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Food for Thought….Tips for a Healthier (and Happier) Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, and, for many, the beginning of several weeks of over-eating, over-doing, over-spending, and overwhelming their bodies chemically, physically and emotionally. At Overland Chiropractic, we are committed to bringing wellness to our patients and community by being experts in the identification and treatment of stress. Thanksgiving is a time for reflection, traditions, and making good memories. With a little planning, you can have the healthy and happy holiday you deserve.
Since stress can affect your body in many different ways, here are some tips for reducing stress and staying healthier this season:
Chemical Stress:
- Decide ahead of time that you will only eat until you are satisfied, NOT until you are “stuffed”. Eat slowly, and enjoy the meal and the company.
- Drink plenty of water. It will help you feel fuller and will aid in the digestion of food. Limit your intake of sweetened, carbonated beverages, alcohol, and caffeine.
- Consider enzymes to help with digestive issues and the absorption of nutrients. We would be happy to discuss enzyme therapy with you.
Physical Stress:
- Take a walk after your Thanksgiving meal. If you have planned for a walk, you probably won’t be as apt to overeat, and the exercise will help fend off that post-turkey fatigue!
- Get plenty of rest. Listen to your body. Schedule a chiropractic treatment if needed.
- Make sure to delegate the cleaning, cooking and entertaining responsibilities – you don’t need to do it all by yourself.
Emotional Stress:
- Have grace for yourself and others. Family events may be marred by an undercurrent of past experiences or by expectations that are too high. Remember that no one is perfect, including you, and appreciate your time together.
- Choose just a few meaningful activities, and don’t be afraid to say “no” to everything else.
- Make room in your schedule for personal prayer or quiet time.
We are here to serve you and to meet you on the path to wellness. We wish you the best of health and a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Posture month continued: ADAPTATION
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
ADAPTATION – The 5th Posture Principle
Over the last month, I have been blogging about the Posture Principles: Motion, Balance, Patterns, and Compensation. Now we have reached the 5th Principle: Adaptation. Adaptation is the body’s response to stressors. Our bodies are very efficient in coming up with strategies to avoid pain and stress. Unfortunately, while we may be able to avoid pain in the short-term, we have unconsciously entered the Pain Cycle. Remaining in the Pain Cycle by continuously adapting to pain leads to: (1) compromised movement, (2) “shifting” of the body’s loads, (3) repetitive stress, and (4) further injury. Once you have reached step (4), you are immediately thrown back into step (1)….and so on and so on.
The good news is this: MOTION breaks the pain cycle!
To move out of the Pain Cycle and into the Motion Cycle, a great first step is an Aligned Strong Posture. Posture training leads to balanced motion. Balanced motion means freely-moving joints, ligaments and muscles. It is “youthful” motion! With freer, more youthful motion comes the ability to effectively exercise. Exercising while maintaining a strong core maximizes the health benefits and helps prevent injuries. Training your core muscles helps to keep your body stabilized, and results in a stronger posture….leading to balanced motion, effective exercise, trained and coordinated core muscles…and so on and so on!
We often hear people say, “Use it or Lose it”. With posture training, you CAN “Use it to KEEP it”!
Because of the great response to Posture Month at Overland Chiropractic, we have extended it into the middle of June. We are offering our patients, their families, and their friends a Free Posture Photo Analysis. Please call our office at 913-345-9247 to claim this offer for yourself and a loved one. Why put off living better and aging well? Let’s begin, together, today!
Posture Month Continued: COMPENSATION
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
COMPENSATION – The 4th Posture Principle
You are probably sitting as you read this blog – at a computer desk, in an easy chair with your laptop, or enjoying the outdoors with your smart phone. And how you are sitting has most likely not crossed your mind. You are sitting the way you always sit…without thinking about your posture.
Your body has learned to move in the patterns it has been taught. Sitting, walking, crossing your legs or arms in your own unique pattern….it has all been learned over time. In fact, try this:
- Cross your arms
- Observe – is your left or right forearm on top?
- Now, cross your arms again, but this time put the OPPOSITE forearm on top. Doesn’t it feel awkward (if you can even do it at all)?
Dr. Steven Weiniger, founder of BodyZone, explains the above exercise this way: “The body moves in a pattern of motion which follows the path of least resistance. Reversing the top forearm moves your arms, shoulder girdle and neck in an unfamiliar pattern. Habits, old injuries and your unique body type cause muscles to strengthen and joints to stretch in your ‘normal’ pattern of motion.”
This is also known as Compensation. Compensation allows us to get better at creating the habits that shape our body. These habits can be good, or they can be bad. Bad habits begin taking hold when injury, then pain, cause us to compensate and avoid pain. As Dr. Weiniger puts it, “Over time, a vicious spiral of compensation and adaptation weakens posture, balance and joint stability and sets the stage for new injury, chronic pain, and joint degeneration (osteoarthritis.)”
A February article on the Center for Disease Control’s website states the following: “Research shows that pain or fear of pain, fear of worsening symptoms or damaging joints, and lack of information on how to exercise safely prevent people with arthritis from being physically active. Not being physically active is a risk factor for many other chronic diseases and interferes with management of these conditions.” Clearly, breaking the Pain Cycle is key to not only living better now, but also for preventing further serious illness.
Posture training can help break the pain cycle by reducing muscle and joint stress, and thereby preventing injury and further breakdown. Overland Chiropractic is offering our patients, their families, and their friends a Free Posture Photo Analysis. Please call our office at 913-345-9247 to take advantage of this offer for yourself and a loved one. Why put off living better and aging well? Let’s begin, together, today!
Posture Month continued: Patterns
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
PATTERNS – The 3rd Posture Principle By Kelley Patterson
Just under a year ago, I made a commitment to leave my “couch potato” lifestyle and began exercising on a more regular basis. To age well, I knew that I needed to get moving. “Hypokinetic Disease” is a term drafted by Drs. Kraus and Raab in their 1961 book, and it means degeneration which occurs from a sedentary lifestyle. Hypokinetic Disease includes obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, low back pain, and Type 2 diabetes. Peggy Kraus (Examiner.com) writes, “70% of our population have some type of hypokinetic disease… In spite of the fact that exercise reduces body weight, lowers cholesterol level, lowers blood pressure, improves sleep, improves body image, improves mood and lifts depression, reduces risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, and osteoporosis (among others), and reduces the need for many common medications in addition to countless of other benefits, more than one-third of Americans do not exercise.”
May is Posture Month at Overland Chiropractic, and Patterns is the 3rd Posture Principle. “Patterns”simply refers to the fact that your body’s chain of motion will follow the path of least resistance. When you are sedentary, when you have a job that requires you spend a lot of time seated, and when you do not exercise on a regular basis, your body will begin compensating for your weaker muscles. Your brain, spinal cord and nerves will learn to use your stronger muscles more than your weaker ones, and your core and posture will become weak as your body strives to maintain upright balance.
Try this: Take a piece of paper and fold it sharply.
Now, unfold the paper, and take out the crease.
Can’t do it? Here’s why: You can unfold the paper, but once creased, it is always creased. The paper fibers are distorted in a pattern which becomes the path of least resistance. Now, think about your body. Contracting muscles and connecting ligaments, tendons and fascia fold and distort along the creases we create in our body as we, too, move along the path of least resistance.
Posture distortions not only cause fatigue and pain, but set the stage for posture degeneration and premature aging.
So, what can you do? You must create a new pattern of motion by:
1) Restoring motion to areas of restriction; and
2) Focusing exercise to unused muscles.
Posture and core-strengthening exercises will result in pain-free, balanced motion. Balanced motion helps you move naturally and age well!
Overland Chiropractic is offering our patients, their families, and their friends a Free Posture Photo Analysis. Please call our office at 913-345-9247 to take advantage of this offer for yourself and a loved one. Why put off living better and aging well? Let’s begin, together, today!
Posture Month: Continued
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
BALANCE – The 2nd Posture Principle
By Kelley Patterson
Do you remember junior high gym class? Each year we would have a unit on gymnastics. Part of the fun was getting the chance to walk on the balance beam. I remember there were always a few who effortlessly glided down the beam and gracefully leapt off…I was not one of those students! My gym teacher would shake her head and tell me I didn’t have balance.
Guess what? My gym teacher was wrong! Every one of us has balance; if we didn’t, we would fall down! What she really was talking about was being WELL-BALANCED.
Posture can be defined as “how you balance your body”. Keeping your balance is usually something you don’t have to think about, but constantly holding your body upright has real effects on your entire body. “Good posture means strong balance and control without muscle and joint strain….The key to effectively improving posture is strengthening the core muscles which control HOW we balance,” says Dr. Steven Weiniger, founder of BodyZone. Balance and Posture must work continuously in unison to keep us steady and upright. This becomes more and more important as we age. A December 2010 article on the Centers for Disease Control’s website states that each year, one in every three adults age 65 or older falls. Falls can lead to moderate to severe injuries, such as hip fractures and head traumas. Among people aged 65 or older, falls are the leading cause of injury death, and they are also the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma. Falls can be prevented through regular exercise, particularly core-strengthening exercises.
Weak balance leads to back problems, joint stress, poor posture and possible falls. Balance can be improved at any age! A key to aging well is balance training.
Try this: One Leg Balance
- Stand up straight. Lift up one leg and count to 30.
- Stop the first time you have to put your foot down to balance….Don’t cheat!
- Repeat for the other leg.
Can’t do it? Here’s why: If you can’t balance with control on each leg for 30 seconds, or if you flail your arms to keep from falling, then your balance and your core body strength is weak.
May is Posture Month at Overland Chiropractic, and Balance is the 2nd Posture Principle. Balance training and core-strengthening lead to improved posture. Improving your posture will improve your motion, leading to effective exercise and better health.
Overland Chiropractic is offering our patients, their families, and their friends a Free Posture Photo Analysis. Please call our office at 913-345-9247 to take advantage of this offer for yourself and a loved one. Why put off living better and aging well? Let’s begin, together, today!
Dr. Robert Patterson introduces Posture Program at Overland Chiropractic
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
How many of us remember a parent or a teacher reminding us to stand up or sit up straight? It turns out, that was very good advice. Posture is “the physical end result of how your body deals with the millions of inputs about your environment that the brain receives from the nervous system every second,” according to Dr. Steven Weiniger, DC, who focuses on posture rehab and biomechanics in Atlanta, Georgia. Strong posture helps your body move more effectively and reduces mechanical stress on your muscles and joints. A weak posture may cause pain in the neck, back, pelvis, shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, hip, knees, ankles and feet. In other words, poor posture can affect every area of your body! As we age, strong posture helps us to maintain balance and avoid falls. In 2007, more than 21,700 Americans died as a result of falls. Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among adults aged 73 and older, and the second leading cause of death from ages 60-72. The National Institute of Health recommends staying fit and flexible, and maintaining physical strength and balance to prevent falling (source: National Institute of Health website.)
Interestingly, strong posture can also give a boost to our mental health by affecting how we think about ourselves, according to Richard Petty, co-author of a study on body posture and professor of psychology at Ohio State University. Participating students who were told to “sit up straight” during the study expressed more positive traits about themselves than those who were told to “slouch” and “look at their knees”. Petty said, “their confident, upright posture gave them more confidence in their own thoughts”.
Overland Chiropractic is excited to offer our patients an innovative Posture Program designed to reduce stress on the body, reduce pain, and strengthen balance. Mention this blog to a member of our staff, and receive a free Posture photo and consultation with Dr. Patterson. Make stronger posture part of your wellness-living today!
ABC News Medical Unit Shares Health Tips For the 2011 New Year!
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
Posted By: Dr. Robert Patterson
Here is an article from ABC News, written by Katie Moisse, about how to maintain your New Year’s resolution goals. Moisse provides five health goals for the new year. The first health goal is about losing weight.
Five Health Goals for 2011 and How to Meet Them
Nothing gets you thinking about health quite like a month of excess. As the holiday haze clears, New Year’s resolutions come into focus. But for many, January’s motivation dwindles by March – if not sooner.
Because the start of a new year is a great time to think about breaking bad habits and starting fresh, ABCNews.com asked health experts to share some healthy resolutions and tips on how to see them through.
Lose Weight
Many of us start the year with ambitious plans to shed the holiday pounds and then some. But without signs of success in the first few weeks, motivation can fizzle.
The key to losing weight, and not January’s enthusiasm, is to set realistic short-term goals, according to Lisa Cimperman, a registered dietician at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
“There’s a lot that goes on between losing that first pound and losing that 100, 50 or even 20 pounds,” Cimperman said. Aiming to lose 1-to-2 pounds per week can help you stay on track and power through the inevitable weight loss lulls.
“There’s a lot that goes on between losing that first pound and losing that 100, 50 or even 20 pounds,” Cimperman said. Aiming to lose 1-to-2 pounds per week can help you stay on track and power through the inevitable weight loss lulls.
But don’t let the numbers on the scale be the be-all end-all, Cimperman warns. Strength training can boost muscle mass, masking successful fat loss. Measuring your waist and thighs over time and paying attention to how your clothes fit can help you track how your body’s changing.
And if you do get stuck in a rut, don’t be afraid to ask for some help.
“Studies have shown that support groups or just having someone else encouraging you will help make you successful,” Cimperman said.
How to Reach your Personal Goals for the 2011 New Year!
Friday, January 7th, 2011
Posted By: Dr. Robert Patterson
Another year has begun. Have you taken time to reflect back on last year? What things did you accomplish? What do you want to achieve this year?
If you have not done it yet, begin making a list of the things that you would like to achieve this year. Personally, I like to write down categories such as family life, spiritual life, health, and finances. I then list the various things that I would like to accomplish in each category this year. Lastly, I ask myself what has to happen in order for each of those things to happen, and I put a time frame on it.
It takes some time and effort, but it is the only way you are ever going to realistically achieve your goals. As Zig Ziglar once said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
A few tips to help you achieve your
- Make your goals concrete and specific.
- Visualize the goal and what it is going to take to achieve it, in as much detail as possible.
- Set specific time frames to achieve each of the steps along the way
Have a great year, and good luck in achieving your goals!
Top 20 Fitness Trends for 2011
Thursday, December 30th, 2010
Posted By: Dr. Patterson
The New Year allows people the opportunity to evaluate their health and fitness. According to an article from http://www.webmd.com, written by Bill Hendrick, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recently released a list of the top 20 predicted worldwide fitness trends for 2011. According to the article, personal trainers, fitness programs for older adults and core training are among the trends for the upcoming year.
Here more trends for 2011:
- Educated and experienced fitness professionals. Thompson tells WebMD that “more people are expected to turn to educated professionals,” even though those trainers cost more. “More states are considering legislation to license personal trainers. People want the best.” The ACSM says in a news release that an increasing number of organizations are offering health and fitness certifications, which Thompson says is a positive development. Thompson says one reason people want pros is that “more and more people are getting injured using untrained personal trainers.”
- Strength training. This remains a central emphasis for many health clubs and is central for a complete training program.
- Children and obesity. With obesity at epidemic levels for children and adults, more people are looking for programs to help them or their children lose weight.
- Exercise and weight loss. More people are likely to look for exercise programs that include nutritional advice.
- Boot camp. Modeled after military boot camps and basic training, this high-intensity type of program is becoming more popular because it incorporates cardiovascular, strength, endurance, and flexibility drills in indoor and outdoor settings.
- Functional fitness. This is a trend toward using strength training to improve balance and ease of daily living. Functional fitness and special fitness programs for older adults are closely related.
- Doctor referrals. This partners medical professionals with health and fitness professionals to more easily integrate exercise into the lives of patients.
- Yoga. Various forms of yoga can be done in groups or at home because many books and instructional tapes have become popular and available.
- Worksite health promotion. Worksite health promotion programs rose from No. 20 to No. 12. Employers have recognized that having healthier workers will result in lower health care costs and less absenteeism.
- Outcome measurements. Efforts abound to define and track outcomes. Measurements are needed to determine the effectiveness of health and fitness programs.
USATODAY.COM POSTS OVERLAND CHIROPRACTIC’S PRESS RELEASE: DR. ROBERT PATTERSON OF OVERLAND CHIROPRACTIC REVIEWS HOW TO MANAGE STRESS DURING THE HOLIDAY
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Posted By: Dr. Robert Patterson
USATODAY.com recently posted Overland Chiropractic’s press release: Dr. Robert Patterson of Overland Chiropractic Reviews How to Manage Stress During the Holidays.
Altering expectations or tightening your budget can help alleviate additional financial stress. Maintain a normal exercise and sleep routine. Plenty of rest and exercise are great stress relievers. Finally, prioritizing is important during the holidays. Do not tire yourself out trying to attend every holiday party. Make a list of the most meaningful gatherings and graciously decline the rest.
