Here is an episode of Healthy Hints for Harmony where I talk about headaches and how chiropractic treatment can help.

As a chiropractor in Toledo, OH, I treat many people with headaches and allow them to live their lives with less pain. If you or someone you know has headaches, give my office a call at 419-517-5055 and make an appointment.

Here is one of my episodes of Healthy Hints for Harmony on Chronic Inflammation.

Make sure that you check out my blog post on what foods are pro-inflammatory and what foods are anti-inflammatory.

Inflammation is one of the things that causes us to heal. We have all had minor cuts from time to time. When a cut starts to heal, the redness, swelling and tenderness that can develop around the scab is inflammation. When inflammation is controlled, it heals and repairs the body. It is one of our first defenses against infection. When inflammation is out of control, and we are in a pro-inflammatory state, we are setting the stage for chronic and autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Just being inflamed will lead to more pain if you have an injury. A sprained ankle would swell more and be more painful than if our body’s immune system is not overreacting. Trying to eat correctly and supplementing with the basics may help contribute to a faster recovery time and prevent some chronic diseases.

Are you inflamed?

• Do you eat inflammatory foods?
• Do you feel tired all the time?
• Are you overweight?
• Do you have aches & pains?
• Does exercise seem too stressful?
• Do you easily get cold & flu symptoms?
• Do you look older than you are?

Answering Yes to any of these questions would mean you are at risk for chronic diseases.

Again, the foods listed above increase the level of chronic inflammation in your system. That does not mean that you need to give up eating them completely. It means decreasing consumption of some of those foods, like not having spaghetti as the main meal but as a side. Ideally, your diet should consist of mostly vegetables and some protein from lean animal meat. Nutrition is one of the issues that I work with patients on when they come into the office. In order to help someone get out of pain, one needs to approach the issue from multiple different points of view. Chiropractic adjustments are extremely powerful but they work best when done with proper stretching and strengthening exercises and myofascial work. Choosing the right food is a major part of getting better and by making choices to deflame your diet, you will improve your health and decrease your aches and pains.

For more information, please take a look at the following resources:

• The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain, PhD
• Know Your Fats by Mary G. Enig, PhD
• www.Deflame.com
• Coconut Oil (www.coconutoil.com & www.tropicaltraditions.com)
• Grass Fed Meats (www.eatwild.com & www.lgbeef.com)

Grass fed meats can be found at Fresh Market in Toledo, OH. Even though grass fed beef is still a red meat, it is actually better for you than most chicken available at the grocery store. You can find bison at the House of Meats (usually in the freezer at the Anderson’s) and that is typically grass fed as well.

Here I go over general ideas on how to treat upper crossed syndrome and I show an exercise called Brugger’s Postural Relief Exercise which you can do to decrease pain and dysfunction from upper crossed syndrome.

Graston Technique and Kinesio Taping are two things that really help get Upper Crossed Syndrome under control as well.

My episode of Healthy Hints for Harmony on Toledo BizConnectTV where I talk about what Upper Crossed Syndrome is.

Feel free to leave a comment below!

Take a look. Make sure you are wrapping your presents right too, like I talk about in the video.

Here are some things to remember when you are out raking your yard.

A study in 2004 showed that when a chiropractor acted as the primary care physician and gatekeeper in an HMO, significant cost savings were found. During a four year period, there was a decrease of 43.0% in hospital admissions, 58.4% hospital days, 43.2% outpatient surgeries and procedures, and 51.8% pharmaceutical cost reductions¹ compared to other conventional medicine IPAs offering the same HMO product during the same time frame in the same area.

Even more impressive is when the study was revisited after running for seven years, the savings became even more apparent. There were decreases of 60.2% in hospital admissions, 59.0% less days in the hospital, 62.0%  less outpatient surgeries and procedures , and 85.0%  pharmaceutical cost reductions when compared with normative conventional medicine IPA performance for the same HMO product in the same geography over the same time frame. These final numbers are based on 70,274 member months or approximately 836 members over 7 years.

What makes this even more impressive is that the conditions which patients presented with were the same as for any normal primary care physician. There were patients who presented complaining of issues which ended up being diagnosed as cardiovascular, gynecologic,  endocrine (thyroid, diabetes), sinus, gastrointestinal and even cancer. The patients did not have worse outcomes than patients in other programs. In multiple surveys, member’s satisfaction rate was well in the 90% which is rare for conventional medicine.

1. Sarnat, R and J Winterstein. “Clinical Utilization and Cost Outcomes From an Integrative Medicine IPA.” Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics . 27. (2004): 336-347. Print.
2. Sarnat, R, J Winterstein, and J Cambron. “Clinical Utilization and Cost Outcomes From an Integrative Medicine Independent Physician Association: An Additional 3-Year Update.” Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics . 30.4 (2007): 263-269. Print.