Prana Chiropractic's Wellness Corner

Why Spinal Problems Often Return Chiropractic skeptics often pooh-pooh the idea of periodic chiropractic checkups after symptoms subside with the classic, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” line. This justification often results in a relapse into the original problem for countless patients. How come? Because biomechanical changes along the spine affecting nerves and muscles don’t heal like a cut, infection or some other self-resolving health condition. Addressing Long Lasting Problems By the time spinal problems produce obvious symptoms, the problem has been there for some time—maybe even decades. Yet the symptom didn’t emerge until “last week, when I bent down to pick up the paper.” Thankfully, a chiropractic care plan may produce symptomatic improvement in a matter of months, sometimes weeks. The patient is delighted, but we haven’t completed the retraining of the underlying muscles and soft tissues necessary for lasting spinal changes. That’s w...

Anyone that exercises regularly is certainly familiar with the muscle and joint soreness that accompanies tough workouts, particularly a day or two afterwards.    So what’s going on here in the body that causes the onset of sore and stiff muscles?    The simplest answer is tissue inflammation.    By better understanding inflammation and learning ways to control the symptoms can lead to faster recovery times, fitness gains, and most importantly avoiding injuries.    To get started, let’s look at what inflammation actually is, in simple terms.    It is an immune system response to damage that’s occurred to the tissues.    Exercise causes damage to the tissues by causing microscopic tears to the muscle fibers.    As a result of this damage, inflammation occurs around the site of the tears….which is actually the body’s way of repairing the damage.    In turn, once the tears have healed the muscles become s...

High Fructose Corn Syrup is a widely used sweetener that is a cheap alternative to table sugar.    It was developed in the 1970’s and began being used in the food industry across the board in the practically everything from crackers to soda by the 1980's.    If you have watched television in the last couple of years, you may have noticed commercials claiming that there is no difference between High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) or what they call in the ads as “corn sugar” and cane sugar.    The reason for these advertisements stems from the surge of research and literature exposing many of dangers associated with the use of HFCS.    There is absolutely no truth to the advertisement's claims that the body does not know the difference between the two types of sugars.    While it is true that using any sugar in excess is detrimental to health (so in this way, I suppose there is one similarity) HFCS presents many unique dangers to consumer...

Well, here we are.   It is almost the beginning of a New Year, and with that comes our lists of resolutions for the New Year.   One of the most common resolutions that folks make at the beginning of the year is to lose weight and get in better shape.   Although the statistics point out that almost 80% of people give up one their resolutions within 4 weeks, I am going to share with you some simple ways that you CAN achieve your weight loss goals for this year!   Sound good? So here is the basic breakdown of what it will take to lose weight.   There is nothing complicated about the process, but it does require some planning, disciple, and more than anything, consistency.   The ONLY way we can lose body fat is to consume less calories than we burn, or vice versa.   Your best means of achieving this is to scale back on the calories you consume each day, while at the same time increasing your activity level (aka exercising).   By doing so, ...

We see a lot of new Practice Members that come into PRANA taking all sorts of over-the-counter and prescribed sleep aids.  While we definitely need sleep, these synthetically produced sleep aids certainly don’t add to our overall health.  One thing that I explain to our Practice Members is that for every positive benefit provided by a medication, there is an equal or greater negative side effect(s) that it also causes.  Now don’t get me wrong, I will never encourage a patient to get off of any medications that their Medical Doctor has prescribed.  Pharmacology isn’t my area of specialization, and in many cases prescribed medications have saved lives, but I will say this, there are many people that take prescription medications for “conditions” in which they could control themselves through diet, exercise, and natural healthcare options such as Chiropractic and Applied Kinesiology.  So I have compiled an easy list of steps that you and your family can take...

An area of debate in the health and wellness community is that over whether taking a multivitamin is beneficial to a person’s health.    It is my position that the best source of nutrients that we need in order to thrive is from good quality food sources, but one of the dietary supplements I do use is a quality multivitamin.    My view on using a multivitamin is the same as Integrative Medicine’s rock star, Dr. Andrew Weil, MD.    Dr. Weil states that the best possible source of micronutrients is food, yet because we are not realistically able to eat optimally each day, multivitamins are an “insurance against gaps” in the diet.    A quality multivitamin provides essential vitamins and minerals that our bodies need in order to function properly.    Another important health benefit that multivitamins provide is improved cognitive functioning.    A study detailed in the Nutrition Journal reports that consuming a multivitami...

‘Tis the season to be sicky….  I think that’s a pretty appropriate spin on a Holiday classic this time of year.  One of the questions that I see come up often in terms of being sick and fitness, is whether or not a person should workout when they’re sick.  Well there really isn’t one simple answer to this. I think more than anything, a person has to use a bit of common sense when deciding whether or not to rest up and recover, or get out and do some training. Start by looking at what the illness is.  A cold is one thing, but having a full blown flu illness is something entirely different.  I certainly suggest that someone with anything more serious than the common cold not go to the gym or workout around others.  That being said, if you do have a cold and are going to hit the gym, please use simple precautions to help reduce the likelihood of spreading the illness such as washing your hands often, using antibacterial hand-gels after each machine,...