Everyone gets headaches at some time or another in their life—some more frequently than others, and some more intensely than others. Headaches are classified as primary or secondary. Examples of primary headaches are tension headaches, migraines, and cluster headaches. There are a lot of moving parts as to how and why primary headaches occur, but no one-size-fits-all reason that fits…
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How & Why A Specific Chiropractic Adjustment Can Lower High Blood Pressure
A 2007 study in the Journal of Human Hypertension proved that a specific chiropractic adjustment of the C1 vertebra (aka Atlas) lowered blood pressure significantly. In the 8-week double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 25 hypertensive patients received a specific upper cervical chiropractic adjustment via the NUCCA (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association) method and another 25 hypertensive patients received sham adjustments. The NUCCA…
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Dr. Gonstead Said it Best!
Want to know what kind of chiropractor I am? Want to know how I practice chiropractic? Want to know what kind of chiropractor I had already decided I wanted to be before I ever got into chiropractic school? The answer to all those questions is… The kind of chiropractor Dr. Gonstead described above. THIS is the chiropractor I am, this…
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Instant Gratification + Your Health = Bad Health
Get rich quick. 0% down, 100% financing. Lose 10 lbs in one weekend. Take a painkiller to dull that pain. Gain 20 lbs of muscle in one month. Get a gastric bypass to lose 100 lbs in four months. Get a liposuction with your c-section like all the movie stars. Our society is all about instant gratification. What’s in it…
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The Drill Instructor Named “Pain”
Pain is always honest, and brutally so. It demands attention, and if you don’t give it the attention it’s asking for, it will scream louder. And louder! AND LOUDER UNTIL YOU LISTEN!!! If you’re running, and you begin feeling a sharp pain at the side of your knee that travels around to underneath your kneecap, stop. More than likely, your…
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Chiropractor or Facilitator?
Every time someone gets up off the adjusting table, I hear things like “You fixed me!”, “You healed me!”, “You’re a miracle worker!”, and my personal favorite “You’re a magician!” But, none of that is true. Yes, I am a licensed chiropractor, but the truth of it is I’m just a facilitator. Each of us has an innate intelligence inside…
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Movement is Life
Take one look at the recovery process for people undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery. Doctors and nurses have joint replacement patients up and walking the very next day after their surgery! So what’s the best kind of movement to do? Well, it could be anything. Anything that increases your vitality, your heart rate, your mood, etc. Walking, pilates, yoga,…
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What Sleep Deprivation Can Look Like
SLEEP is the absolute key to this change. The picture on the left is from early December 2015, late one night at the gym after a very stressful day. Our sixth baby was in the throes of 10 straight months of teething, so January and I weren’t sleeping much at all. Because of this lack of sleep, my mental health…
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Not Merely a Misalignment
A misalignment of the C1 or C2 is known in chiropractic as a vertebral subluxation, or simply just a subluxation. What makes a misalignment of C1 and C2 a subluxation and not merely a misalignment is that either vertebra can cause stress and tension on the ligaments inside the spinal canal. Along with pressure on the nerves exiting the spinal…
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Chiropractic & the Holiday Season
Life doesn’t pause for any of us during the holidays. Yet, if you just glance at any form of media (print media, social media, big screen, and small screen), you would think that life takes a month-long hiatus from Black Friday to Christmas Day to spend too much money, eat too many Christmas cookies (and food in general), sleep too…