Posts Tagged ‘pain’

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Testosterone Reduction And Computer Laptop Use Showing Some Links

Friday, April 13th, 2012

Many patients in the city of San Diego come to New Century Spine Centers to see a chiropractor for their back pain from sitting at the computer for too long. But here’s another problem from sitting at the computer for too long that may not be related to your back. A November 8, 2010 article published by Reuter’s reports placing a laptop computer on your lap might be, “cooking your gonads.” According to the article, “It turns out, unsurprisingly, that sitting with a computer on your lap will crank up the temperature of your nether regions, which could affect sperm quality.”

Authors of a study in the journal of Fertility and Sterility, say the only way you can prevent this is by putting your laptop on a desk or somewhere besides your lap. Even using a lap pad, the temperature quickly rises above the acceptable range.

“Millions and millions of men are using laptops now, especially those in the reproductive age range,” said Dr. Yefim Sheynkin, a Urologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who led the new study. “Within 10 or 15 minutes, their scrotal temperature is already above what we consider safe, but they don’t feel it,” he added.

On another interesting note, you won’t want to miss this one. There seems to be a television commercial about it every two minutes. It’s either Viagra or Cialis for “performance” issues, or the new buzz-word, “Low T” for low testosterone. Well, here’s something very important you should know about testosterone and sexual problems…

According to an October 29, 2010 Reuters Health article, authors of a new study say, “we need a lot less testosterone for sexual function than people think.” Dr. Frederick Wu, a hormone expert at the University of Manchester, is quoted as saying, “Most people with erectile problems do not have hormone problems, but often have blockage in their penis arteries.” They also state that very low levels of testosterone can cause a problem, but they are not sure what this level is.

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Posted in Alternative Medicine, Chiropractic, Health, Stress | No Comments »

How 55-80 Year Olds Are Increasing The Size Of Their Brains!

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

Several months ago I wrote an article on how chronic pain can cause your brain to shrink. This article caused up quite a stir considering that so many people are in pain. It also brought up the question that if pain may cause your brain to shrink, is there a way to increase the size of your brain?   Of course most people would you like to have a bigger, more powerful brain? Unfortunately the hippocampus, a part of the brain key to memory and special navigation, is known to shrink with age. This brain shrinkage starts in late adulthood and it is responsible for memory loss and some impairment.

There is however new hope for this. According to the Los Angeles Times, a new study that was published by the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has revealed that a program of aerobic exercise over the course of a year can increase the size of the hippocampus in adults ages 55-80. In this remarkable study, 120 people from ages 55-80 who did not exercise previously were split into 2 groups; 60 were put into an aerobic exercise program that consisted of walking around a track 3 days a week for 40 minutes per session; and the other 60 did a program consisting of stretching and weights.

The results were as follows according to the Los Angeles Times article: “The group doing aerobic exercise had increases in hippocampus volume: up 2.12 % in the left hippocampus, and 1.97% in the right hippocampus. The stretching group, on the other hand, had decreased hippocampus volume: down 1.40% on the left and 1.43% on the right.”

What’s important to note about this article is that is said it is never too late to start exercise and it suggested that some very simple exercise programs may be a cost-effective way to treat a widespread health problem, without the side effects of medication. Prevention is obviously always best. A regular exercise regimen, a good nutritious diet, and reduced stress has many great benefits. To read some past articles including the article on how chronic pain can cause your brain to shrink, just go the website www.BackCareTreatment.com.

 

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Laptop Use and Testosterone Showing Some Links

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Many patients in San Diego come to New Century Spine Centers to see a chiropractor for their back pain from sitting at the computer for too long. But here’s another problem from sitting at the computer for too long that may not be related to your back. A November 8, 2010 article published by Reuter’s reports placing a laptop computer on your lap might be, “cooking your gonads.” According to the article, “It turns out, unsurprisingly, that sitting with a computer on your lap will crank up the temperature of your nether regions, which could affect sperm quality.”

Authors of  a study  in  the journal of Fertility and Sterility,  say the only way you can  prevent this is by putting  your laptop  on  a desk  or  somewhere besides your  lap.  Even using a lap pad, the temperature quickly rises above the acceptable range.

“Millions and millions of men are using laptops now, especially those in the reproductive age range,” said Dr.  Yefim Sheynkin, a Urologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who led the new study.  ”Within 10 or 15 minutes, their scrotal temperature is already above what we consider safe, but they don’t feel it,” he added.

On another interesting note, you won’t want to miss this one. There seems to be a television commercial about it every two minutes.  It’s either Viagra or Cialis for “performance” issues, or the new buzz-word, “Low T” for low testosterone.  Well, here’s something very important you should know about testosterone and sexual problems…

According to an October 29, 2010 Reuters Health article, authors of a new study say, “we need a lot less testosterone for sexual function than people think.” Dr. Frederick Wu, a hormone expert at the University of Manchester, is quoted as saying, “Most people with erectile problems do not have hormone problems, but often have blockage in their penis arteries.” They also state that very low levels of testosterone can cause a problem, but they are not sure what this level is.

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Posted in Health | No Comments »

New Research On Diet And Exercise

Monday, December 20th, 2010
USA Today reports two-thirds of people in the United States are overweight. “Overweight” is defined as being 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight. This means 66% of Americans, because of their weight, are at higher risk for Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and even some types of cancer.
That’s why it is so important to lose weight if you are overweight. New research published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association compared exercise combined with diet versus diet only. Here’s what researchers found… At six months, people in the diet-and-exercise group lost an average of 24 pounds and had better reduction in belly fat and liver fat than those in the delayed-exercise group, who lost an average of 18 pounds.
After a year, people in the diet-and-exercise group lost 27 pounds compared to 22 pounds in the delayed-exercise group. “This shows that a traditional diet-and-exercise program can work for people who are very obese,” says lead author, Bret Goodpaster, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Most participants in the study lost between 30-40 pounds… but a handful lost nearly 100.
Recently, a study published in the September 2008 Journal of Obesity raised a few eyebrows. The study contrasted diet versus exercise for weight loss and concluded that, even though exercise may be good for strengthening bones and muscles, improved mental health and mood, lowering blood pressure, improved cholesterol levels and reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer… it may not be the best thing for weight loss. According to one of the study’s authors: “We would love to say that physical activity has a positive effect on weight control, but that does not appear to be the case.”
Knowing how to control your weight is very important. At New Century Spine Centers in San Diego, the chiropractic doctors regularly treat patients with back pain that also require weight loss. New Century Spine Centers in San Diego can be reached by calling 619-630-9153.

USA Today reports two-thirds of people in the United States are overweight. “Overweight” is defined as being 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight. This means 66% of Americans, because of their weight, are at higher risk for Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and even some types of cancer.
That’s why it is so important to lose weight if you are overweight. New research published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association compared exercise combined with diet versus diet only. Here’s what researchers found… At six months, people in the diet-and-exercise group lost an average of 24 pounds and had better reduction in belly fat and liver fat than those in the delayed-exercise group, who lost an average of 18 pounds.
After a year, people in the diet-and-exercise group lost 27 pounds compared to 22 pounds in the delayed-exercise group. “This shows that a traditional diet-and-exercise program can work for people who are very obese,” says lead author, Bret Goodpaster, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Most participants in the study lost between 30-40 pounds… but a handful lost nearly 100.
Recently, a study published in the September 2008 Journal of Obesity raised a few eyebrows. The study contrasted diet versus exercise for weight loss and concluded that, even though exercise may be good for strengthening bones and muscles, improved mental health and mood, lowering blood pressure, improved cholesterol levels and reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer… it may not be the best thing for weight loss. According to one of the study’s authors: “We would love to say that physical activity has a positive effect on weight control, but that does not appear to be the case.”
Knowing how to control your weight is very important. At New Century Spine Centers in San Diego, the chiropractic doctors regularly treat patients with back pain that also require weight loss. New Century Spine Centers in San Diego can be reached by calling 619-630-9153.

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Shocker: Heavy Drinkers Outlive Non-Drinkers? Discover what a new paper in the Journal Alcoholism found that might make you fall off the wagon!

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

Is it possible? Can it be true? As revealed in a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, people who do NOT drink alcohol do NOT live as long as people who do. According to an article in Time Magazine, “Research suggests that — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does tend to increase one’s risk of dying, even when you exclude former problem drinkers. The most shocking part is that Abstainers’ mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.

“Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. According to this paper, people who do not drink at all die sooner than heavy drinkers… not people who have a drink or two a night – but… HEAVY DRINKERS! According to the article, a moderate drinker, defined as 1-3 drinks per day, had the lowest mortality rate. Even though researchers do not know the real answer, there are plenty of theories as to why these findings exist.

One is that moderate alcohol consumption (especially red wine) can improve circulation, cardiovascular health and reduce stress. Stress reduction may be the most important item on the list. Here is why. There is a vast amount of research linking stress to poor health, possible disease and shortened lifespan. In fact, a press release from September 3, 2010 states researchers had finally found direct evidence linking stress to heart attacks. According to the press release, “Researchers at The University of Western Ontario have provided the first direct evidence using a biological marker, to show chronic stress plays an important role in heart attacks. Stressors such as job and marital and financial problems have been linked to the increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease including heart attack.” This study, published in the journal Stress, said researchers developed a method to measure cortisol levels in hair. This is important because cortisol levels are an indicator of stress levels and now the cortisol/stress level can be measured for several months leading up to the heart attack.

Until now, cortisol levels were only measured in saliva, urine and serum. Because of this, stress levels were only seen at the time of the measurement – not leading up to the event. Doctors and researchers have suspected for a long time that stress was bad for you but it has been hard to measure and “prove.” Now, it looks like we can all say with relative accuracy that STRESS KILLS!

This might shed new light on the alcohol research above. Maybe it’s not alcohol as a chemical compound that is beneficial to your longevity. Maybe the key is alcohol’s role in stress reduction. Right now, no one knows for sure, but we do know that correlation is not causation. In other words, just because drinkers live longer does not mean “alcohol is good for you.” For example, if the reason drinkers live longer is actually due to a reduction in stress, then it may be possible to get the same results without alcohol consumption. Maybe learning to control stress through meditation and other ways will be found to be just as effective. The mind-body connection is what’s really important. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, and science has now linked it to your stress levels, which basically links it to the way you think. The way you handle situations in life every single day is actually a matter of not just happiness, but of Life and Death

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San Diego Spinal Decompression Specialist Shows How Stress May Be Your Back Pain Culprit

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

The holidays are just around the corner.  There will be presents to unwrap, there will be gifts to buy and there will be big holiday meals to devour.  But there is one thing left to consider for many of us. It is the back pain many suffer around the stressful holidays.

Back pain is much more common than you may think.  And the culprit may have be one of a number of many things. For example, all those special holiday meals and desserts you enjoy may start it all.  Clearly, the holidays are a special time not just for sharing with loved ones – but packing on a few extra pounds put added stress to your spine and muscles.  And adding just a little extra weight can be enough to flare-up old back pain and problems or be the straw that breaks the camel’s back to create ‘brand new’ back pain.

Add in all the stress the holidays inevitably bring to many of us, and many cases of back pain either begin or get worse. What can you do when this happens?  One of the best solutions is to exercise because exercise not only helps reduce the extra pounds, it also relieves stress to the spine and overall.

But there’s a problem to consider when thinking about exercising. It may not wise to start an exercise program if you already have back pain.  Many times, back pain is caused by malfunctioning spinal joints in the lower back which could be aggravated by exercise and other stress applied to the spine.

Back pain caused by not working joints can be helped by conservative Chiropractic treatment.  One study found that spinal manipulation to be a recommendable method of symptom control for back pain. Chiropractic care can gently help your lower back function properly so the pain can possibly go away naturally and when you’re pain free, exercising and shedding the pounds is much easier than before!

For more information about back pain, back pain sufferers can contact New Century Spine Centers in San Diego. The chiropractors and spinal decompression doctors at New Century are some of the top chiropractors in the world. Suffering from back pain is an option. You can live pain free if you get the proper treatment.

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Posted in Chiropractic, Health | 2 Comments »

Chiropractors In San Diego Offer New Twist To Eliminate Neck Pain With Spinal Decompression.

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

The chiropractic doctors at New Century Spine Centers in San Diego are using an FDA cleared medical device that solves 86% of back pain. For many years, chiropractors across the globe have used spinal decompression for low back pain and spinal stenosis. This revolutionary treatment is available now in San Diego for neck pain and many headaches.

Countless failed surgery patients have finally found relief after surgery made them worse.  With this new technology, it’s obvious they may have never needed surgery in the first place. There is a very good reason why thousands of former neck pain and headache sufferers are calling non-surgical spinal decompression the “eighth wonder of the world.” This amazing new medical breakthrough is responsible for cracking the neck pain code for thousands of former pain sufferers.  Many pain victims previously tried everything and were thought to be hopeless cases.

To watch videos of advanced spinal decompression chiropractic technology, those interested can go to the San Diego website at http://www.BackCareTreatment.com.  According to Dr. Michael Pritsker, a chiropractor and spinal decompression DRX-9000 specialist at New Century Spine Centers, “Neck and back pain can be debilitating and affects thousands of people each year. But thanks to new advances in neck pain treatment for disc injuries and muscle spasms, thousands of neck and back pain sufferers are living pain free and enjoying life to its fullest.”

Dr. Dirk Kancilia, DC, founder of New Century Spine Centers says “by utilizing advanced spinal decompression therapy together with the best skilled back doctors and sophisticated diagnostic testing, we are able to give the patient the best possible treatment for their neck pain. We work closely with medical doctors, spinal surgeons, chiropractors, and drx9000 spinal decompression specialists to eliminate their neck pain and spinal stenosis. Whether its neck pain victims that requested our free report from www.SanDiegoBackPainTreatment.com or if they were referred by their friends, family, or chiropractic doctor, they can rest assure that they are in the right hands at New Century Spine Centers in San Diego. Up until now, there were only three options that existed to deal with the pain from damaged neck conditions. They were swallowing pain medication for pain management, going under the knife with spinal surgery, or just dealing with the pain. New Century Spine Centers in San Diego has some of the top spinal decompression doctors in San Diego. They have also brought in some of the most advanced spine decompression therapies available for non-surgical treatment of neck pain.

Neck spinal decompression therapy in San Diego has been successful with even the most severe cases. It has even worked when all else failed.  Cervical spinal decompression works for neck pain, headaches, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, bulging discs, degenerative disc disease, a relapse or failure following surgery, migraine headaches, facet syndromes, carpal tunnel syndrome, and arm pain.

The really good news in all of this is that it is not something you have to continue to do for the rest of your life!  So it is not a big commitment. Patients typically undergo 15 to 20 treatments sessions.  Each treatment last between 25-30 minutes.  This, of course, depends on individual cases and is determined by a thorough evaluation by the chiropractic doctor. It is important to note that many patients get substantial, immediate relief after just a few treatments.  Some patients get substantial relief even after just one treatment.

Cervical spinal decompression treatment is FDA cleared and covered by many insurance companies. If the insurance does not cover the treatment, it is much more affordable than many back and neck surgeries. For debilitating neck and arm pain, it may be the best option.

Due to the high demand for information for neck spinal decompression therapy, they have set up two options to get information. Those interested can visit the website at www.BackCareTreatment.com. They have also set up a 24 hour toll free recorded hotline where people with neck pain can call to get a free report and video. That toll free number is 1-888-611-2042. New Century Spine Centers is located in the Mission Valley area of San Diego. Don’t wait another day suffering in pain. With this new advanced technology, thousands of people are free from neck and back pain.

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Posted in Chiropractic, Headaches, Health, Neck Pain, Spinal Decompression | 2 Comments »

5 Common Mistakes When Thinking About Your Painful Experience.

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

It would be safe to assume as a San Diego chiropractor that at one point or another you have had some type of ache in your body. This is a pretty secure assumption. I would bet that you have also had some kind of difficulty that was brought on by something very small. Let me give you an example to think about. You wake up in the morning and walk into the bathroom and as you go to squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube and you drop the lid on the floor. So you bend down to pick it up and zappo, lightning sharp ache shoots up your spine and back down again. You try to stand up straight but for some reason it feels like someone is pressing against your back causing you to hunch over and making it nearly impossible to straighten up.

Here’s another typical ache invoking experience. You rush out the door because you are late for your appointment. As you settle into the car you remember that you forgot your keys so you hurry back into the house retrieve them and return to the car. As you start the engine and turn your head to back out of the driveway…whammo, someone stuck you with a hot barbecue poker in the back of the neck causing you great difficulty to return your head to a normal position without feeling that searing ache that we all enjoy.

So it may not be a toothpaste lid or the turning of your head that provokes you to fall to your knees in anguish, but I am almost certain that you have experienced a similar type situation in which the action you performed such not have caused SO MUCH ACHE! There are a few different responses to this type of circumstances. Before we talk about those, let’s just get real philosophical for a moment.

If you were hanging out with Hippocrates right now at Starbucks sipping on a Latte and talking about life and science and the human experience, how do you think he would respond if you asked him if it was ordinary for the body to respond like yours did when you bent over to pick up that heavy toothpaste lid or when you whipped your head around to back the cart out of the dirt road. I would guess that he would first ask you what toothpaste was and then once that was cleared up he would tell you no. This is not a normal physiological response for your body to such a minimal action. The reaction does not equal the action. Okay, philosophy class being over let’s get back to how you would respond to this state of affairs. Here are 5 ordinary mistakes that I have observed from patients at the chiropractic office in San Diego who experience these types of situations.

1. I use a heating pad or I took a hot shower on the area and it felt great. I am not against heating pads or heat but here is the situation. When you have an acute injury you generally should not put heat on it. Heat opens up the blood vessels which are already engorged even more causing more swelling and fluid accumulation in the injured area. This will result in relaxation for up to 12 hours after heat use and then ache worse than the initial event after the trip to lala land has ended. There are exceptions but for the majority of people please resist the urge to use heat unless I’ve told otherwise.

2. I thought it would go away but it has been two to three weeks and the ache hasn’t stopped. Ouch, this one is not good! The real question from me to you is why you thought that the ache would go away. Let me give you a simple analogy. Pretend the oil light on your car goes on, would you continue driving until it went out and just assume that the problem went away. I hope not. This is the best analogy that I can think of to relate to the ache signal that your body is sending you. Don’t pretend there isn’t something wrong. Get to the cause of the problem. Come get adjusted by a chiropractor immediately or as soon as possible after the initial event.

3. I don’t know why this happened, I am totally healthy, and there is nothing wrong with me. This is my favorite one from males. Guys, we have to admit to some facts. Women are much better at taking care of themselves then we are. The reason is because they are willing to tell someone when they aren’t feeling well and then they try to get help for it. Generally speaking, men are much more willing to put up with little problems that they experience. This is not good in the long run. One little crisis + one little difficulty + one problem = One BIG PROBLEM. The proof is that women tend to live something like 4 years longer than men. Surprise, surprise, I wonder if we men just think Oh well we aren’t going to live as long anyways so why not just put up with what we got and die sooner. This is of course some faulty logic because if we did take care of ourselves we would live longer.

4. I know that I only need one or two adjustments and everything will be fine.  Just crack my back and I’ll be all better. The only man I know in history who performed one treatment on someone and they were fine was Jesus. I am not Jesus. I don’t know any chiropractors named Jesus. Normally when people tell me the chiropractor fixed them in one adjustment and I look in their files, or consult with the other chiropractors I see that they have been adjusted 4 times on the low end and 8-10 on the high end (normal, about 6 visits) for an acute problem. My goal is to see you out of ache as quickly as possible so that you can function normally, but my goals do not end there! This leads me to the next common mistake.

5. Not getting adjusted by a chiropractor regularly to prevent these occurrences in your life. Now I am not saying that if you get regular adjustments your life is going to be perfect. Life is not perfect. I myself get regular adjustments. I don’t stop getting adjusted all together because I know that if I didn’t get regular adjustments and a flare up occurred, it would be a lot worse than it normally is. Our bodies are not perfect but if we work preventatively to keep things moving and aligned throughout the course of our lives a lot of these irritating aches could be avoided.

The joints of your spine are some of the key messengers of your nervous system. If they are not working there is no way for you to know because you cannot see them. Ache is your only signal and by then a lot of times it is already too late. Chiropractors are trained to detect problems with these joints and help prevent the ache before it occurs. Waiting too long will only cause more serious problems.

Science has proven that nerve endings are all affected during a chiropractic adjustment. The goal of chiropractic adjustment is to get you out of pain first of all, but to keep you ache free and fully functioning is the main idea. Chiropractors want to work with you to develop a healthy body which is firing on all cylinders so that you have a nervous system which is quick, alert, strong and ready to fight off any problems that you might encounter throughout the day. This is what regular chiropractic adjustments do. They help keep your central nervous system strong and healthy and give you the ability to live a better quality of life as far as your health is concerned. My desire is that you would all experience life and health to the fullest. For more information, contact New Century Spine Centers in San Diego at 619-630-9153. You can be treated by the best chiropractors and spinal decompression specialists.

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Posted in Chiropractic, Health | 3 Comments »

Can Chiropractic Care Keep Your Brain From Shrinking?

Monday, July 26th, 2010
Can your chiropractic doctor keep your brain from shrinking? The Journal of Neuroscience brings sobering news to long-term back pain sufferers. Scientists found that even one year of long-term back pain can age the brain 10 to 20 years. 26 individuals with long-term, continuous pain of more than a year were compared with 26 healthy individuals. The researchers theorize that the stress of long-term pain causes “burnout shrinkage.” But that may not be a life sentence.
Shrinkage doesn’t always equal loss of brain cells and shrinkage may reverse once the long-term pain ends. Can chiropractic care reverse the damage? Chiropractic success with long-term conditions is well known. Apparently “learning to live with it” may cause serious long-term problems. If you know anyone with a long-term condition please advise them to explore chiropractic care first. Their pain and their brain will thank them for the relief.
Most of you know that there can be damaging effects to your brain from electromagnetic radiation, environmental pollution, toxic chemical additives to food and other chemicals added to the things we drink, but did you know that pain can cause your brain to shrink somewhat.  I have been contemplating this brain shrinkage phenomenon since I first read about it a while ago.  The conclusions I have come up with may astonish a lot of you.
Here they are (keep in mind that I am being sarcastic here to prove a point): 1) Because individuals tend to think that their pain will “eventually go away by itself” (if only I had a dollar for every time I heard this), I suppose that the logic explanation for the reason that the pain eventually goes away is that part of our brain just disappeared. 2) If pain causes our brains to shrink it would probably be a good thing for those of us who are quite knowledgeable on every subject known to mankind (i.e. smarty pants) to be in pain every once in a while in order to give the other individuals around us a chance to keep up with us. 3) It may be beneficial to most of us that we only use a minor percentage of our brain’s capacity to engage in our daily activities (the myth that we use only 10% of our brains is exactly that, a myth).  But this could mean that most of us have lots of brains to spare so if we ever get into pain and start to lose our brains, we shouldn’t have much of a problem. 4) Some of us have been told that we have “swollen heads”, pain every once in a while might help our heads to shrink slightly, allowing us more easy passage through doorways and getting in and out of cars, we would also be less of an obstruction for the individuals behind us at the movie theatre.  5) Long-term pain could allow us to have that constant light headed feeling that some long distance runners strive for because our heads would literally be lighter.  This would also help our posture because a lighter head would be easier to keep upright.  Less forward head leaning with the reduction in weight makes for a better posture.
Well I hope you get the big idea that having a smaller brain is not a good thing or should I say avoiding pain is a good thing!  I have found that the best way to avoid ache is to be proactive about your health.  When my patients ask me how often they should come in to get adjusted I recommend at least one time per month to get checked and adjusted.  I personally try to get adjusted once per week and I believe that it helps prevent a lot of problems with my health that I would have otherwise developed.
So here is my official position on how often you need to be coming in to get adjusted.  If you do not have acute pain due to some unfortunate incident you should be coming in once per month.  I look forward to seeing you and helping you maintain your hat size for the duration of your life. New Century Spine Centers is located in San Diego in Mission Valley and can be reached at 619-630-9153.

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Interesting Information About Why You Are Shrinking And What You Can Do About It!

Monday, July 19th, 2010

The average human, both men and women shrink up to three inches over the course of their entire life. These facts are being revealed by chiropractors in San Diego. You can begin losing height slowly some time in your late twenties. This process then accelerates as you age. So, if you are in your thirties you are shrinking right at this moment! And the worst part is that some people shrink more quickly than others. The results can be a devastating “hunchback” appearance over time. It can also lead to limited mobility and constant pain. The good news is that there are simple and easy things you can do right now at this moment to minimize the aging and shrinking process. You can do things to make sure you stay strong and tall and don’t end up looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame! It’s not an appealing look.

Although there are several factors that lead to shrinking, the one that has by far the biggest impact on shrinkage is your spine. This is because the discs have several important functions. First, they help to keep the vertebrae together. The discs also act like a shock absorber, allowing the spine to compress and rebound when stress is applied to the spinal column. It acts as a sort of spring. The discs also maintain proper spacing between the bones. Proper spacing is needed so each bone can move completely without restriction. This space allows nerves to pass through their opening without getting pinched and altered. What does all this have to do with you shrinkage? The disc is like a week old jelly donut that can easily be ruined. It has a tough outer layer and a soft, jelly-like center. That center is normally over 85% water. Your disc makes up 33% of the height of your entire spine. So, if your disc somehow loses water, dries out so-to-speak, you lose height! And in some cases it can be a few inches.

Your discs only have one way to keep their water content. This is through a process known as imbibitions. It is also through proper motion. Proper motion serves as a natural pump that brings water and other nutrition in and out of the disc through imbibition. As soon as that motion is stopped or altered, the disc begins to shrink and die in the process. If your spinal bones misalign or malfunction, the discs cannot move through their normal range of motion causing its water content to be lost and the disc height to decrease. This misalignment is referred to by chiropractors as a subluxation.

And here’s an amazing fact that you need to understand. An estimated two inches of vertical height of the spine may be lost if the water content of the discs are lowered by only sixteen percent or more! What’s worse is that his sets off a vicious cycle of spinal and body degeneration. As your disc shrinks, it compresses joints and causes inflammation or swelling due to friction in the area. Swelling and more friction reduce mobility even more in the long run. As more motion is lost, the disc loses more fluid, shrinking even more, causing compression and the cycle keeps going and going until your spinal discs look like a slice of pepperoni on a pizza! What’s more, your spine can even become deformed, making it more difficult to maintain balance and upright posture. That’s one reason you see people with terrible looking hunchbacks or using a walker to stay somewhat upright. During this process, nerves can get pinched and compressed. This can cause severe pain and other chronic health problems.

That was a lot of bad news. But there is good news: Even though you can’t completely stop the aging process in your spine, you can seriously slow it down. This reduces the amount of height you lose and all the chronic pain and health problems that go along with the problem. How do you protect your spine? This can be done by simply going to your chiropractor and having your spine routinely checked for misalignments. Misalignments are known as subluxations. Through quick and easy chiropractic methods, it can determined if you have a problem that can cause spinal degeneration and all the problems that come along with it if a subluxation is found. Proper steps can be taken to correct it before serious and permanent damage is done. Chiropractic adjustments combined with rehabilitation procedures and proper nutritional can restore proper motion to malfunctioning spinal segments. This will decrease friction and swelling, and allow fluid back into the disc. This in turn will stop the vicious cycle of pain, degeneration and shrinking!

You need to ask yourself a question. Does it make more sense to routinely see your dentist for check-ups for your teeth even though your teeth don’t hurt or, should you wait until your teeth are in pain and falling out? I don’t know how you answered that question, but I think it makes more sense to see my Dentist prior to waking up in agonizing pain and needing a root canal. It does make sense to come see a chiropractor prior to being in agonizing pain. By that time, it may be too late and your only option may be surgery. The worst thing is that waiting until you are in pain means damage has already been done. Some damage can be corrected, but some cannot. Over time, this damage adds up. This leads to problems and pain that may not be able to be corrected.

I’m sure you heard the phrase an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Seeing a chiropractor that specializes in these conditions can mean the difference of suffering in agony or living a pain free life. The chiropractors in San Diego’s New Century Spine Centers are at the top of their profession. To learn more about the chiropractors in San Diego at New Century Spine Centers, call them at their San Diego office at 619-630-9153.

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