Active Family Chiropractic

Empowering Your Health

Contact us at (518) 452-2800

Can CBP help with snoring, insomnia, and sleep apnea?

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People often wonder if CBP (Chiropractic Biophysics) care can help with snoring, insomnia, and sleep apnea. The important thing to remember about any physical malady is to figure out where the problem is coming from. It is important to understand what is going on. Why is it happening?

Ask some questions.

Is it physically related? Is someone suffering from insomnia because they have an imbalance in their brain chemistry which is creating an adrenaline dump so that they’re amped up all the time? Or are food choices causing insomnia? Are you drinking coffee or caffeine too close to bedtime?

It could be that you are subluxated. If your body isn’t working correctly then your body cannot function correctly because the nerves that are controlling those body parts are compressed by the spinal subluxation.

The first thing you have to do is ask questions. Why is this happening? Once you can figure out what the cause is then you can apply an appropriate solution.

Can CBP adjustments help?

We have found at Active Family Chiropractic some people who have previously been suffering from snoring, sleep apnea, and insomnia have found relief through CBP adjustments. There have also been people who have needed additional help.

Those are individuals with deviated septums, for example, or a physical deformity which causes the snoring or the sleep apnea. In those cases, they will not be able to stop snoring or stop having sleep apnea without some sort of intervention such as surgery or a machine.

CBP care helps a lot of different people with a lot of different ailments if it’s related to subluxations in the spine. If it’s a deformity of some sort of structural component such as a deviated septum, then most likely it’s not nervous system pressure which is causing the problem it’s the actual structure that is causing the problem. Structure always dictates function.

Go to your CBP chiropractor.

It is important to start by asking why is this happening. What are some factors that are contributing to my snoring, insomnia, and/or sleep apnea? The place to do that is with your CBP chiropractor. The doctor can ask those important questions so you can better understand how your body functions and if your snoring, insomnia, and/or sleep apnea are caused by your structure or by a subluxation. So make an appointment with your CBP chiropractor today and maybe you could get a good night sleep tonight.

For more information ask Dr. B at [email protected]

Tips for a healthier New Year.

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Happy New Year everyone! Let’s start the new year off right by establishing good habits. Here are some tips for a healthier new year.

Meet the four fundamental needs of your body.

#1. Your nervous system.

Without your brain telling your body what to do through your spinal cord, your body doesn’t function. If you’re not taking care of your spine through regular CBP (Chiropractic Biophysics) adjustments. Your spine cannot work at 100% or at it’s highest potential. As a result that can give you lower health, give you more physical problems, more pain, more limitations, and, less energy.

Many people think that to be healthy you need to just eat well and exercise but it’s more than that. However, it’s so much more than that and the first step is to get regular adjustments by a CBP chiropractor.

#2. Oxygen in your cells.

The best way to keep your cells oxygenated is through exercise and movement. That doesn’t mean you have to run marathons or do aggressive workouts. You are able to do this by walking, swimming, stretching, or just moving. That is how old cells in your body get replaced with new cells. That is also how you stay young and disease free. It is through the oxygenation of the body. The best way to oxygenate your body is through movement, aka exercise.

#3. Water intake.

To be healthier this year one of the best things you can do is to increase your water intake, slowly. If you increase your water intake too fast you will, more than likely urinate it out and it won’t be absorbed. The best thing to do is to sip it throughout the day. The goal for each person should be to intake half your body weight in ounces. That is your minimum hydration levels, needed to maintain good function in your body. Anything above that would be great! Anything below that means you are dehydrated.

Dehydration will help to slow down all of your body functions, which ultimately will affect your health. So, in order to be healthier, you have to get more water into your body. Make sure that if you are consuming beverages with caffeine you want to consume the same amount of water in addition to your daily minimum.

#4. Nutrition and eating the right foods.

This is different for everyone. Some people need to eat raw foods only and some people cannot eat raw foods because of their digestion. Some people can eat gluten and some people can’t, etc. Nutrition is not a single answer. Every person has to figure out what is going to work best for their bodies.

Your body will tell you whether or not it likes what you are putting into it. If you feel energized after you eat, if you feel healthier, if you feel good then you know you’re eating the right foods. If you are feeling gassy, or have heartburn, or any of those other signs of incomplete digestion then you’ll know that you are not eating foods that are good for your body. It’s a good idea to consult a registered dietitian in order to get a specific diet plan together.

Use these as a guideline

That’s the best way to be healthier in the new year. Working on these four fundamental needs listed above will help to give you a good foundation for building a healthier you for the new year. So make a plan to see a CBP chiropractor, drink more water, eat better for your body and move more!

For more information ask Dr. B @ [email protected]

 

 

 

 

Ergonomics of Raking

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Now that we’re in the full swing of fall it’s time we talked about how to rake those leaves properly. Granted leaves don’t weigh much but if you employ poor raking techniques you could easily throw your back out.

This is a time when a lot of people are trying to get their yards prepped for the winter and what winds up happening is they strain their bodies and they hurt themselves. In order to prevent this, one of the first things you should do is hydrate well.

Hydrate!

If you’re going to be out in the yard working you want to make sure that you are properly hydrated not only during the work but before you leave the house to do the lawn care. The next thing you want to make sure you do is to get your body warm.

Get the blood moving!

You want to make sure that you warm up. Take a walk up and down your driveway to make sure that you get the blood flowing. Do some arm and leg swings to get the blood circulating through your body.

How you position your body raking matters!

You never want to bend at the waist if possible. If your rake does not support that, look into getting a more ergonomic rake or get a rake that’s taller so you don’t have to bend over to rake. Also, make sure that you’re alternating sides when you rate. If you start on the right, do 10 strokes and then switch to your left and do 10 strokes.

Try to rake out in front of you an toward you with your hips pointing forward. Try not to twist to move the leaves behind you. Once you have completed all of your raking there are a couple things left to do.

Stretch!

You want to make sure you drink lots of water and stretch for at least 15 minutes when you’re done. Pop on the tv and stretch while you’re watching.

Get some protein.

Drink a shake or eat some eggs, find a way to get some protein in your body to help speed the repair of muscles that you just used. Eating protein after will help reduce soreness and inflammation.

Repair and replenish

Remember to drink plenty of water to help flush the toxins from your system. You can also take an Epsom salt bath to help soothe aching, tired muscles.

See your CBP Chiropractor

Another thing you can do to help with muscle soreness is to get a CBP Chiropractic adjustment. Doing all that manual labor can throw your body out of alignment and cause subluxations. Seeing your chiropractor will remove those subluxations and reduce the amount of pressure on your spine. So make an appointment with your Chiropractor after you do any strenuous activity.

(repost from September 2018)

Why do older people see their health decline after a fall?

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We hear it all the time, “Grandma was doing great until she took that spill and within two weeks her health wasn’t the same.” Why is that? Do you become more fragile the older you become? In a way, yes, but you can do some things to help strengthen your bones so you’re not as brittle as you get older.

Why do we see a number of older people decline in health after a fall?

This isn’t true for all. There are some older people who fall all the time and are just a little bruised. It’s been found that when an individual takes care of themselves, in particular, their spine, on a regular basis, they will have a better quality of life.

A healthy 70-year-old vs. an unhealthy 70-year-old.

Usually, when you hear about people who are “wiping out and dying” from bone infections, for example, they are not healthy, to begin with. If you look at two, 70-year-old seniors. One has exercised their whole life, eats as well as they possibly can, has plenty of social interaction, and gets adjustments on a regular basis (at least once a week). That person is going to have a faster recovery and be less prone to infection because their immune system is stronger by the nature of their choices. Also, because their spine is used to being adjusted and is stronger they will be more resilient to injuries if they fall.

So that 70-year-old will heal faster and have less chance of infection than a 70-year-old who doesn’t exercise, doesn’t eat right, sits around, doesn’t have any social interactions, doesn’t get adjusted, and doesn’t take care of themselves. That is when you see people who are unhealthy, to begin with, they have a major trauma and they just get a bone infection because their immune system is lower, to begin with. A lot of times its just food choices. Many seniors make poor food choices, for example, they may just eat toast and tea and that’s it. They don’t eat vegetables or fruits, they don’t eat any good repair sources of protein. Their immune system is trying to fight off all kinds of things and they aren’t giving their bodies the resources to help the immune system function correctly. So then when that 70-year-old falls it really complicates things and sends the immune system into overdrive and it cannot cope.

The power of CBP

Dr. B has a patient in her office who is 82 years old. This winter she was outside by her mailboxes and she had a fall on the ice. She fell on her left hip. Naturally, everyone thought she broke her hip. She went to the doctor to get checked out but nothing was broken, she only had a few scrapes, no strains or sprains. Everyone was so surprised that she was not more badly hurt because she is older. But if you look at her as an individual, she raised 7 children so she was always active throughout her life, she has a very active social life, she eats healthy, and she gets a CBP adjustment once a week. She is an example of someone who could have easily fractured her hip because it was a bad fall, but she takes care of herself and eats well and came out relatively unscathed.

Can a fall wreak havoc on your body at any age?

Yes, you see it with children too.  There are some children who have an odd fall and then develop a problem. For example, a child could be playing in gym class, lose their balance and fall which results in a fractured arm. That might just be a fracture but there have been incidents when an auto-immune disease developed from that fall. Sometimes traumas do create disease processes because of how impactful it is to your body.

However, the healthier you are and the more resilient your spine it the less impact a fall will have on your immune system. So it’s important to set up a check-up with your CBP chiropractor so that your immune system is functioning at it’s highest levels. If you don’t have a CBP chiropractor stop into Active Family Chiropractic and make an appointment to see Dr. B and start the road to optimal health at any age.

For more information ask Dr. B @ [email protected]

Why are my neck and back muscles always tight? Part 3: Nutritional Choices

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You wouldn’t think that your nutritional choices could affect how your muscles feel, would you? But they do. Americans tend to ingest large amounts of gluten and sugar on a daily basis. Along with not drinking enough water, you are creating an environment within your body of aches and pains. When you chose a diet of whole foods which are minimally processed you are allowing your body to heal itself by giving it the vitamins it needs.

Why are gluten and sugar bad?

Both gluten and sugar promote inflammation. When you’re sick, if you eat something that contains a lot of sugar, you’ll notice an increase of phlegm.  That’s because sugar feeds bacteria and can prolong your sickness. Too much sugar can cause chronic inflammation which can lead to diabetes and heart disease. If you have arthritis, sugar can aggravate the pain.

Gluten is a gut irritant that can cause inflammation. They are like paper cuts inside your stomach, which causes your stomach to swell and bloat. Over time it can permeate the lining of your stomach and cause leaking. Save your gut and your body and try to cut out these products.

Eliminating inflammatory foods can help your body to digest and utilize what you consume more efficiently.

How can drinking water help with aches and pains?

Our bodies are made up mainly of water and when we don’t drink enough to replenish our “stock” it can lead to symptoms such as headaches, back aches, nausea, and dizziness. Your muscles will feel tired and sore. Drinking water helps to keep your joints lubricated and your skin elastic. Water also aids in flushing toxins out of your system. It can also stave off hunger.

Making good nutritional choices like eating whole foods and drinking water can help you to eliminate inflammation, which is one of the biggest culprits of aches and pains. So why not make good nutritional choices and invest in yourself.

For more information or to talk with Dr. B about good nutritional choices email her at [email protected].

Four Essentials of Health with Dr. B.

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Continuing on the theme of health, let’s talk about the four essentials of health. They are nerve flow, oxygen, nutrition and hydration. These are the essentials, meaning you cannot live without them. Why can’t you? Keep reading.

1. Hydration

Hydration is very important to our overall function. Without it, there would be major problems within our system. Water is used to help maintain the balance of fluids in our bodies. Since we are made up of around 70% water, when we become dehydrated, our body lets us know. We can experience headaches, nausea and fatigue. If you were to go without water for more than four days, all of your systems would cease to function and you would cease to live.

So how do you stay hydrated? Drink at least half your body weight in ounces every day to maintain good hydration.  Keep in mind that if you consume a caffeinated beverage, make sure to increase your water intake as well. Since caffeine acts as a diuretic, it can cause dehydration.

2. Nutritional Choices

Our nutritional choices can affect our health in major ways. Eating too much sugar can lead to inflammation, like eating too much fat can lead to the clogging of your arteries. So we have to make smart choices about what we eat. Believe me, I know fried food tastes good, but it’s not good for you. Making the correct nutritional choices can help you to care for the one body you were given. Making a conscious decision to eat well helps promote a mindset of caring for your health.

Imagine your dream car. Imagine owning it. If it says that the only gas you can put in it is 93 grade or higher, would you put an 85 grade of gas in your car? No. You would put in the gasoline that helps to keep your dream car running in perfect condition. The same should be true for your body. Take care of it and it will take care of you.

3. Oxygen

When we talk about oxygen, we’re not just talking about the air we need to breathe. If you cannot breathe, you suffocate and all of your systems will shut down. However, we not only need oxygen for our breath but for our cellular function as well. We need oxygen for our cells to stay healthy and to move. Oxygen is needed for our cells to move and burn fuel such as sugars and fatty acids. When oxygen is breathed in, it is transported to our red blood cells which are then used to produce energy throughout our body.

However, just breathing does not help circulate the much-needed red blood cells throughout our body. We need to move in order to help that process along. This is why it is important to stretch and to exercise. Movement circulates oxygen and red blood cells throughout our body, producing new healthy cells and removing old or damaged cells. When we live a sedentary lifestyle, we are not giving our body the chance to circulate needed oxygen and stay healthy. So get up and move…movement is life.

4. Nerve Flow

Without a doubt, this is the most important and why it was kept for last. Nerve flow is the connection of your nervous system with your brain. Without brain activity, you cannot function. Once a person is brain-dead, they have no control over their body or any function within. This is why it is important to care for your spine and keep it in good health.

Every cell in your body is dictated by your brain and your nervous system is the brain’s communication pathway. Every single thing in your body is controlled by your nervous system and you only have one. You cannot get a spinal cord replacement like a heart or lung transplant. Once your spinal cord is severed in any place, communication from your brain is cut off from below that break and cannot be repaired.

You have to make a conscious decision to care for your spine. Many people see Chiropractors as pain management…that they only have to go care for their spine when it’s in pain. This is called reactionary care. To wait for something to be wrong before you fix it. We should, instead, care for what we have and look at our spines as something we need to care for. Because our spine encases our spinal column, the main hub of communication for our nervous system, we should do what we can to keep it in prime working order. Misalignment in your spine (subluxation) can have many side effects, ranging from allergies to numbness to pain.

So how can we care for our spines? By having regular appointments with your CBP Chiropractor. These types of chiropractors are trained professional doctors who can help you maintain a healthy spine and therefore healthy function.

Change your way of thinking. We need to care for what we have instead of treating what we’ve broken.

For more information or if you have additional questions contact Dr. B at

http://af-chiropractic.com/contact-us/

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