long-term pain relief, including pain associated with osteoarthritis and general inflammation. Lower risk of injury, including fractures. Improved balance, reducing risk of falls. Higher levels of energy due to improved sleep quality and mood. Additional years of free, independent living. In fact, a study by Dr. Ian Coulter found that older adults who receive chiropractic care are much less likely to move to a nursing home (5% of those who had chiropractic care vs. 48% of those who did not) and experienced fewer hospital stays (lifegivingchiro.com). Older adults who choose a chiropractor, like Strelcheck Chiropractic Clinic, appreciate the impact of this alternative and natural approach to treating and preventing pain that often comes with aging. Even though they may only seek to treat one particular area of their body, the results are felt everywhere and improve overall quality of life.

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chiropractic care - all in my head

Is it all in my head?

Have you ever been told it’s all in your head or there is nothing we can do for you?  In my yeas as a chiropractor I have been told by numerous new patients about all of the doctors and therapist that they have seen to no avail, that we were their last hope or the end of the line. That they don’t know what else to do, they just need help.  These are the patients I love to treat.   Helping someone regain their life when they had been told or felt they couldn’t get better is one of the things that drives me and I want to bring that hope here today. To understand how we take someone from the point of believing there is virtually no hope to feeling well again you need to understand what chiropractic does.  Chiropractic is proactive and allows the body to be able to express its full healing potential.  At its core it is based on the principle that the body and only the body can heal itself.  It has all the tools to heal and function at its optimum level. However, there can be interference in this process that disrupts the nerve signals from the brain which are then altered or interrupted due to pressure on the nerves. This pressure is due to misalignments of the spine, known to us as subluxations.  As a chiropractor I correct and restore the subluxations allowing the patient to heal properly from the inside out thus reducing their symptoms naturally.  You see, it is the proper alignment of the spine and joints of the body that is the key to health. Now we here at Strelcheck Chiropractic we dive in even a little bit further with the SOT, which we specialize in, that works on realigning and stabilizing the joins of the pelvis known as your SI joints.  When the SI joint is either misaligned or injured, the imbalance this causes relays a domino effect of compensation through the body.  This causes the body to breakdown faster and eventually biomechanical issues, pain and internal problems start to show up.   You see, the pelvis is the foundation of our body by connecting our legs to our torso.  So when your body has to compensate for the SI structural weakness, this causes compensation through the body that leads to the vertebral misalignments and interference of the body’s nerve signals. By restoring pelvic stability and proper nerve flow we allow the body to heal itself and return you to a much improved state of well-being.  It is this combination that gives us the ability to help those that have not seen results before.  If you think or been told that there is nothing more you can do, please give us a chance to hopefully prove that wrong!

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Are you putting the cart before the horse?

Whenever you are dealing with your health care it can be confusing about where to start treatment and what is the best course of action to achieve the best results for you.  As a chiropractor I have heard countless patients tell me their stories about going from doctor to doctor or going through physical therapy and not getting relief they are looking for.  Inevitably the answer lies in the fact that without proper spinal alignment the body cannot function at its best.  When you want to heal a stressed or injured body you need it functioning at its best. Having proper alignment of your pelvis and spine is essential as they are the foundation of your body.  Without a stable pelvis and spine, much like a house with a bad foundation, you can do all of the exercise or therapy you want it will eventually crumble.  Your spine and pelvis are the anchor for most of the major support muscles of your core.  Improper alignment of these areas can cause an imbalance in strength and flexibility. This imbalance leads to premature degeneration of the surrounding joints, pain and a myriad of other symptoms. Now when treating these issues, if you focus on just the pain or muscular tightness and weakness, you are only addressing half of the problem.   This is like trying to fix the cracking wall of your house that are being caused by a bad foundation.  Eventually it will give way. Degeneration of the spine, in particular, is extremely concerning due to what the spine surrounds…the spinal cord.  When spinal degeneration starts it exacerbates misalignment of the vertebrae creating interference of the nerve signals from the brain to the body, due to the pressure on the nerves when the vertebrae misalign.  As a chiropractor I correct and restore the alignment allowing the patient to heal properly naturally from the inside out.  You see it is the proper alignment of the spine and joints of the body that is the key to a health. When addressing a patients problems, and setting up a treatment program for a patient, it is essential to first address these skeletal issues.  While I believe it is essential to address the muscular weakness and tension, if you do not first deal with the foundational weakness you are not going to achieve the desired result.  This is due to the body having to continually compensate recreating those imbalances that lead you down the degenerative path. But if you are properly aligned, you will achieve even greater results from your exercise and therapy. I have seen over and over again patients get the results they should because of addressing the core issues of pelvic and spinal misalignment first.  Without doing that you are definitely putting the cart before the horse!  If this sounds like you please give us a call we can help!

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chiropractic foundation repair

The Chiropractic Specialty Difference

In my last article I laid out some of the basics of chiropractic. Now I want to dive a little deeper into the different specialty work that we, the doctors, at Strelcheck Chiropractic use on a daily basis to get our patients well. You see after high school, like many kids, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life but helping people was always the direction I wanted to take. I had been seeing a chiropractor for a few years and after experiencing the amazing benefits of chiropractic I decided that this was what I wanted to do. However, when you arrive at Chiropractic College, you realize that the approach to treating the patients can be very different. So after getting to chiropractic school I immersed myself into learning about the different techniques and how to treat patients. You see as a chiropractic student you are taught several varied techniques that make up the basic package of adjusting procedures. They also can differ depending on where you go to school. One of the reasons I chose to go to Palmer College of Chiropractic is due to the amazing amount of basic techniques that are taught but also the availability of elective specialty techniques that I could learn outside of the base education. That is where I found Sacral Occipital Technique or SOT. I was drawn to SOT after studying the history and purpose of this technique to deal with the underlying causes of issues in your bodies. SOT offers very specific methods that are effective and specific for each individual patient’s needs. Through the adjusting procedures we use a systematic approach of Pelvic stabilization and cranial adjustments that focuses on removing neurological, structural and functional interference known as subluxations, thereby restoring the innate healing ability of the body. The method or category used depends on different signs and issues the patient presents with. Each patient is treated individually though a gentle pelvic blocking procedure and in some instances the other specialized SOT methods needed to improve cranial and TMJ function. It is SOT’s focus on restoring pelvic alignment and more specifically stabilizing the sacroiliac(SI) ligaments that hold together the pelvis that make it very special and unique. When the SI joint is either misaligned or injured the imbalance this causes, relays a domino effect of compensation through the body. This causes the body to breakdown faster and eventually bio-mechanical issues, pain and internal problems start to show up. You see the pelvis is the foundation of our body by connecting our legs to our torso. So when your body has to compensate for the SI structural weakness it is like having a cracking foundation under your house. If not taken care of eventually the house will collapse in on itself, much like the body breaking down. However, when gently realigned and stabilized using the SOT techniques and methods, the body can heal itself and reduce the compensatory changes. By restoring the proper and optimal function of your body making you feel better that you have felt in a long time! If you are looking for a natural and very gentle way to restore your health, than we are here for you with our method, Sacral Occipital Technique.

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