Patient Education
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The more you understand your body and how it functions, the better equipped you'll be at taking care of yourself to achieve optimal health. Our team of chiropractic professionals empower patients to take charge of your own health and future, educating you about your condition to decrease your need for future care. We've included the Patient Education section on our website to provide you with valuable, practical wellness information which you can incorporate into your lifestyle to improve the quality of your life. We hope you will turn to these pages whenever you have a question about health related issues and urge you to contact our practice at any time to make an appointment with one of our chiropractors.
The purpose of chiropractic is to improve and sustain quality of life.
This is achieved by awakening the body's natural healing ability through treatment of the musculoskeletal system, the healing power of touch and guidance in proper nutrition and exercise.
On Health
Many People think that health is how you feel. But lack of symptoms doesn't mean you're healthy. If you look good and feel great but have undetected cancer - you're sick.
True health is how well your body works mentally, physically and socially. If something isn't working right, then you're sick.
It is the purpose of your brain and nervous system to control the function of every cell, tissue, organ and system of your body. A properly working nervous system in concert with musculoskeletal integrity, proper nutrition and exercise is the key to good health.
We believe in the body's ability to heal itself. We believe healthy people are happy people.
On Chiropractic
Besides medicine and dentistry, chiropractic is the third largest doctoral health profession in the United States.
The typical applicant at a chiropractic college has already acquired four years of pre-medical undergraduate college education including course in biology, inorganic and organic chemistry, physics, psychology and related lab work. Intensive studies include course in anatomy, physiology, rehabilitation, nutrition and public health.
The curriculum includes no less than four years of classroom, laboratory and clinic experience - all aimed at preparing the doctor of chiropractic to be a portal-of-entry healthcare provider. The course of study is approved by an accrediting agency which is fully recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. This has been the case for 25 years.
Chiropractic involves the study of philosophy, science and art. Philosophy considers the fundamental nature of the existence of human beings and their interaction with the environment. The sciences deal with aspects of the universe related to human biology, and especially the relationship between spinal segments and the nerve system. Chiropractic's art is the expression of its philosophy and the concern with locating and correcting vertebral subluxations.
Instead of treating your symptoms, your Doctor of Chiropractic is primarily interested in detecting, reducing, and preventing the Subluxation.
How Chiropractic Works
To understand chiropractic, one must have a basic understanding about how the body functions. From the time you were born, an "inner wisdom" has known exactly how to keep you healthy and alive. It knows how fast your heart should beat, how often your lungs need to breathe, how to digest food and how to eliminate waste. There are millions of details controlled by this inner wisdom that keep this marvelous machine in prime functioning condition.
Every living organism in our world possesses what chiropractors call Innate Intelligence. The body machine comes out of the "factory" fully able to function, as long as it has regular fuel and adequate maintenance, thanks to this Innate Intelligence.
Innate Intelligence sends instructions to every organ and cell in your body through the nervous system housed and protected by the vertebrae. However, if these vertebrae are misaligned, even a little, those instructions can be interrupted. The result is "dis-ease" and dysfunction.
The word disease is a combination of 'dis' and 'ease'. 'Dis' is a prefix meaning "apart from" and ease meaning a "state of balance." It follows then that dis-ease is a lack of comfort, a loss in harmony in the system. When there is a lack of harmony in music, the musician adjusts the notes to complement each other. That's exactly what a chiropractic adjustment strives to do, restore body harmony, thus restore health.
International Chiropractic Association Children's Info
www.icpa4kids.com
Tennessee Chiropractic Association
www.tnchiro.com
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"Health is worth more than learning."
-- Thomas Jefferson
Did you know that people lose 20 to 40 percent of their muscle (and along with it their strength) as they age? Our population is aging rapidly as a result of the huge baby boom in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by declining birth rates in the succeeding decades. Thanks to remarkable advances in medicine and science, however, that rapidly aging population is more physically fit and, in general, destined to live longer than any generation that came before.
As a rule, the importance of proper nutrition and physical exercise does not diminish as one gets older. In fact, it can be argued that staying physically fit becomes more critical the older we get. This helps ward off the effects of aging immune response, circulatory and musculoskeletal systems in our body.
With all the technology and leisure time we enjoy today, it is mildly ironic that Americans sorely lack in regular physical exercise and proper diet, and at considerable risk. Lack of physical activity combined with a poor diet is the second leading underlying cause of death in the United States.
Here are some simple tips for staying healthier as you get older:
- Avoid stress.
- Eat healthy. Eat foods high in Vitamin C (such as broccoli, bell peppers, citrus fruits, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, and strawberries). This will help ward off osteoarthritis.
- Fortified dairy products and fish rich in Vitamin D help preserve your cartilage. Calcium (milk, broccoli, salmon and kale) keeps your bones strong.
- Follow proper guidelines for posture when standing or sitting for prolonged periods of time.
- Get regular physical checkups with your doctor.
- Keep your weight down—this reduces force and excessive stress on your body's musculoskeletal system.
- Protect your joints with comfortable yet firm footwear. Use wheeled carts to haul heavy items around the house.
- Do not smoke.
Ask your physician if it is all right for you to exercise, what kind of exercise is best, and whether any medications you are taking may make exercise a hazardous endeavor. In addition, do not undertake any exercises if your physician has consulted you against doing so. Immediately STOP any form of physical exercise if you experience pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, or other unusual symptoms. And always remember to breathe normally when performing any exercise.
Choose a type of exercise that you enjoy! One of the reasons many people stop soon after embarking on a form of exercise is that it's too boring, unchallenging, or discomforting. An ideal length is about 30 minutes daily or several days a week.
Types of exercises may include:
- Balance training – These kinds of exercises challenge your equilibrium by performing such activities as standing on one foot, then the other, without support.
- Endurance exercising – This type involves activity that forces you to breathe harder than you are used to.
- Strength training – This helps you tone muscles and lose fat. It also helps to keep your bones strong, which helps you avoid fractures as your bones weaken with age.
- Stretching exercises – These help improve your range of motion and flexibility.
A note about posture
Older people should be ever mindful of their posture. Poor posture and its attendant strains on your spinal structures and muscle groups can significantly increase your risk of degenerative arthritis, and muscle and joint pain.
Posture that fails to keep your spine in its natural position can lead to a loss in range of motion, increased pain and discomfort, muscle aches, headaches, jaw pain (from a forward or downward slackening of the head), shoulder, knee and ankle aches and pains, and diminished lung capacity (from the downward pressures of your rib cage against your lower back and hips).