A Parent’s Guide to Chiropractic

Most people recognize the value of chiropractic care for adults. But a more normally working nervous system can help everyone. Before subjecting their child to risky drugs or hoping it’s “just a phase they’re going through,” wise parents consult our office.

Chiropractic care for children is different from that for adults. Tailored to their age and weight, their adjustments often require no more pressure than you’d use to test the ripeness of a tomato. Children in our office enjoy their chiropractic care and look forward to their visits.

Can you recognize the signs of spinal nerve interference in your children?

Proper maternal nutrition, exercise and regular chiropractic care help create the best opportunity for healthy prenatal growth. Baby clothes, bassinets and car seats are also concerns. These are important, but consider the trauma of the birth process.

Pulling, forcing and twisting a baby from the birth canal are still too common. Cesarean section, forceps, suction extraction or eager hands can do unseen damage. Even “natural” birthing methods can cause subluxations.

Subluxations are areas of your baby’s spine that interfere or distort controlling nerve impulses between the brain and body.

With vital neurological signals compromised, your child’s health is impaired from his or her first breath. Other problems can appear years later.

Only a chiropractic examination can tell if subluxations are involved.

Many infants and toddlers will rub or tug at their ears. If they can talk, they complain. If they can’t, their crying makes us feel helpless, even desperate.

Subluxations are often found in children who suffer from chronic earaches. An impaired nerve supply can make their middle ears and eustachian tubes susceptible to fluid buildup or even infection. Traditional treatment usually involves the antibiotic amoxicillin. The result? A recent study showed that children taking amoxicillin compromise their immune system function. They are twice as likely to have recurring ear problems than those taking just a placebo.

Instead, restoring proper nerve supply with safe and natural chiropractic care has helped thousands.

Without the language to explain what’s wrong, some newborns exhibit unexplained crying, a lack of appetite, allergic reactions or other difficulties.

Newborns and infants often show a tendency to hold their head to one side or prefer breastfeeding from one side.

These are ways they cope with abnormal spinal function and an impaired nervous system.

Chiropractic care has been shown helpful for infants suffering from colic. As subluxations are reduced, more normal sleep patterns emerge. Many parents notice that other aspects of their child’s health improve as well.

Chiropractors are alert to the many ways nerve interference can negatively affect your baby’s health. As children grow and explore their world, crawling leads to walking. Walking leads to running. Tricycles lead to bicycles. Before we know it, their mobility and curiosity produce a whirlwind of nonstop activity.

Along the way they lose their balance. They fall. They slip. They trip. They stumble. They tumble.

A kiss and a bandage may be comforting, but what about the unseen injury to their spine?

Even though your child’s young body has tremendous capacity to adapt, uncorrected subluxations can set the stage for problems often seen later in adults.

Regular chiropractic checkups during this time of rapid growth are essential.

What’s the difference between children who seem to get “the bugs that are going around” and those who don’t?

Spinal subluxations can hamper your child’s ability to ward off infection. Weakened by a compromised nervous system, his stomach, lungs, nose, ears and throat can welcome viruses and other microbes.

Restoring the integrity of the nervous system and the workings of every cell and tissue is what chiropractic care is all about.

Many parents who consult our office report that their children miss less school and seem healthier than other children.

With puberty come hormonal changes, a new self-consciousness, awkwardness and a lack of coordination. A host of nonspecific aches, pains and muscle spasms often appear.

These so-called “growing pains” may be common, but they are not normal.

That they seem to resolve on their own is merely a tribute to the adaptive qualities of children’s growing bodies. Uneven leg length, unbalanced hips and other underlying spinal distortions often go unnoticed.

We see the results years later in adults with chronic, expensive and hard-to-correct problems.

Parents who want their children to enjoy their fullest potential consult our office to help assure proper growth and development.

Aches and pains at any age are signs that something isn’t right. It’s convenient to treat the symptoms with a couple of aspirin or some other medication.

But should you?

Worse, what do you teach your child when you help her feel better by taking a drug? How will you explain the difference between a “good” drug and a “bad” drug?

Virtually every drug has side effects. Will your child be the one to experience the stomach bleeding, liver damage or other side effects from popular over-the-counter pain relievers?

Rather than dangerous symptom-treating, the chiropractic approach detects and helps correct the underlying cause. Without drugs.

A common symptom during adolescence, especially in girls, is an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine called a “scoliosis.” Alert parents may notice that a high shoulder or low hip make clothing fit poorly. Back and leg pains may be present.

A thorough chiropractic examination can help detect scoliosis in its earliest stages. That way, corrective action can begin with a program of specific chiropractic adjustments.

Adjustments help reduce subluxations and improve spinal structure and function. Muscles can strengthen. Posture can improve.

Safe and natural chiropractic care has helped many young women avoid braces, surgery and the psychological effects of this underlying deformity.

We have high hopes for our children. Above all we want them to be happy, be healthy and reach their fullest potential. Raising children is a big responsibility that can produce extraordinary joy and satisfaction.

Along the way you’ll make many choices on their behalf. Will you allow needless antibiotics to tamper with your child’s immune system?

Will you agree to ear surgery to install an artificial drainage system? Will you consent to the use of Ritalin or other personality-altering drugs? Or, will you trust the ability of their body to heal naturally, unhampered by subluxations?

Please choose wisely.

Traditional symptom-treating is expensive and unattractive. That’s why more and more families include a chiropractor on their health care team.

We look at the total you. We recognize the self-healing properties of the body. We know that regardless of their age, a subluxation-free nervous system gives your child the opportunity to be their very best.

Schedule an appointment for your child or grandchild today!

704-899-5000

taken from http://joshuagelber.com/health-facts/children/parents-guide/

How Can Stretching Help with Depression?

Stretching, in its ease of use and portability, can be a great solution in the fight against depression. How? Behold some of the many potential effects:

• Stretching just before bed can lead to a better night’s sleep. This in turn will help your body balance its hormones, including cortisol. We now know that cortisol is a hormone associated with stress, being fearful, depression, and a host of other undesirable states. Worse – and not surprisingly, studies are indicating that elevated cortisol levels seem to increase our cravings for high-fat, high-sugar foods. Which leads to the next bullet point…
• By helping you get a better night’s sleep and thus regulating your hormone levels, stretching can also offer the extended effect of helping you maintain your weight. None of us needs a study to know that when our weight is at a level we feel comfortable, we are far happier and far more resilient against feeling depressed.
• While a good night’s sleep is one way to regulate our cortisol (see first bullet point), slow stretching and yoga in of themselves help to reduce cortisol levels as well, through the stress-reduction benefit of lengthening and consciously relaxing our muscles, and breathing smoothly. And when you’re less stressed, you’re probably also less depressed. Or, at the very least, you know that if you are MORE stressed, almost certainly you are vulnerable to be more depressed!
• Mindfulness – that is, being mindful and engaged in life’s activities (all of them, including the more mundane) – tends to be quite the opposite state of mind than that of depression. When you’re mindful, you are focused, aware, calm, and involved. When you’re depressed, you’re blah, stressed, and detached. So any activity, such as yoga or stretching, that can momentarily pull you into that mindful state, can also help keep you there and prevent you from returning to that depressed state.
• Stretching, by virtue of it alleviating physical stiffness, increasing blood flow, calming the central nervous system, and refreshing weary and fatigued muscles, can only help relieve the physical sensations associated with depression, leading to a sense of increased sense of well-being and the ability to extract joy and pleasure from what you’re doing.
• It’s been shown that an increase in gratitude can help offset feelings of depression and in fact elevate one’s happiness. What better way to cultivate that gratitude than in becoming attuned to the miracle of your body’s abilities through stretching? Feeling your muscles stretch, listening to yourself breathe, watching small improvements from one stretch session to the next, sensing an improved posture in yourself…..all of these things serve to interrupt the bombardment of outside information and bring us back to the sweet simplicity of re-connecting to that inner dialogue with your own body and mind.
• Finally, stretching simply FEELS GOOD. It’s one activity that we can all do for ourselves, any time, any day, in any number of ways, and best of all, the relief is almost immediate!

taken from http://www.theflexibilitycoach.com/articles/Articles_PDF/Can_Stretching_Alleviate_Depression.pdf

Here at Complete Wellness Chiropractic, we offer a comprehensive stretching program called Functional Movement that works one-on-one with you to establish good stretching habits and routines. We work on balance, posture, flexibility, strength and coordination through a series of stretches that you can weave into your already existing daily routines. This is a great way to get yourself moving and to maintain all of your progress!

Call today to make your appointment!   (704) 899-5000

Eating Well on a Budget

by Judith Fertig

http://www.naturalawakeningsmag.com/Natural-Awakenings/March-2012/Eating-Well-on-a-Budget/

In tough economic times, many families include food in their spending cuts. How can we tighten our budget and yet still eat well?

Six months ago, Josh Viertel threw down the “value meal” gauntlet in a major way. The Slow Food USA president challenged cooks around the country to create a family-friendly feast for under $5. Many responded, sharing their tips and tricks at SlowFoodUSA.org/5Challenge. Here are some favorites.

 
Setting a Budget

Five dollars per meal for 21 meals a week, plus snacks, neatly totals the $125 weekly food budget set by the Leake family, of Charlotte, North Carolina. Lisa and Jason Leake, parents of two young daughters, first explored what it would be like to eliminate processed food from their diet, which they describe in their blog at 100DaysofRealFood.com. Their success led to the additional challenge of eating real food on a budget.

“Having a realistic weekly budget is helpful, because you can’t go too far over budget before you realize you are in trouble,” advises Lisa Leake. To make it even easier to stay on track, she makes it a habit to shop near home and uses cash instead of credit.

 
Seasonal Shopping

“If we shop for seasonal produce and freeze or can surplus from our local farmers’ market, we can eat well all year and still eat frugally,” advises Rebecca Miller, a macrobiotic and healing foods caterer from Overland Park, Kansas. “When fresh blueberries are $3 a cup at the grocery during the off-season, for example, we can still enjoy canned berries in recipes or thawed from the freezer on our morning oatmeal.”

 
Eating Down the Fridge

Seattle-based Kim O’Donnel, author of The Meatlover’s Meatless Cookbook, blogs about family meals for USA Today. “I regularly emphasize what I call ‘eating down the frig,’” she says. “That means making use of what we’ve got on hand, like generations before us that also went through food shortages. We’re just out of practice.”

One way to help ourselves learn, says O’Donnel, is to stock a “smarter” pantry. Staples include different varieties of dried beans; lentils; quickcooking grains such as quinoa, bulgur, couscous and purple barley; garbanzo beans; brown and black rice; and a few BPA-free canned goods like tomatoes, black beans and chickpeas.

“If we take our time and watch for good deals, we can build a pantry at a low cost,” she says, because such ingredients are basically “blank slates.” As just one example of a low-cost, pantry-based meal, O’Donnel might start with cooked red lentils, then add fresh ginger and garlic, sautéed onion with cumin, and fresh spinach and tomatoes, and then serve it with whole-wheat pita bread.

 

Ingredient-First Cooking

Jane Zieha, a certified public accountant, knows that feeding people and watching the bottom line can go together. She owns the acclaimed Blue Bird Bistro, in Kansas City, Missouri. An avowed all-natural, organic, sustainable and local foods passionista, Zieha has stayed true to the principles of her Pennsylvania upbringing.

“I didn’t eat like anybody else growing up,” she says. “We never ate packaged food. We ate what was fresh. When I was old enough to go to a friend’s house for dinner, I was surprised at how they ate.” Today, both at home and at work, Zieha continues to select the best that local farmers can provide. “I don’t start with a recipe and then find the food, like most chefs and restaurants do,” she explains. “I find the ingredients and then go from there.”

 

Meat as a Condiment

More expensive ingredients, such as heritage turkey, can bring more flavor and texture to an entrée as an ingredient instead of a standalone part of a meal, advises Zieha. She might feature heritage turkey in an enchilada filling, pasta or savory bread pudding, so that a little goes a long way.

It also makes sense to shop for varieties of fish or cuts of meat that aren’t widely popular or that take longer to cook. Slow Food’s Viertel, who shops near Brooklyn, New York, remarks:
“I buy ‘trash fish’—sea robin, squid, mackerel, sardines—because they are cheaper and I believe, taste best. The same is true of the other meats I buy. I never cook pork chops or filet mignon; I cook oxtail and short ribs.”

Then, O’Donnel adds, the frugal cook turns bones of roasted poultry or trimmings from a whole fish into a delicious stock. Any homemade broth can be just the frozen asset we need for yet another tasty “value” meal.

Cookbook author Judith Fertig writes at AlfrescoFoodAndLifestyle.blogspot.com.

Fam Jam - Only 1 Month Away!

April 21st will be here before we know it! 

 Health, wellness, and rock ‘n’ roll!  With a variety of bands, demonstrations, rides, and many other attractions, this exciting event promotes health, wellness and fun for the whole family! This event was created by Dr. Robert Cynowa of Complete Wellness Chiropractic to raise awareness for the Children’s Attention Home in Rock Hill, with ALL proceeds being donated to this amazing organization. We are located at 1520 Onyx Ridge Rd. Join us on April 21st to participate in some fun activities, and to show your support for the Children’s Attention Home!  

The Healing Zones

An aspect of our office that makes us unique is the use of our “Healing Zones.” When you lay down to experience your first adjustment you will notice that you have a neighbor. The use of open adjusting rooms is just one of the areas in the office that promote healing.

We have chosen an open adjusting arrangement for several reasons:

• Patients frequently interact with one another which helps to foster an encouraging and supportive contribution to the healing process. Patients often report that there is an energy of caring and concern created like no other doctor's office they have experienced.

• The open room approach tends to generate an atmosphere that is positive, happy, fun, and healing that allows us to provide enthusiastic, on-time service with incredible staff assistance.

• It is a wonderful teaching environment! Doctor means teacher in Latin and we take that role to heart. The patients on neighboring tables as well as visitors get a chance to hear our answers to patient questions and to receive the health messages and research insights we bring each day. Health in general and the specific benefits of the chiropractic approach in particular need much public clarification and repetition.

We know that there will be times in your healing process where you may need to speak to the doctor in private. Please do not hesitate to tell Racheal or Jamie and they will let the doctor know.

Stop in to experience all the new updates in our office!

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