Phillips Chiropractic

Chiropractors, like Dr. Phillips, are committed to making sure their patients know the importance of drinking plenty of water daily. The chant is “Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate!” For humans to survive, they need air and water (in that order). So, it would seem that drinking enough water would be as visceral as breathing in enough air, but a surprising 75 percent of individuals in this country have mild, constant dehydration. (Most people are not breathing enough either, but one issue at a time.) You you cannot maintain or regain good health without drinking an adequate amount of water. Drinking plenty of water benefits every cell, tissue, and organ in your body and maintains the proper function of every system. Your saliva, and the fluids surrounding your joints, are primarily water. Water balances the temperature and metabolism of the body, and keeps the blood circulating. Drinking plenty of water daily has been shown to improve nutrient absorption and toxin removal, and to reduce heartburn, hypertension, exhaustion, headaches, and even back pain.

When it comes to conditions created by dehydration, athletes are especially at risk. Researcher, Susan Yeargin, assistant professor of athletic training in Indiana State’s College of Nursing, health, and Human Services, said of athletes,”Physiologically, their core body temperature could be higher than it should have been if they were hydrated. Their heart rate will be higher, and they’re going to perceive that they’re working harder than they actually are.”  According to researchers at Indiana State University, a high percentage of collegiate and professional athletes begin the season dehydrated, putting their health at risk even before they begin strenuous workouts. In fact, Pre-season physical examinations, in fact, found that 80 percent of football players exhibited dehydration.

Confused about how much water is enough water? Chiropractors, like most health care professionals, advise no less than eight, 8-ounce glasses of water daily for quite a few of our patients, but for our patients who are athletes, or for individuals who carry around excess weight or exercise or work where it’s hot, we recommend even more. How can you find out if you, personally, are drinking an adequate amount of water? The color of your urine is a good gauge. If it is a light, pale yellow, it’s evidence that you’re well-hydrated!

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If you’re feeling low back pain, you’re not the only one. Low back pain bothers many people, an amazing 80% in fact, making it second only to the common cold in its prevalence. However, unlike the common cold, waiting for your back pain to “run its course,” and taking prescription or over-the-counter remedies while you wait, is not the cure. Usually most back pain won’t go away by itself. Frequently, if your pain lessens, it is routinely because your body has compensated for the problem, thus producing new conditions. Low back pain is nothing to sneeze at! If you’d like to defeat your back pain for good (and who wouldn’t?), you need to seek the advice of a back pain expert, like your chiropractor.

In many instances back pain is a mystery to most people who are afflicted by it, and chiropractors are proficient at solving the puzzle. They want to know why it is that they have not experienced any trauma, accidents, or major injuries before the onset of their condition? The answer is that the cumulative effects of unsuitable sitting posture, bad work habits, incorrect lifting, lack of routine exercise, and other unhealthy lifestyle-related influences generate most back pain. These factors add up over time and produce stresses and imbalances on the spine producing subluxations that can turn into serious back conditions. The process is similar to the front end of your car being out of alignment. When you persist in driving anyway, there is unbalanced wear and tear on your tires. If you ignore the problem, the situation would, no doubt, get worse until you “blew” a tire. The stability of the spine is jeopardized when your spine is misaligned. It’s not only a problem waiting to happen, so to speak, it’s a problem waiting to get worse. And then, something as easy as bending over to pick up a piece of paper can be the “final factor” that causes back injury. The surrounding back muscles go into spasm when thisoccurs to stabilize the stressed or injured tissues of the back.

Chiropractors have more education, training, and experience than medical doctors when it comes to problems of the spine. They offer highly qualified diagnosis and experienced treatment for all muscular-skeletal problems. They not only provide welcomed relief to individuals suffering from back pain, but they are aware of what will assist you in avoiding further back pain. Your chiropractor not only will provide you with effectual adjustments and other productive chiropractic therapies but, in addition, will offer a personal exercise strategy and recommend other beneficial lifestyle changes that will help to keep you well-adjust and pain-free in the future.

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Alternative Care for Arthritis Pain

There are a number of treatment options from which you can choose when it comes to your back pain and pain in other parts of your body because of arthritic changes. Quite a few men and women who are experiencing painful arthritis and back pain think that they should go to a medical doctor as the best way to find a cure for their problem. But, it may surprise you to know that only a small number medical doctors are able to help individuals prevail over the problem of back pain due to arthritis. Rather than being disciplined in finding and treating the reason for the pain you are undergoing, medical doctors generally treat only your symptoms, and more often than not, through medication. And, while some medications may ease the symptoms of arthritis, there is much more that you can do not simply for pain relief, but to genuinely slow down arthritic changes in your body.

Visiting a chiropractor is truly one of the smartest things that you can do to gain relief from your arthritis and back pain. Chiropractors are doctors who practice entirely in therapies relating to the muscular and skeletal system, and arthritis is a joint affliction. Chiropractic care has helped many people to slow the process of arthritis by helping their joints to move. Movement is crucial for joint health. A good chiropractor is extraordinarily competent in treating back pain, even when it is caused by arthritis

If you have never gone to a chiropractor before, you might be a little bit concerned about what is going to go on once you are in the office. Here’s a a moment about what you can expect. You will will be given the opportunity to discuss your medical history, which will probably include a family history of arthritis. The chiropractor will want to know about your current lifestyle and may offer distinct alterations that will be very helpful in the reduction of inflammation due to arthritis. And, finally, you will receive a thorough examination. After the examination is finished, the chiropractor will let you know if chiropractic management can help your back pain, as well as relieve your painful arthritic symptoms. At the end of your visit!Then you will be told about the exact treatment you will require.

A chiropractic adjustment relieves pain gently and naturally, and it is a painless process. And, the paramount aspect of going to a chiropractor for your back pain and arthritis is that you can feel assured that the reason for your pain is being addressed, and that the relief you experience is not masking the symptom of pain, but actually taking care of the origin of your condition.

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There are many individuals today in a daily struggle to lose weight, particularly too much weight around the middle. Yet, the imperative to lose weight is, more often than not, more than a simple cosmetic issue.  The unfortunate truth is, if people are lugging around extra weight in the front of their body, their back is going to be in pain as a consequence.

The majority of men and women who are overweight encounter moderate to severe back pain. The reason for this is because the spine was not made to carry anything that weighs more than the body is at its generally healthy weight.  As a human being puts on added weight, the spine starts to negatively change and to compress, creating a lot of pain and discomfort.  In addition, it can have an impact on the pelvis, tilting it forward and perhaps compelling it to pinch the sciatic nerve. That is one of the main reasons why people who are overweight tend to have challenges with their lower back. The affliction is due to either sciatica or the distorting of the spinal column.

If you are suffering from this problem, certainly the thing to do is to take off the extra weight that you are carrying around, and your spine will immediately respond and return to its regular position.  Regrettably, losing weight is difficult and it can take time, even with the best of intentions. But, luckily you don’t have to endure back pain as you lose the weight. A chiropractor can help you to get the pain relief you’ll require to help you as you shed the extra pounds.

However, you will still need to lose the extra pounds, and not having back pain will undoubted help you do it. Two things that are simple (but not necessarily easy), but will be highly beneficial to you in losing the extra weight naturally are doing some sort of exercise, even if it’s merely a little bit per day, and adapting the food you eat so that you are taking in less calories than you are using throughout the day. Sure, you’ve heard about these two things before. But, now that you’ve found out that your back is depending on you, it’s the perfect time to get truly motivated.

Start exercising slowly, especially if you’re having challenges with back pain. And, most importantly, be sure to see a chiropractor so that you don’t go wrong the way many people do, which is to exercise into the pain. That will definitely make matters worse. Exercise, though occasionally uncomfortable, should never be painful or cause pain. That’s why it’s important to see a chiropractor if you’re suffering from back pain.

Do basic stretching exercises and also concentrate on your core abdominal body muscles. Strong stomach muscles aid in relieving back pain. Your chiropractor will be able to provide exercises that are best for you, personally. After a very short period of dedication to losing the weight that is producing your back pain and conceivably other health difficulties as well, you ought to begin to notice a significant difference in the way that you feel.

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Introduction

When the body is seen from behind, a normal spine looks straight without much deviation from one side to the other. However, if the spine is observed to have a lateral, or side-to-side, curvature, the patient might have an affliction called scoliosis.The affliction shouldn’t be confused with poor posture, although it oftentimes gives the appearance that the person is leaning to one side. Scoliosis is a troublesome deformity that is expressed by both lateral curvature and rotation of the vertebra oftentimes causing a symptomatic “rib hump” in the mid or thoracic spine. This is created by the vertebrae in the area of the major curve rotating toward the concavity and pushing their fastened ribs posterior thereby creating the characteristic rib hump seen in thoracic scoliosis. The pulmonary and cardiac functions can be interfered with if the thoracic curve and rib rotation is more than 70 degrees. Often later in life in untreated severe idiopathic infantile and juvenile scoliosis patients, this intensity of curve and consequential cardiac and pulmonary changes can be life threatening.

Anatomy

The spine displays four normal curves: the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral, all of which are apparent from a side view of the trunk. In the lower spine there is a normal “C-shaped” curve called swayback or lordosis, while the thoracic curve in the chest region has a “reverse C” called a kyphosis. Increased kyphosis in the thoracic area is called hyperkyphosis, while elevated swayback is termed, hyperlordosis. Diversions from normal that are visible from a side view generally accompany scoliosis changes. A few round back deformities are simply due to unhealthy posture and can often be resolved with postural exercises. A small percentage of individuals with kyphosis have more rigid deformities than the postural type, which are associated with vertebral deformity. This class of deformity, called Scheuermann’s kyphosis, is much more difficult to treat than postural kyphosis, and it’s cause is unknown. Even a nonprofessional can help to identify a child or grownup with scoliosis merely by looking at the person in a standing position, preferably bare-chested and in shorts, and observing the following:

• One shoulder may be more elevated than the other.

• One scapula (shoulder blade) may be higher or more pronounced than the other.

• There may be more area between the arm and the body on one side when the arms hang loosely at the side.

• One hip may appear to be raised or more prominent than the other.

• The head is not in plumb with the pelvis.

• One side of the back appears higher than the other when the individual is observed from the rear and asked to bend forward until the the spine is horizontal.

Once scoliosis is suspected, the child or adult should be sent to a healthcare professional, such as a chiropractor, for further assessment. Your Santa Barbara chiropractor would be happy to help. The most prevailing class of scoliosis is, by far, Idiopathic, and though there are many different causes and many kinds, Idiopathic scoliosis accounts for about 85% of all cases. “Idiopathic” means “no known cause” and is seen with equal frequency in boys and girls in the mild or low curve magnitudes.

This condition can be sub-classified into infantile, juvenile and adolescent categories, depending upon the age of onset. Idiopathic Scoliosis frequently runs in families and may be linked to genetic or hereditary influences. Though it is unknown why, girls are five to eight times more likely than boys to have their curves grow in size and require treatment. The most general time for the development of Idiopathic Scoliosis is during adolescence when children are ending the last major growth spurt.

Unfortunately, at this age young people are reluctant to let their body to be looked at by parents and other adults, so it is smart to have this age group examined on a regular basis. It is vital that if a scoliotic curve is found in a growing adolescent, the curves be monitored for any change by a periodic examination and sometimes standing x-rays. In ninety percent of cases, the scoliosis is mild and does not require active treatment, though| increases in spinal deformity necessitate evaluation to ascertain if a brace or other management is needed. In a small number of people, surgical treatment may be necessary.

Brace support (orthosis) is recommended for newly-found conditions of moderate scoliosis or abnormal kyphosis, as well as when an increase in scoliosis or kyphosis is discovered in both juvenile and adolescent children. There are many types of braces, all made to prevent curves from increasing through the process of acting as a buttress for the spine during active skeletal growth. Bracing is effective in stopping curve progression in an impressive portion of skeletally-immature adolescents. But, braces normally will not make the spine entirely straight, and cannot always keep a curve from progressing.

There is no simple solution for scoliosis. The majority of cases, even though often monitored, are not actively treated. The standard medical treatment for moderate conditions is a brace, whereas severe afflictions are sometimes treated surgically. You may want to see your Santa Barbara chiropractor first. Besides bracing, many other modalities have been used successfully like specialized exercise, electric stimulation of spinal muscles, nutritional programs, and chiropractic treatments. It appears that the most effective results have been sustained with a multi-faceted approach to the management of this abnormality. There are chiropractors, such as your Santa Barbara chiropractor, that have years of experience managing scoliosis conditions.

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