Those Painful Monthly Cramps

It’s that time of the month again and you’re in agony. What causes you to suffer from these dreadful cramps every month? Believe it or not, more than 90% of all women have menstrual cramps at some point in their lives and a little more than 50% experience menstrual cramps every month for one or two days either right before or at the onset of their period.
Although menstrual cramps occur more often during the teenage years, some women experience them well into their twenties and beyond. One in ten women experience pain so bad, they’re unable to go about their daily routine for several days each month.
What causes painful menstrual cramps and what can be done to alleviate the pain?
Cramps are caused by contractions of the uterus. Like all other muscles in the body, the uterus contracts on a regular basis and then relaxes. Right around the time of your period, these contractions become stronger and this is what produces the pain and discomfort.

The following natural remedies may help relieve the pain and discomfort of menstrual cramps:

• Regular exercise, such as walking
  
  
• Adding additional calcium and zinc to your diet
  
  
• The use of certain herbal remedies that have anti-spasmodic properties, including Viburnum prunifolium, Scutellaria spp. and Cimicifuga racemosa
  
  
• Soaking in a warm bath that has been prepared with aromatherapy oils (have you tried lavender?)
  
  
• Warm compresses or a heating pad, which can be applied to the lower abdomen to ease the pain
  
  
• Relaxing and putting your feet up to alleviate stress
  
  
• Good, old fashioned chiropractic adjustments

We’re aware that many women who suffer from menstrual cramps also experience frequent back pain. Is there a connection? Both may be related to vertebral subluxation in the lower spine that affects the nerves that serve the female anatomy. It’s been our experience that many women report a decrease in the frequency and severity of their menstrual cramps when they receive regular chiropractic adjustments.
Have you given it a try?

It’s that time of the month again and you’re in agony. What causes you to suffer from these dreadful cramps every month? Believe it or not, more than 90% of all women have menstrual cramps at some point in their lives and a little more than 50% experience menstrual cramps every month for one or two days either right before or at the onset of their period.
Although menstrual cramps occur more often during the teenage years, some women experience them well into their twenties and beyond. One in ten women experience pain so bad, they’re unable to go about their daily routine for several days each month.
What causes painful menstrual cramps and what can be done to alleviate the pain?
Cramps are caused by contractions of the uterus. Like all other muscles in the body, the uterus contracts on a regular basis and then relaxes. Right around the time of your period, these contractions become stronger and this is what produces the pain and discomfort.

The following natural remedies may help relieve the pain and discomfort of menstrual cramps:

• Regular exercise, such as walking
  
  
• Adding additional calcium and zinc to your diet
  
  
• The use of certain herbal remedies that have anti-spasmodic properties, including Viburnum prunifolium, Scutellaria spp. and Cimicifuga racemosa
  
  
• Soaking in a warm bath that has been prepared with aromatherapy oils (have you tried lavender?)
  
  
• Warm compresses or a heating pad, which can be applied to the lower abdomen to ease the pain
  
  
• Relaxing and putting your feet up to alleviate stress
  
  
• Good, old fashioned chiropractic adjustments

We’re aware that many women who suffer from menstrual cramps also experience frequent back pain. Is there a connection? Both may be related to vertebral subluxation in the lower spine that affects the nerves that serve the female anatomy. It’s been our experience that many women report a decrease in the frequency and severity of their menstrual cramps when they receive regular chiropractic adjustments.
Have you given it a try?

Packed Lunches Pose A Health Risk

If you're a parent of a child or teen, you or your spouse are likely the ones responsible packing your kid's lunches and placing them in a lunchbox or paper bag. New research from Texas indicates in a testing of more than 700 preschoolers' lunch packs, less than 2 percent of those temperature critical foods (meats, dairy and vegetables) were within a safe temperature zone. This, despite the fact that 45 percent of the packed lunches included an ice pack. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends perishable foods be kept cool and that any perishable foods that have reached 40 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for 2 or more hours not be consumed. After all, the latest stats from the CDC indicate that one in six Americans get food poisoning each year. Experts recommend including several ice packs with packed lunches and having perishables placed into a fridge once kids arrive at school to reduce the risk of food poisoning. Author: ChiroPlanet.com Source: Pediatrics, online August 8, 2011. Copyright: ProfessionalPlanets.com LLC 2011

Packed Lunches Pose A Health Risk

If you're a parent of a child or teen, you or your spouse are likely the ones responsible packing your kid's lunches and placing them in a lunchbox or paper bag. New research from Texas indicates in a testing of more than 700 preschoolers' lunch packs, less than 2 percent of those temperature critical foods (meats, dairy and vegetables) were within a safe temperature zone. This, despite the fact that 45 percent of the packed lunches included an ice pack. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends perishable foods be kept cool and that any perishable foods that have reached 40 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for 2 or more hours not be consumed. After all, the latest stats from the CDC indicate that one in six Americans get food poisoning each year. Experts recommend including several ice packs with packed lunches and having perishables placed into a fridge once kids arrive at school to reduce the risk of food poisoning. Author: ChiroPlanet.com Source: Pediatrics, online August 8, 2011. Copyright: ProfessionalPlanets.com LLC 2011

Putting a Price Tag on Health

It’s hard to put a price tag on something as important as health, but we all do by the choices we make and priorities we set.

We who work in health care place a high value on health. So when we find out someone has discontinued their chiropractic care because they can’t afford it, we’re concerned. Are our fees out of line?

Turns out, it’s usually a matter of priorities and finances are a convenient excuse. Each of us has the free will to value our health in the way we see fit. True, most of us take our health for granted until we lose it, but that may be just human nature.

If other issues in your life require more attention than your health, we understand. No need to make excuses or feel self-conscious. You won’t get a scolding, a sermon or even a raised eyebrow. After all, it’s your health.

You’re the boss. We strive to offer the finest chiropractic care possible. You decide how much of it you want. No guilt. No shame. No problem.

Have You Been Suffering From Chronic Knee Pain?

Chronic knee pain is notoriously difficult to treat successfully. Persons with these problems often become discouraged as they shuttle from specialist to specialist, from rheumatologist to orthopedic surgeon to physical therapist to acupuncturist and back again. Lack of progress and improvement becomes understandable when one considers that typical evaluation and treatment are directed at the symptoms. But with chronic knee pain, and many other pain syndromes, actual benefits may be obtained by addressing underlying biomechanical problems.

Faulty biomechanics are at the root of many ongoing knee problems. Of course, various other diseases and orthopedic conditions may cause the same type of chronic pain. The most likely of these possibilities need to be considered and ruled out before a diagnosis of biomechanical knee pain is established. Osteochondritis dissecans, a torn meniscus, and synovial effusion are all frequently encountered in persons over age 40 with chronic knee pain. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and ankylosing spondylitis are a few rheumatologic conditions which may result in sporadic or chronic knee pain.¹

When these medical entities have been eliminated as possibilities, a biomechanical causation becomes probable. How does a person develop "faulty biomechanics"? In fact, most of us have never received effective instruction in how to use our bodies. We stand and sit in all kinds of unsound postures, slouching and slumping and generally giving in to every available force of gravity. We stand with all our body weight on one leg, neck and shoulder muscles gripped tightly and abdominal muscles sagging and protruding. When we sit we slump down, stressing the lower back with poorly tolerated mechanical forces, or sit for hours with legs crossed, stressing the lower back, hips, and knees.

Over the course of a lifetime, our bodies have continually tried to adapt to a range of inefficient and stressful postures and habits. But eventually no more adaptation is possible.² As a result joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons break down and fail. We experience this failure as pain. And once this type of pain has started, it is not going to go away unless the underlying causes are corrected. Specifically, the person's biomechanics need to be restored closer to normal.

Correction of posture takes time and can only be accomplished gradually. The key is to learn what to do, learn how to do it, and to be working on posture every day.³ The most important thing is to begin. Three basic biomechanical corrections are as follows: (1) When standing, be sure to have your weight over the balls of your feet and to have your weight evenly distributed on both legs. (2) Activate your deep abdominal muscles by visualizing an "inner lift". (3) Have straight lines of force running down your legs (rather than lines of force crossing at your knee, creating torsion and tension). Visualize "straight energy" flowing from your hip sockets, straight down through the center of your knees, straight down to your feet, between your first and second toes.

Visualizing and implementing these three biomechanical corrections on a daily basis represents the first series of steps toward improving knee mechanics and reducing chronic knee pain.

A Too-Easy Tip for Controlling Nausea and Queasy Stomach

Do you ever get airsick? Seasick? Car sick? Are there foods that give you a queasy stomach? Here's an easy tip from the Chinese practice of tui nai acupressure that will help you control nausea when there isn't time to take a medication or (what I think works better) ginger or vitamin B6.
Find the webbing of the skin between your thumb and index finger on either hand. With the other hand, press gently on both sides. As straightforward and simple as this is, it actually helps reduce nausea most of the time.
Is that a little too simple for you? Then try these acupressure rescues:

• For a headache, take off shoes and socks and find the groove between your fourth and fifth toes. Gently press on the tendon for 30 seconds.  Doing both feet at the same time relieves headache pain.
• To stifle sneezing, press the ridge between your upper lip and your nose. Or press your index finger against your thumb.
• To restore energy levels, massage the shin just below the kneecaps for a few minutes. This can be helpful in an athletic competition.

Acupressure costs nothing, can be done anywhere, and has no side effects—as long as you don't press too hard. Try this and other acupressure techniques when you need a quick fix and other remedies are not at hand.