Mobility & Flexibility - Joint Movement

For individuals experiencing pelvis pain symptoms and associated problems, can integrating pelvic floor physical therapy exercises help with treatment and prevention?

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

• The pelvic floor muscles are located at the base of the pelvis and protect the pelvic organs like the vagina, cervix, uterus, bladder, urethra, and rectum. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2019)
• They provide posture support, aid in orgasm function, facilitate sphincter function, and help pump lymphatic blood. (Dulcegleika Vilas Boas Sartori, et al., 2021) (Varuna Raizada, Ravinder K. Mittal. 2008)

When the muscles fail to function correctly, individuals can experience symptoms like:

1. Painful intercourse
2. Prolapse - when an organ or tissue drops or shifts out of place.
3. Urinary incontinence
4. Constipation problems
5. These conditions are common in pregnant individuals or older women.

These symptoms can be treated with pelvic floor physical therapy to alleviate discomfort. Pelvic floor physical therapy can help women and individuals with vaginas:

• Alleviate issues like painful sex, urinary leakage, and prolapse.
• In physical therapy, individuals work on breathing, relaxation, and lengthening and strengthening techniques to train their muscles to function optimally.

Causes of Pelvic Floor Issues

Pelvic floor dysfunction tends to happen with age, during pregnancy, or in combination with events like the postpartum period and menopause, which can lower hormone levels.

• Individuals who are pregnant are especially prone to pelvic floor issues but might not know they have a problem.
• The pregnancy weight of a uterus can pressure and strain the muscles.
• Vaginal childbirth can also stretch or weaken the muscles. (Ilaria Soave, et al., 2019)

Symptoms

Symptoms can include: (Columbia Surgery. 2022)

• Pain in the pelvis region
• Back pain
• Painful urination
• Constipation
• Urinary leakage or incontinence
• Stool leakage or incontinence
• Painful intercourse
• If left untreated, these symptoms can worsen over time.

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

An individual will meet with a specialist to discuss symptoms and undergo a physical examination that includes:

1. Pelvic floor exam.
2. Evaluation of posture, mobility, and core strength.
3. Once the initial exams and evaluation are complete, the practitioner will go over pelvic floor exercises and provide a treatment plan.
4. Recommended exercises vary based on symptoms but focus on relaxing, stretching, and/or strengthening muscles.

Muscle Relaxation

• To relax the muscles, a therapist may recommend breathing exercises.
• For pregnant individuals, this means timing breaths with contractions.
• For individuals experiencing constipation, breathing exercises can help the body relax and reduce strain.

Stretching Muscles

• Stretching can help relieve muscle tightness and stiffness.
• A therapist may help stretch the pelvic floor through various therapy modalities.
• This type of physical therapy can help loosen tight muscles or help gently reset dislocated organs back into place.

Strengthening Muscles

• After the pelvic floor is loose and relaxed, the focus typically switches to strengthening the muscles.
• Strength work may target abdominal muscles or the pelvic floor muscles themselves.

With time, commitment, and targeted treatment, individuals can use pelvic floor physical therapy to loosen tissues, strengthen muscles, and restore function.

Spinal Decompression In Depth

General Disclaimer *

The information herein is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified healthcare professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make healthcare decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified healthcare professional. Our information scope is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, sensitive health issues, functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from various disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and directly or indirectly support our clinical scope of practice.* Our office has reasonably attempted to provide supportive citations and identified the relevant research studies or studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.

We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, don't hesitate to get in touch with Dr. Alex Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900.

Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*

email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com

Licensed in: Texas & New Mexico*

References

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2019). Pelvic organ prolapse (pop).

Sartori, D. V. B., Kawano, P. R., Yamamoto, H. A., Guerra, R., Pajolli, P. R., & Amaro, J. L. (2021). Pelvic floor muscle strength is correlated with sexual function. Investigative and clinical urology, 62(1), 79–84. https://doi.org/10.4111/icu.20190248

Raizada, V., & Mittal, R. K. (2008). Pelvic floor anatomy and applied physiology. Gastroenterology clinics of North America, 37(3), 493–vii. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gtc.2008.06.003

Soave, I., Scarani, S., Mallozzi, M., Nobili, F., Marci, R., & Caserta, D. (2019). Pelvic floor muscle training for prevention and treatment of urinary incontinence during pregnancy and after childbirth and its effect on urinary system and supportive structures assessed by objective measurement techniques. Archives of gynecology and obstetrics, 299(3), 609–623. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-5036-6

Columbia Surgery. (2022). Pelvic floor disorders: frequently asked questions.

The number of individuals experiencing hip along with back pain is increasing and could benefit from chiropractic hip realignment. Chiropractic treatment is the recommended first-line option for hip pain and other issues related to misaligned hips. It is non-invasive and allows the body to heal naturally.

Shifted Hips

Hips that fall out of proper alignment have the potential to cause a variety of health issues in the body. The hips support a great deal of the body’s weight and facilitate substantial movement. The hips need to be properly balanced to allow for optimal mobility without compensation from the lower back and legs. A shift in the hips can occur from:

• A sedentary lifestyle can cause anterior pelvic shifts
• Repetitive/Overuse injury/s
• Sports injury/s
• Work/Personal injuries
• Arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Pinched nerve/s
• Trauma

Shifted hips can cause pain in the low back, hips, and legs. This occurs from an altered gait and range of motion in this region. However, the hip joints, pelvic bones, muscles, and ligaments can all contribute to hip shifting and pain. Hip issues can also cause sciatica.

Hip Function

The hips do not receive as much attention until aches and pain start to present. Our hips are involved in nearly everything we do, providing numerous functions. It is no wonder they can cause tremendous pain when they're out of alignment. The hips:

• Keep the body upright
• Bear the body's weight
• Allow for smooth:

1. Walking
2. Kicking
3. Running
4. Jumping
5. Sitting

Hip Adjustment

How to know if a hip adjustment is necessary? If there is any type of discomfort, soreness, and especially pain, a chiropractor is the best medical professional to perform an examination and recommend if an adjustment is necessary or could just need ice/heat and rest.

However, if the source is being caused by another condition or injury the chiropractor will recommend the proper health care professional/specialist that can treat the issue. Hip pain can also be brought on from a different part of the body having its own issues. One of the most common types of hip pain is actually from a hernia or sciatica.

Chiropractic Hip Realignment

Chiropractic techniques focus on rebalancing the body, especially when realigning the hips. Manual manipulation and mobilization treatment techniques can improve flexibility, strength, and positioning to promote optimal balance and hip realignment.

A combination of adjustment techniques can be performed on the hip and spinal joints. Massage treatment can be incorporated into the treatment plan to loosen tight muscles, as the hips are realigned and are able to move freely. The holistic nature of chiropractic doesn't just treat just the symptoms but identifies and treats the root cause. If the pain continues or worsens then the possibility for hip surgery could be recommended.

Complex Treatment

Working on imbalanced hips is not as straightforward as adjusting the low back. This is because there are a variety of arteries, nerves, joints, muscles, and other tissue structures that need to be considered during hip realignment. A chiropractor will use a careful combination of techniques when treating an imbalanced hip due to the complex nature of the area. In addition to chiropractic adjustments, chiropractors will suggest ways to improve hip mobility at home. This includes:

• Stretches
• Posture work
• Exercises

These will help prevent the hips from shifting out of alignment. Treating pain at its source is what chiropractors do. Chiropractic hip realignment along with the realignment of the spine will allow the body to move freely, maintain balance and strength.

Hip Labral Tear Treatment

Dr. Alex Jimenez’s Blog Post Disclaimer

The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, and sensitive health issues and/or functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate and support directly or indirectly our clinical scope of practice.*

Our office has made a reasonable attempt to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We also make copies of supporting research studies available to the board and or the public upon request. We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation as to how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900. The provider(s) Licensed in Texas& New Mexico*

References

Okuzu, Yaichiro et al. “Hip-Spine Syndrome: Acetabular Anteversion Angle Is Associated with Anterior Pelvic Tilt and Lumbar Hyperlordosis in Patients with Acetabular Dysplasia: A Retrospective Study.” JB & JS open access vol. 4,1 e0025. 29 Jan. 2019, doi:10.2106/JBJS.OA.18.00025

Chiropractic believes that optimal health comes from having a healthy nervous system, particularly a healthy spinal column.

Time, work, school, and everyday living means movement. And like anything that moves over and over again, at some point it's going to get stuck or slip out of place. When the spine's vertebrae become misaligned, pressure begins to press on the nerves that come out of the spinal cord. This is called a chiropractic subluxation and requires chiropractic realignment.

Chiropractors use a variety of techniques to mobilize the spinal discs so they can move freely along with returning them back into place and in their proper positions.

These techniques are called spinal manipulations/adjustments.

During an adjustment, the vertebra is released or set free from the misaligned position and put back into the proper position in the spine's column.

Adjustments allow the body to heal and maintain homeostasis.

Chiropractors are trained in a variety of adjustment techniques

• Some are done by hand
• Some use of specialized instruments

Ultrasound in physical therapy, treatment of shoulder muscles

Every patient is different, therefore a chiropractor will go through various treatment options with the patient, to choose the best technique and treatment plan for the patient's condition.  Ask the chiropractor which technique they will be doing and how it works.

Adjustment Techniques

Chiropractors use the following:

Toggle Drop

Using crossed hands a chiropractor presses down firmly on the areas that need adjusting and realignment. With a precise and quick thrust, the chiropractor adjusts the spine. This improves mobility in the vertebral joints.

Motion Palpation

This technique determines if the vertebrae are freely moving and with normal motion.

Lumbar Roll

The patient is on their side when the chiropractor performs a quick and precise thrust to the misaligned vertebra, that returns them to their proper position. 

Release Work

Gentle pressure is applied with the fingertips which separate the vertebrae and opens them up.

Physiotherapist during an Achilles tendon treatment but the same technique applies to the spine

Table adjustment

Here a specialized table is used that drops incrementally with the adjustment. The chiropractor applies a quick thrust at the same time the table drops. This allows for lighter adjustments without twisting and turning that go with manual adjustments.

Instrument adjustments

This is considered the gentlest method of spinal adjustment.

The patient lies on the table and the chiropractor uses an activator instrument to perform the adjustment/realignment/s.

A chiropractic adjustment can be a great way to improve multiple areas of the body, along with improving overall health with non-invasive treatment. Dr. Jimenez has teamed with the top surgeons, clinical specialists, medical researchers and premiere rehabilitation providers to bring El Paso the top clinical treatments to our community.  Providing high non-invasive protocols is our priority.

Severe*Sciatica* Pain Relief | El Paso, Tx (2020) | El Paso, Tx

After a chiropractic adjustment, the body can feel weird or out of sorts. This is completely normal and can be attributed to toxin release. This release flushes out the toxic particles in the body. The adjustments get the blood and nerve energy circulating properly. As the toxins travel through and out of the bloodstream, they can make the individual body feel strange, even a little sick. This could lead to side effects that last around 1-2 days.

Toxin Release

It is a normal sign and starts during or slightly after the adjustment. This often occurs with subluxation treatment. Subluxations can block/interfere with proper blood flow around the spine. This leads to pain and inflammation. As the chiropractor treats and releases, the subluxations, proper blood flow is restored. This can overwhelm the body, which can lead to release symptoms.

Duration Side Effects

The unwellness goes away within a few hours or days, depending on the individual and their condition. However, if the symptoms do not go away after a week, contact the chiropractor to let them know what is happening. Going through a few episodes of release is expected, especially during the first chiropractic sessions. It also depends on where the individual is healthwise. Usually, the first session is the most intense. As all the toxins are being removed from around the:

• Spine
• Joints
• Muscles

Symptoms

Symptoms vary, but the most common include:

• Cold or flu-like symptoms
• Fever
• Sweating
• Night sweats
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Muscle tension

The intensity of these symptoms depends on the number of toxins being released. The symptoms improve but don't hesitate to contact the chiropractic clinic with any questions or concerns.

Benefits

Individuals that have to go through release symptoms for a few days will find that their body feels cleaner and highly energetic. Brain functions increase because of optimal communication through circulation. Individuals with anxiety find that their body feels more relaxed. This is because the toxins that were irritating the nervous system have been flushed out.

Treating Toxin Release

There are a few ways to calm the body if symptoms present.

Drink Water

Water will expel the toxins out of the body quicker. It will flush through the bloodstream and then through the bladder where they are discarded. This will help the body recover faster. Eight glasses a day is the recommendation. This will keep the body hydrated and enhance the toxin release. Add some lemon juice to maintain mineral levels during the recovery. Lemon juice contains:

• Electrolytes can help reduce toxin release pain and help prevent symptoms.
• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Potassium
• This will maintain muscle health and function.

Extra Sleep Nap

Make sure to rest the body after a chiropractic adjustment. It is not recommended to not try to fight through the symptoms. This could be dangerous as the body is in recovery mode. If overwhelmed the symptoms could worsen. This does not mean staying in bed and sleeping, just not overexerting the body. Engage in calm relaxing activities.

Fruits and Vegetables

These will nourish the recovering body with vitamins and minerals. They also aid in reducing pain and increases energy. Plus fruits and vegetables are filled with antioxidants that can keep the muscles and bones strong. These include:

• Cranberries
• Raspberries
• Cherries
• Tomatoes
• Spinach
• Kale

It is recommended to get at least one serving of fruits and vegetables per meal. Avoid processed or sugary foods, as they can cause inflammatory responses to present. This could make the toxin release symptoms worse.

Yoga Poses

The body will more than likely feel sore and weak from the adjustments and the toxin release. Yoga can alleviate the symptoms. Poses can seem difficult because of the side effects, but the movement and stretching will make the body feel better. Here are a few that many chiropractors recommend.

• Cat-Cow Pose
• Cobra Pose
• Bound Angle Pose

Body Composition

Detox Diets

Detoxification diets are tools that are used by medical professionals and are not intended for quick or healthy weight loss. Naturopathic Practitioners have been shown to use a wide range of detox methods and products that include:

• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Diet
• Lifestyle adjustments
• Health coaching

Physiological changes during detox diets

Metabolism is the rate at which the body burns energy. This rate can change from different factors that include a temporary increase when excessive calories are taken in. There is no difference in weight loss from diets that focus on reduced-fat vs. reduced carbohydrates. Individuals should consult with their physician before starting any body detox cleanse, especially if there are underlying medical conditions like diabetes or kidney disease. If struggling with obesity, then a physician can provide recommendations on a traditional diet, exercise, and other medically approved approaches.

General Disclaimer *

The information herein is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional, licensed physician, and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make your own health care decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified health care professional. Our information scope is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, sensitive health issues, functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from a wide array of disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and support, directly or indirectly, our clinical scope of practice.* Our office has made a reasonable attempt to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.

We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900.

Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*

email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com

Licensed in: Texas & New Mexico*

References

Gardner, Christopher D et al. “Effect of Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults and the Association With Genotype Pattern or Insulin Secretion: The DIETFITS Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA vol. 319,7 (2018): 667-679. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.0245

Seaman, David R. “Toxins, Toxicity, and Endotoxemia: A Historical and Clinical Perspective for Chiropractors.” Journal of chiropractic humanities vol. 23,1 68-76. 3 Sep. 2016, doi:10.1016/j.echu.2016.07.003

Valdivieso, Paola, et al. “Does a Better Perfusion of Deconditioned Muscle Tissue Release Chronic Low Back Pain?.” Frontiers in medicine vol. 5 77. 20 Mar. 2018, doi:10.3389/fmed.2018.00077

Spinal Cord Injuries Are Not Only Caused by Trauma

When people think of spinal cord injury/s or SCI's, traumatic events like a major auto accident, hard fall, severe sports injury or intense work injury come to mind. It is true that auto accidents are the leading cause, however, non-traumatic accidents and diseases like a spinal tumor can also cause spinal cord injuries.

These types of injuries involve damage to the spinal cord that can temporarily or permanently affect its functionality. Spinal cord injuries are divided into 2 categories: traumatic and non-traumatic. Even with non-traumatic injuries the impact or severity is not lessened and the aftermath can have a devastating effect on a person’s life.

Spinal Cord Injury Trauma

• Vehicle crashes: Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of traumatic spinal cord injuries, and they account for 40% of all SCI's.
• Falls: Falls are the second cause of traumatic spinal cord injuries, and they account for 32% of injuries.
• Sports: Sports and recreational activities cause around 9.0% of traumatic spinal cord injuries.
• Violence: Violent acts, like gunshot wounds or a stabbing cause around 14% of spinal cord injuries.

Spinal cord injuries occur more in men than women with 80% of cases affecting men.

Although people of all ages can experience SCI, there are activities/events that increase the risk that affects different age groups more than others. An example is high-impact actions like motor vehicle accidents and sports injuries occur more in young adults. Conversely, spinal cord injuries caused by a fall happens more in adults over age 60.

Regardless, SCI occurs more in the neck or cervical spine. Around 60% of cases involve the neck, followed by the mid-back or thoracic spine that averages to around 32% of injuries. Although most people experience low-back pain, only 9% of spinal injuries occur in the low back and tailbone or lumbosacral spine.

Understanding SCI Trauma

Damage to the spinal cord not only affects the area where the point of impact occurred. The primary injury can also damage cells, dislocate the vertebrae and cause spinal compression. It can also trigger secondary injuries, that cause a series of biological changes. This can happen within weeks or months after the injury.

The secondary injury cascade processes:

Glial cells along with the nerve cells in the spinal cord begin to die. These cells provide nutrients and other support to the nerve cells in the central nervous system. This consists of the brain and spinal cord.

The blood vessels in the spinal cord lose their ability to function, and this reduces the blood supply to the cord. When the blood supply becomes inadequate it is called ischemia. Blood vessel injuries expose the cord to inflammatory cells that in turn cause swelling. When the spinal cord becomes inflamed the spinal cord gets more and more compressed. If this happens the initial injury progressively worsens.

This changes the cord’s structure and its normal operation. The secondary injury cascade can interfere with the cord’s ability to heal itself. This means an individual could experience permanent nerve pain and dysfunction.

Non-traumatic SCI

Spinal cord damage does not only happen with traumatic events. An SCI can also be caused by non-traumatic diseases in the spine. Tumors are the leading cause, but infections and degenerative disc disease can also cause serious damage.

Non-traumatic SCI's happen more than traumatic based ones.  The incidence of traumatic SCI in North America comes to around 54 cases per one million people. With the incidence of non-traumatic SCI is around 1,227 cases per million people.

Healthy Spinal Cord Injury Outcomes

Spine researchers are making great strides in developing optimal protective and regenerative treatments to improve spinal cord health after these injuries occur.

Currently, innovative medical, surgical, cell-based and alternative treatments are furthering the medical community’s understanding of SCI's. This is dramatically improving the quality of life and creating positive futures for individuals who experience these injuries.

*EFFECTIVE* Treatment for Auto Accident Injuries | El Paso, Tx (2020)

NCBI Resources

The muscles in the back keep the spine moving and functioning properly. When the spine or abdominal muscles are weak this creates a higher probability of a back strain or injury. Having strong, healthy spine muscles are important because they function in maintaining correct posture, which in some cases, causes chronic back pain because of poor posture.

If only one part of the body is strengthened like the back is not enough. Therefore strengthening the rest of the body is a must. These include the body’s core and leg muscles. Total body strength will reduce back pain and can help perform regular activities, like lifting heavy objects much easier, with more confidence and with a lesser probability of injury.

As people grow, live their lives it becomes more and more difficult to maintain normal flexibility and losing flexibility can result in a lot of pain to the musculoskeletal system.

Unfortunately, most of us do not retain flexibility throughout the day, even when trying to be active. Many jobs are largely sedentary, and even leisure activities keep us stuck in one place. In order to remain functional, joints and muscles need to be used, which means they need to be properly stretched without being overworked. The balance is often very delicate, fortunately, you can chiropractic brings increased flexibility.

The Role of Chiropractic in Flexibility

Most adults are not concerned with being able to twist like a pretzel, however, they do want to be able to maneuver through daily life without a lot of pain. One of the main things accomplished in most chiropractic visits is that the chiropractor will look for misalignments in the spine and seek to correct them with a combination of chiropractic adjustments and exercises.

Chiropractic Adjustments

When the spine is misaligned it can affect many different areas of the body including flexibility. Someone who is not flexible will have a limited range of motion (ROM) and treatments are designed to improve this and restore natural posture.

But being flexible is about more than moving better. When the body is stiff, even simple movement results in pain because it is blocked by the misalignment. When this is corrected, blood flow improves and the process of improving flexibility becomes less taxing

Nutritional Adjustments

There is more to a chiropractor's day than correcting misalignments in the spine. Chiropractic is holistic in nature and in order to be truly successful, it relies on the patient to be a cooperative participant in treatment. Giving nutritional advice is a big part of this.

While advice can vary from patient to patient, generally, when a person struggling with flexibility adds protein and fatty acids into their diet it can help joints and muscles to be properly nourished. People should also monitor their intake of processed and pre-packaged foods as these can contribute to inflammation.

Flexibility Training Exercises

Because of many factors in our lives, as well as the effects of aging, people's range of motion inevitably decreases as time goes by, especially if nothing is purposefully done to maintain it. Flexibility exercises are commonly strongly suggested by chiropractors as they strive to help their patients with range of motion (ROM) and flexibility issues.

In many cases, such as those where someone is suffering from tendinitis or bursitis, the truly therapeutic exercises are resistive exercises. These, however, are limited, unless a higher level of flexibility is achieved.

Flexibility programs are implemented in order to make a given joint have a wider level of extensibility, which may be achieved by either traditional static stretching or Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) techniques, which incorporates a slow reversal hold.

Working with a chiropractor on a regular basis for help in gaining flexibility can help assure that a patient moves forward at an appropriate pace that is in line with their age and fitness level. This will help them achieve a higher level of success in their chosen sport or similar activity, and/or become more productive in their daily lives while experiencing less pain.

Correct *BAD POSTURE* with Custom Orthotics | El Paso, Tx (2019)

Maintain Proper Posture

Your spine does more than keep your body upright: it’s the brain that communicates to the rest of the body. Posture even affects your emotional well-being, including self-confidence!

Poor posture takes a serious toll on health. Here are a few of the negative results:

• Muscle soreness
• Subluxations
• Blood vessel constriction
• Nerve constriction

As the years go by the problems worsen, which results

• In pain
• Restricted motion
• Makes the body more susceptible to injury/disease

Treatment

Chiropractic care can help you maintain a healthy posture by keeping the body balanced. Additionally, custom-made orthotics are designed to help the benefits of that care last longer and better.

Maintaining proper posture involves sitting, standing, and lying down properly. Here is an excerpt from the American Chiropractic Association website on how to:

Sit properly

• Keep your feet on the floor or on a footrest, if they can't reach the floor
• Don't cross your legs. Your ankles should be in front of your knees
• Keep a small gap between the back of your knees and the front of your seat.
• Your knees should be at or below the level of your hips.
• Read more on the ACA website.

Stand properly

• Bear your weight primarily on the balls of your feet.
• Keep your knees slightly bent.
• Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart.
• Let your arms hang naturally down the sides of the body.

Lie down properly

• Find the mattress that is right for you. While a firm mattress is generally recommended, some people find that softer mattresses reduce their back pain. Go with your comfort
• Sleep with a pillow. Special pillows can help with postural problems resulting from a poor sleeping position
• Avoid sleeping on your stomach