The human body is an amazingly complex system of bones, joints, muscles, and nerves, designed to work together to accomplish one thing: motion. Remember that motion is life. Everything about the human body is designed with motion in mind: nerve fibers stimulate the muscles to contract, muscles contract to move the bones, bones move around joints, and the nerve system controls it all.
As a matter of fact, research has shown that motion is so critical to our body's health that a lack of motion has a detrimental affect on everything from digestion to our emotional state, immune function, our ability to concentrate, how well we sleep and even to how long we live. If your lifestyle does not include enough motion, your body cannot function efficiently. First, you will not be as physically healthy and will suffer from a wide variety of physical ailments, ranging from headaches to high blood pressure. Second, you will not be as productive in your life because of reduced energy levels and the lack of ability to mentally focus. Third, because you have less energy, your activity level will tend to drop off even further over time, creating a downward spiral of reduced energy and less activity until you get to a point where even the demands of a sedentary job leave you physically exhausted at the end of the day.
Read on to find out more how strength, posture, movement, and balance all play into living a life full of motion.
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Sciatica
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Herniated Discs
Pain that radiates from your lower (lumbar) spine to your buttock and down the back of your leg is the hallmark of sciatica. Occasionally, sciatic pain in men is caused by sitting on a wallet.
The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in your body. It runs from your pelvis, through your hip area and buttocks
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Tension Headaches
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Chronic Condition Relief, Headaches
Tension headaches are the most common type of headache. The pain usually spreads throughout the head so that sufferers feel like they’re wearing a tight band.
Doctors divide tension headaches into two types — episodic and chronic. The episodic variety lasts from half an hour to a week, and recurs
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Migraine Headaches
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Chronic Condition Relief, Headaches
About 36 million Americans suffer from the debilitating headaches known as migraines, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. Women between the ages of 25 and 55 are the likeliest victims. Migraine headaches can last anywhere from a few hours to three days, drastically compromising individuals’
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Headaches
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Chronic Condition Relief, Headaches
Headaches affect just about everyone at some point and they can present themselves in many different ways. Some people only experience pain in one part of their head or behind their eyes, some people experience a pounding sensation inside their whole head, and some people even experience nausea, while
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Cluster Headaches
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Chronic Condition Relief, Headaches
While no headache is pleasant, cluster headaches can be particularly uncomfortable. Sufferers liken the sensation to a hot poker being stuck in their eyes, and may even feel like their eyes are being shoved out of their sockets.
Cluster headaches get their name because they occur in a cyclical pattern.
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Shoulder Pain
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Back and Shoulder Pain
Chiropractors will always seek to treat shoulder pain with the most gentle and drug-free methods possible. The ultimate goal of chiropractic care for shoulder pain is to bring the patient's shoulder back to full function while reducing and eliminating the pain caused by the injury.
Shoulder pain can
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Back Pain-Upper/Neck
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Back and Shoulder Pain
Most neck and upper back pain is caused by a combination of factors, including injury, poor posture, chiropractic subluxations, stress, and in some instances, disc problems.
Most people do not realize how much they move their neck during the day until they are unable to do so. The degree of flexibility
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Whiplash
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Auto Accident Injuries
The term "whiplash" was first used in 1928 to define an injury mechanism of sudden hyperextension followed by an immediate hyperflexion of the neck that results in damage to the muscles, ligaments and tendons - especially those that support the head. Today, we know that whiplash injuries frequently do
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Back Pain-Lower
Category:
Common Conditions Treated, Back and Shoulder Pain
The low back can withstand tremendous forces without injury. However, if the low back is out of adjustment or has weakened supporting muscles, something as simple as taking a bag of groceries can cause a low back injury.
Eighty percent of people suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Back
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Heat Therapy
Category:
Therapies & Techniques, Therapies
Most people have used heat at one time to sooth normal aches and pains — such as the use of a hot bath, a heating pad or even an old-fashioned water bottle.
Even today, these types of heat therapy play an important role in chiropractic practice to increase circulation and relax the muscles. At the
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Cold Therapy
Category:
Therapies & Techniques, Therapies
Applying ice after an injury is a common method for reducing pain and swelling. It is especially effective for athletes, who often experience sudden, painful injuries. This type of cold therapy, also known as cryotherapy, is used by chiropractors for the same purposes.
Types of Cold Therapy
Many types
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Manual Technique
Category:
Therapies & Techniques, Techniques
Manual therapy, also known as manipulative therapy, is a physical treatment primarily used by chiropractors to treat musculoskeletal pain and debility.
How Does Manual Therapy Work?
This form of physical therapy takes a hands-on approach rather than using devices or machines. When a chiropractor uses
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Drop-Table Technique
Category:
Therapies & Techniques, Techniques
Forceful spinal manipulation is not always necessary to treat conditions of the lower back, mid-back and neck. Gentle chiropractic treatment, such as drop table techniques, involves less powerful spinal maneuvering and slower, low-velocity movements that allow the affected joint to stay within its passive
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Active Release Techniques
Category:
Therapies & Techniques, Techniques
When there is damage to muscles and other soft tissues including pulls, tears, or not being able to get enough oxygen (hypoxia), it can result in the body producing rough, thick scar tissue in the affected area.
Scar tissue restricts the tissues from moving freely because they bind them and tie them
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Myths & Facts
Category:
About Chiropractic Care, How Does it Work
Myth #1 - Chiropractors are not real doctors.
A chiropractic college grants a D.C. or Doctorate of Chiropractic degree. Chiropractors are licensed as health care providers in every U.S. state and dozens of countries around the world. While the competition for acceptance in chiropractic school is not
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Living With Pain
Category:
Newsletter Library
Chronic disease is a major problem in U.S. health care. More than one-third of Americans have one or more chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The personal costs to patients and families are often severe, daily, and ongoing. The economic costs to society are almost $1 trillion
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