5 Ways Exercise Can Help Your Brainpower and Mood!

27 Apr

1.     Exercise reverses the detrimental effects of stress.  Exercise boosts levels of soothing brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.  On a cellular level, exercise may even reverse some of the damage caused by stress that can accelerate the aging process.

2.     Exercise lifts depression.  Sustained, sweat-inducing activity can reduce symptoms of depression about as effectively as antidepressants, according to a recent study.

3.     Exercise improves learning.  Exercise increases the level of the chemicals in the brain — called growth factors — that help make new brain cells.

4.     Exercise builds self-esteem and improves body image.  Even simply seeing fitness improvements, like running a faster mile or lifting more weight, can improve your self-esteem and body image.

5.     Exercise leaves you feeling euphoric.  High-intensity exercise can leave you with a feeling of euphoria.  Try running, biking, or swimming as fast as you can for 30 to 40 seconds and then reduce your speed to a gentle pace for five minutes before sprinting again.

Study Shows Meditation Helps Brain Power!

20 Apr

A new study by UCLA researchers found that meditation appears to help preserve the brain’s gray matter, the tissue that contains neurons.  This is extremely important because at some time in the mid-to-late 20s, the brain begins to decrease in size and can often lose some function.

According to the study, the effects of meditation were greater than expected. Study co-author Dr. Florian Kurth writes, “We expected rather small and distinct effects located in some of the regions that had previously been associated with meditating… Instead, what we actually observed was a widespread effect of meditation that encompassed regions throughout the entire brain.”

Dr. Kurth warns that this study does not “prove” meditation preserved gray matter in the brain.  There are many other factors such as lifestyle and genetics that can have an effect, but the results are promising and hopefully more research will give more definitive answers.

What’s The Take-Home Message Here?

16 Apr

First, the majority of low back pain is mechanical and can be treated with chiropractic care. Second, many cases of low back pain can be prevented in the first place by avoiding awkward positions, distractions, and fatigue while performing physical activities.

Learning proper posture while sitting can help prevent the abnormal stress and strain that lead to low back pain over time. If you develop low back pain, seek the proper treatment, one that has a proven track record. Getting the best care to get out of pain as fast as possible is extremely important. Also, make sure your treatment plan includes information on how you can prevent your low back pain from coming back (such as learning proper lifting technique) because relapses are often worse than the original injury.

What Treatments Help Mechanical Low Back Pain?

14 Apr

Chiropractic has been shown to be both safe and effective for the treatment of mechanical low back pain.  For example, a study published back in 1990 in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) compared Chiropractic care to hospital outpatient treatment and found:  “Chiropractic treatment was more effective than hospital outpatient management, mainly for patients with chronic or severe back pain.  A benefit of about 7% points on the Oswestry scale was seen at two years.  The benefit of chiropractic treatment became more evident throughout the follow-up period.  Secondary outcome measures also showed that chiropractic was more beneficial.”

The study concluded, “For patients with low back pain in whom manipulation is not contraindicated, chiropractic almost certainly confers worthwhile, long-term benefit in comparison with hospital outpatient management. The benefit is seen mainly in those with chronic or severe pain.”

It is great that Chiropractic care can help low back pain, but the main goal of any treatment should be to get you out of pain AND prevent your pain from coming back.

New research published in Arthritis Care & Research, the journal of the American College of Rheumatology, shows that being engaged in manual tasks involving awkward positions can increase an individual’s risk for a low back injury by up to 800%. Researchers also found that those who are distracted or fatigued while performing physical tasks are also at significantly higher risk for a low back injury.

What About Preventing Back Pain?

13 Apr

If you want to prevent low back pain, then you must first understand its cause. A 2008 study found that the majority of low back pain (97%) is mechanical in nature. Mechanical low back pain is the general term that refers to any type of back pain caused by injury to the spinal structures (bones, ligaments, and disks, for example).

In other words, if you have low back pain, the odds are the cause is NOT a tumor or anything life-threatening. But… and this is a very big BUT… every case of low back pain should be evaluated by an appropriate physician to rule out non-mechanical causes. This is why chiropractors are trained in differential diagnosis to determine when low back pain is mechanical and when it is something more serious.

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Man Walks 21 Miles Every Day to and from Work for 12 Years!

9 Apr

But What Happened Next Is the Best Part of the Story…

James Robertson is a 56-year-old man who ran into a little problem twelve years ago when his 1988 Honda Accord stopped working.  He lived 23 miles from the factory he worked at and could not afford another car.  For most people, this would be enough for them to quit, roll over, and play dead, but not James Robertson.

He decided to do whatever it took to get to work and “whatever it took” turned out to be quite shocking.

Every workday, Robertson would walk most of an astounding 21-mile round trip from home to work and back to home.

Here is another amazing fact about this:  Robertson made this journey every day for a $10.55 an hour job.  Since this is barely enough to pay for rent and food, he continued this for twelve years because he was unable to buy another car.

What does Robertson’s boss have to say about him?  “I set our attendance standard by this man,” says Todd Wilson, Plant Manager at Schain Mold & Engineering.  “I say, if this man can get here, walking all those miles through snow and rain, well I’ll tell you, I have people in Pontiac 10 minutes away and they say they can’t get here – bull!”

Wilson also said that Robertson comes in his office every morning to talk sports, and Wilson’s wife makes dinner for Robertson every night.

Here’s where the story gets good…  One day, a banker by the name of Blake Pollock saw Robertson making his daily journey and offered him a ride. The two traveled together for work for a few months until Pollock shared Robertson’s amazing story with the Free Press. Then, Robertson’s story went viral.  That’s when a 19-year-old college student, Evan Leedy, changed the 56-year-old factory worker’s life forever.

Leedy started a GoFundMe drive for Robertson that raised over $300,000 from 11,400 donors in just four days!  At the time of this writing, the campaign has raised over $350,000!  So much for living in a cruel world filled with people who only care about themselves!

But it gets even better…  A local car dealership, Suburban Ford of Sterling Heights, gave Robertson a fully loaded 2015 Ford Taurus.

According to USA Today, the dealership’s manager, Jim Elder, said getting his own employees to work on time is often difficult, and they live in the same town as the dealership.  Then there’s Robertson, who lives miles from work and hasn’t been late in a decade.

While Robertson’s dedication to his job and the work of Leedy and Pollock to help him could cause one to label them as heroes, so are the 11,400 people who donated money to a man they have never met.  Here is something to think about:  11,400 people donated to reach $300,000.  That means the average donation was just $26.32.  It’s amazing how a seemingly insignificant act and amount of money can have such a massive impact on someone’s life.

Just imagine what kind of impact we could make on the world if everyone gave just a little time, energy, or money to help someone they didn’t know each and every day!

We love helping our patients and their friends and relatives through their tough times and getting them feeling better! We are here to help you stay feeling better and looking younger!

Don’t be a stranger. You really can afford Chiropractic care! Don’t wait until you can no longer move!

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