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Welcome to our office's Chiropractic
newsletter.
We'd like to entertain you, inform you (and even inspire you a little).
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Healthy Knees Need Chiropractic
It’s
between your hips and your feet: where the bottom of your thigh meets
the top of your lower leg bones (tibia and fibula). Right there sits
an odd shaped joint with a strange little bone (the patella) floating
in front of it. Well, not exactly floating - all those bones are strapped
together with lots of ligament so everything stays in place.
It’s
your knee of course and its main purpose is to be dislocated, jammed,
twisted, cause immense pain and ruin your life.
Of
course we’re just kidding, but for many people knee problems are a constant
part of their lives. What causes knee problems? Usually an injury. Let’s
face it, people were not designed to run into each other (or a wall)
chasing a little ball (football, soccer, etc.), get twisted into the
shape of a pretzel (wrestling) or run, quick stop, turn, run, quick
stop, turn over and over (tennis, squash, etc.).
And how many
people were quietly driving their car when a tree or telephone pole
suddenly ran into their paths and Mr. Knee met Ms. Dashboard? The numbers
are legion.
There are many
way your wonderful knees can be a source of misery. If your knees aren’t
healthy and balanced your entire body structure, hips, back, neck, head,
even feet and toes can be affected. In fact, many spinal problems can
be traced to knee injuries even if they occurred in childhood.
Many times the
knees feel fine, but they are the cause of a structural imbalance that
causes other body areas to suffer. The reverse may also be true – an
unhealthy, unbalanced spinal column can put intense pressure on one
or both knees, causing early aging (arthritic changes).
Don’t walk around
in misery, and before you consider risky knee surgery see your doctor
of chiropractic. Your DC is especially trained to keep your body structure
balanced and aligned. That includes your knees.
(top)
Do you love cats? Do you hate cats?
Here’s a perfect
film clip for you: Cats
(top)
More evidence back surgery does not work
About
125,000 spinal fusions are performed each year. In this kind of operation
surgeons take bone (usually from the hip) and use it to fuse together
two vertebrae in an attempt to relieve lower-back pain from disc damage.
Patient traffic has quadrupled in a decade, and fusion now costs about
$30,000. Surgeons who perform these operations rake in a median salary
of $545,000 a year, almost double what most specialists earn, says the
Medical Group Management Association.
Fusion caught
on decades ago as a well-accepted treatment for deformities, fractures
and dislocations, but surgeons later expanded it to treat back pain
as well.
The evidence
that fusion works well for regional back pain is "essentially nonexistent,"
says University of North Carolina rheumatologist Nortin Halder.
"If this
were a pill and I used it, I would probably lose my license and go to
jail," he says. (1)
(top)
Why does a child need chiropractic?
Because
a lot of things can cause spinal damage in a fetal or child’s spine:
pregnancy, labor, delivery, chemical intervention, ultrasound, epidurals,
forceps, C-section, etc.
Many of these
procedures can cause vertebral subluxations that can lead to future
health problems. For example, if a child has difficulty breast feeding
it may mean that the baby is uncomfortable turning the head to one side.
This often indicates the presence of a subluxation.
Remember, many
health problems seen in adults have their origins in childhood. And
don’t forget that childhood is very physical with lots of falls as a
part of growing up. Plus, kids sometimes carry funny shaped things like
dogs and cats that wiggle a lot.
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Safety of over-the-counter drugs questioned
At
the April 18, 2005 conference of the American Association for Cancer
Research, a study was reported that found that people who took over-the-counter
pain relievers such as Advil™, Motrin™ and Aleve™
for at least six months had twice the risk of dying of a heart attack
or stroke if they smoked as well.
The study adds
to the growing body of information that shows heart problems can develop
from use of the whole family of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
known collectively as NSAIDs. The recently banned cox-2 inhibitors Vioxx™
and Bextra™ belong to the same family of drugs and doctors have
been switching patients over to the over-the-counter drugs in the belief
that they were safer alternatives.
Why must patients
go from drug to drug? Why don’t MDs refer more patients to chiropractors
for natural, drug-free healthcare? Chiropractic has no side effects.
(top)
What kind of American English do you speak?
Do you speak
Yankee, Dixie, Midwest, General American, Midwestern, upper Midwestern
or a mixture?
Find out at:
http://www.blogthings.com/amenglishdialecttest/
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Like we really need this department…
Denny's Beer
Barrel Pub, which lost its crown as the home of the world's biggest
burger earlier this year, is now offering a new burger that weighs a
whopping 15 pounds.
Read about the
Beer
Barrel Belly Buster.
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Chiropractic questions and answers
Question:
Is it true Doctors of Chiropractic (DCs) have a better sense of humor
than medical doctors (MDs)?
Answer:
While there’s no controlled clinical trial research on this subject
it does seem that people laugh and smile a whole lot in chiropractors’
offices. Is it because we’re so funny or is there another reason? Is
it also because we help your body express health without drugs and surgery…and
people generally feel a whole lot better after getting a chiropractic
adjustment?
The
answer: We think it’s all those reasons (plus we probably know
better jokes).
(top)
Chiropractic and spinal research
Do
you know anyone living on drugs? They may have years of uncorrected
subluxations in their body. Please tell them about chiropractic.
Chiropractic
Influence on Oxidative Stress and DNA Repair
There is a growing body of evidence that wellness
care provided by doctors of chiropractic may reduce health care costs,
improve health behaviors, and enhance patient perceived quality of life.
Until recently, however, little was known about how chiropractic adjustments
affected the chemistry of biological processes on a cellular level.
In a landmark
study published in March in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research,
researchers at the University of Lund found
that chiropractic care could influence basic physiological processes
affecting oxidative stress and DNA repair. These
findings offer a scientific explanation for the positive health benefits
reported by patients receiving chiropractic care.
The researchers
measured serum thiol levels in 21 patients under short-term chiropractic
care and 25 patients under long-term chiropractic care. The results
were compared to those of a non-chiropractic treated control group of
30 subjects. Long-term chiropractic care of two or more years was shown
to re-establish a normal physiological state independent of age, sex,
or nutritional supplements. Symptom-free or primary wellness subjects
under chiropractic care demonstrated higher mean serum thiol levels
than patients with active disease, and produced some values that were
higher than normal wellness values.
Serum thiols
are primary antioxidants, and serve as a measure of human health status.
The test provides a surrogate estimate of DNA
repair enzyme activity, which has been shown to correlate with lifespan
and aging.
Dr. Christopher
Kent, one of the authors explained, "Going through life, we experience
physical, chemical, and emotional stress. These stresses affect the
function of the nervous system. We hypothesized that these disturbances
in nerve function could affect oxidative stress and DNA repair on a
cellular level."
"Oxidative
stress, metabolically generating free radicals, is now a broadly accepted
theory of how we age and develop disease,” Kent continued. “Oxidative
stress results in DNA damage, and inhibits DNA repair. DNA repair is
the mechanism which fixes the damage caused by environmental impact."
Chiropractors
apply spinal adjustments to correct disturbances of nerve function.
"Chiropractic care appears to improve
the ability of the body to adapt to stress," continued Kent.
"Further research is needed to gain additional insights that will
ultimately lead to improved clinical outcomes," he said. (2)
(top)
Because we want you to have less stress in your life......
Cell
phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you
will start to receive sales calls. You will be charged for these calls.
Call this number from your cell phone 888-382-1222. It is the national
DO NOT CALL list. It only takes a minute of your time and blocks your
number for 5 years. Please pass this on to everyone you know who doesn't
want to be hassled.
(top)
Humor: Ten signs you're
working to hard ...
You're
so tired you now answer the phone "hell..."
You're best
friend calls to ask how you've been and you immediately scream, "Get
off by back!"
Your garbage
can is you're "in" box.
You wake up
to discover that your bed is on fire, but go back to sleep because you
just don't care.
You have so
much on you're mind that you've forgotten how to pee.
Visions of the
upcoming weekend help you make it through Monday.
You sleep more
at work than you do at home.
You leave for
a party and instinctively bring you're briefcase.
Your Blackberry
exploded a week ago.
You think about
how relaxing it would be if you were in jail right now ...
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Don’t Forget...
Have
a safe 4th of July!
Don’t forget
to stop by for a spinal checkup and an adjustment (if needed). And bring
in the family too – kids do better when they aren’t subluxated (really!).
Want
to send this to a friend? Feel free. Better yet, have them e-mail us
and we’ll add them to our mailing list!
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References
1. Robert
Langreth. Operation!
Is elective surgery overdone?
2. Surrogate
Indication of DNA Repair in Serum After Long Term Chiropractic Intervention
– A Retrospective Study Clayton J. Campbell, Christopher Kent, Arthur
Banne, Amir Amiri, and Ronald W. Pero. Journal of Vertebral Subluxation
Research. February 18, 2005;1-5.
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