Honolulu Chiropractor

We all know that movement is good for the whole body, right? From our head to our toes, our good health is determined by how much physical activity we get on a regular basis. So, why do so many people suffer from aches and pains in their feet? After all, aren’t our feet made for walking? Yes, but they weren’t designed for abuse. The average, healthy person takes 3,000-5,000 steps each day, not including activities such as running and aerobic exercise. But, often those steps are made by people walking incorrectly, with poor gait patterns and bad posture. In addition, a large number of people wear badly-designed, poorly-fitting shoes. Moving the body through space incorrectly on feet that are inhibited from functioning correctly cannot help but to cause aches and pains not only in a number of places in our feet, but in other parts of our body.  For example, if an individual over-pronates (walks like a duck) in a pair of poorly made or unevenly-worn shoes, or in a pair of high heels, that person is not only likely to develop foot and ankle problems, but will probably experience problems of the back, knees and legs.

One of the most well known foot problems is Plantar Fascitis (heel pain), which is usually caused by inflammation of the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is a wonderful, multi-tasking band of connective tissue that encircles the muscles on the bottom of the foot, adheres the heel bone to the ball of the foot, supports the arch, protects the foot, and absorbs shock.

There are many factors that contribute to the development of Plantar Fascitis. One such factor is short and tight calf muscles. When calf muscles get short and tight they exert a strong pull on the back of the heel bone, producing undue stress on the smaller and weaker plantar muscles and fascia. How do calf muscles get short and tight? In addition to running and jumping activities such as aerobics, volleyball, running, basketball, and tennis, the wearing of high heels can cause the problem.

Other factors that contribute to Plantar Fascitis include sudden strenuous activity after a period of prolonged inactivity, abnormal walking patterns (such as over-pronation), improper footwear, walking on hard or uneven surfaces (especially barefooted), and obesity.

Once an individual develops Plantar Fascitis, the condition is frequently not easy to manage and can become intensely painful and persistent. If you are suffering from heel pain, your chiropractor will be able to determine the cause of your problem and what chiropractic management is best suited. Such care might include ultrasound therapy, laser, joint manipulation, muscle stretching and strengthening exercises, special taping and, in some cases, orthotics.

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I just read about a recent Consumer Reports survey of its readers that I, as your chiropractor, found “highly satisfying.” The survey, which included 14,000 Consumer Reports subscribers, found that “hands-on” therapies, led by chiropractic care, were the top-rated treatments for people suffering from back pain. In fact, chiropractors were given the highest “satisfaction with care” ratings, well above those given to medical doctors who administered various forms of care to back pain sufferers

The survey, reported in the publication’s May 2009 issue, found that more than half of the respondents had “pain (that) severely limited their daily routine for a week or longer, and 88 percent said it recurred throughout the year.” The report stated that while many go to a primary care physician first for diagnosis and treatment, the majority were disappointed with the results.

On the other hand, 59 percent reported that they were “highly satisfied” with the care they received from chiropractors. The next highest rated practitioners were physical therapists (55 percent) and acupuncturists (53 percent), followed by “specialized” physicians (44 percent) and primary care physicians (34 percent).

Respondents were also asked to rate the types of treatments they received. Again, chiropractic/spinal manipulation got top honors, with 58 percent rating it as “helping a lot.” Spinal injections were next highest, rated at 51 percent, followed by massage (48 percent) and physical therapy (46 percent). Other highly rated treatments included prescription medications (45 percent), yoga (44 percent), movement therapy and acupuncture (both 41 percent).

According to a Dynamic Chiropractic article on that report, “Chiropractic ranked first out of 11 treatments, including massage, acupuncture, and exercise, in its ability to treat back pain. More readers said that chiropractic ‘helped me feel much better’ than any of the other therapies.” Prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs ranked eighth and 10th, respectively.

So, if you’ve been “highly satisfied” with your chiropractic care, you’re not alone! In fact, more and more people are turning to chiropractic treatment not only for back pain relief, but for a wide variety of painful conditions from sports and repetitive stress injuries to arthritis.

A public version of the report can be found on the Consumer Reports Web site

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Allergies can turn our everyday life into misery. Unwelcome symptoms like itchy eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, or a skin rash can occur from a simple walk in the park, a play date with Kitty, a shellfish stew, or even something as small as a nut. To make the situation worse, for some of us allergic reactions can go from just plain irritating to dangerous and life-threatening as our air passageway constricts and we have a problem breathing. If you have allergies, it may seem that, from time-to-time, your environment is a very unfriendly place and that the world around you is, literally, out to get you!

You may wonder why it is that other people appear to be so unaffected by the environment, while your body reacts, or rather overreacts, to it It’s a great question. The answer is because some people, like you, have a hyperactive immune system that virtually “freaks out” when they are confronted with everyday substances such as pollen, dander, shellfish, or nuts.

Have you been wondering if your chiropractor can help your allergies? The answer may surprise you. A lot of individuals have noticed that they experience ease from their allergy symptoms after chiropractic treatment, even though chiropractic care doesn’t actually treat allergies. This relief takes place because chiropractic adjustments affect the whole nervous system, including the autoimmune system. When there’s an impedance in the nervous system, in addition to other problems, the autoimmune system, whose task it is to help us adapt and respond appropriately to our environment, can become under-active or overactive. In the case of your allergies, the breakdown is the latter. Because chiropractic manipulations lessen or take away disturbances in the nervous system and bring the body back into balance and harmony, the manipulations provide that same homeostasis to the auto-immune system as well. A healthy immune system responds appropriately to so-called allergens in the environment.

So, as mentioned above, your chiropractor doesn’t actually treat allergies. You could say, instead, that a decrease in your allergies is clearly a part of a healthy nervous system. If you’d like to get back into harmony with your environment as soon as possible, call your chiropractor today.

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At one time or another, Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) disturbs and estimated 90% of women and nearly 20% of those women afflicted experience severe to disabling symptoms. Suggesting to a woman that her PMS is “just in her head” can be not only just plain dangerous, it’s also just plain incorrect! There are physiological causes of PMS in the majority of cases, including one that you might find surprising — spinal misalignment. That’s right. Your back could actually be the “offender.” Spinal subluxations, expressly in the lower back, can frequently cause a diverse variety of female health issues in addition to Premenstrual Syndrome, such as pelvic pain, sexual dysfunction, incontinence, and even infertility.

Are you wondering how chiropractic can ease the symptoms of PMS? Chiropractic treatments get rid of nerve restriction in your body. Every cell, fiber, tissue, organ, and system in your body is governed and regulated by your nervous system. Your reproductive system is included in this master regulation. If your reproductive system isn’t performing correctly because of nerve impedance, it can cause a myriad of symptoms such as those analogous with PMS. You would most likely experience agitation, pain, heavy bleeding, or severe cramping if your reproductive system were overactive. Missed periods or infertility can be caused by an under-activity reproductive system. Fortunately, if nerve disturbance is creating your PMS symptoms, then chiropractic management can assist because spinal manipulations restore unimpeded activity to your nervous system and, therefore, help it to function more normally.

Many women experience an improvement in their reproductive health, in conjunction with improved general health, while under chiropractic care. So, if you’ve been thinking that your PMS is just in head, think again! And, make an appointment to see your chiropractor as soon as possible. Chiropractic management provides  an all natural solution for PMS that could assist you in avoiding periodic misery, without medication, and keep you symptom-free and energetic all month long.

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Have you heard that chiropractors treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? Well, that’s not completely correct. Chiropractors don’t “treat” ADHD. But, chiropractic care can certainly help children, and adults too, who suffer from it. The reason that chiropractic treatment is effectual is that ADHD is a neurological disorder. Chiropractic manipulations not only help to reduce nervous system disruptions in general, but an adjustment can be specifically directed to stimulate under-active areas of the brain and calm over-active areas as well. Due to the fact that a chiropractic approach to ADHD is natural and drug-free, many parents choose chiropractic care over the common medical approach of giving children Class 2 psychotropic drugs that have dramatically negative side effects including personality changes and permanent alterations in the brain. Nearly all of parents who’ve opted for chiropractic treatment for their children have observed stunning behavioral changes as a result.

Because of the differences between the ways in which boys and girls employ the two hemispheres of their brain, ADHD appears to afflict more boys than girls and, additionally, is often more obvious and easily discernible in the behavior of boys as opposed to of girls. Prominent symptoms include a hard time concentrating and sitting still, lack of ability to control impulsive thoughts and behaviors, easily distracted by noises and activities, constant movement of fingers, hands, arms, feet, or legs.

A large number of children who manifest ADHD symptoms are hypersensitive to certain foods, such as dairy or gluten products, and sugars and artificial sweeteners. In addition, they generally have a hypersensitive reaction to additives in foods, herbicides and pesticides used to grow non-organic fruits and vegetables, and laundry products such as detergents, fabric softeners, and other chemicals. Often, the elimination of these environmental agencies can go a long way in easing ADHD symptoms.

Your Honolulu Chiropractor will give your child a complete chiropractic examination, checking for spinal anomalies and analyzing certain responses to specific neurological tests.

Natural, safe chiropractic treatment can help your child to get his or her life back in balance. Before taking drastic pharmaceutical measures, if your child displays the symptoms of ADHD, call your chiropractor to make an appointment for a complete evaluation. Call today for the health of your child!

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If you drive a big car and you’re in an accident if your car looks “uninjured,” it’s easy to assume that you are not hurt, either. After all, isn’t that why you’re driving a big vehicle? It’s for safety, right? Well, research has proved that occupants of vehicles, both large and compact, can be injured a lot more than might be predicted from a minor auto accident. In fact, as far as your body is concerned, there’s truly no such thing as a “minor fender bender.”

Let’s face it. There are going to be consequences when your body is compelled to stop suddenly and unexpectedly. An emergency room attendant may offer you a clean bill of health because you haven’t broken any bones, and you might be given a prescription for drugs to reduce the muscle spasms that you are undoubtedly experiencing due to the structural changes in your neck or lower back that you encountered from the impact. But, unless you’re actually treated for the bodily trauma you’ve sustained, your problem can go from bad to far worse. In fact, quite a few people encounter problems years after an auto accident because they didn’t get the help they needed in the first place.

Your Honolulu Chiropractor truly knows what your body goes through during a car accident. Chiropractic techniques include treatment for soft tissue injuries and spinal bio-mechanics abnormalities. And

If you’ve experienced a minor auto accident, although your car may not require much repair, you probably do. Neck and back injuries are not only painful in the areas in which they take place, but they can also cause pain, tingling, and numbness in your arms and hands and result in headaches days, weeks, even months after an accident occurs.

You can get back on the road to feeling good again with drug-free, natural chiropractic care.  It will help to put the trauma of your accident where it belongs – behind you. Furthermore, because your chiropractor has experience working with insurance companies and lawyers, not only will you experience less physical stress, but less emotional stress, too!

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If you’re feeling low back pain, you’re not the only one. Low back pain afflicts many people, a surprising 80% in fact, making it second only to the common cold in its frequency. Although, in contrast to the common cold, waiting for your back pain to “run its course,” and taking prescription or over-the-counter remedies while you wait, is not the solution. Usually most back pain won’t go away by itself. More often than not, if your pain lets up, it is routinely the result of your body’s compensating for the problem, and unfortunately creating new challenges. Low back pain is nothing to sneeze at! It is necessary for you to consult a back pain expert, like your chiropractor, if you’d like to defeat your back pain permanently!

Back pain is frequently a mystery to many of the people who are afflicted by it, and chiropractors are experts at solving that mystery. They want to know why it is that they have not experienced any trauma, accidents, or major injuries before the onset of their pain? The answer is that the cumulative effects of improper sitting posture, poor work habits, improper lifting, lack of routine exercise, and other unhealthy lifestyle-related influences cause most back pain. These factors add up over time and produce stresses and imbalances on the spine producing subluxations that can become serious back conditions. The process is similar to the front end of your car being out of alignment. As you decide to drive, there is irregular wear and tear on your tires. If you ignore the problem, the situation could worsen until a tire “blows.” The function of the spine is jeopardized when your spine is misaligned. In other words, it’s not only a problem waiting to happen, it’s a problem waiting to get worse. And then, something as simple as reaching down to pick up a piece of paper can be the “final factor” that produces back injury. When this takes place, the surrounding back muscles go into spasm to protect the stressed or injured tissues of the back.

When it comes to problems of the spine, chiropractors have more education, training, and experience than medical doctors. They provide expert diagnosis and competent treatment for all muscular-skeletal problems. In addition to giving welcomed relief to those suffering from back pain, but they know what will assist you in avoiding further back pain. In addition to effectual adjustments and other productive chiropractic therapies, your chiropractor will offer to you a personal exercise strategy and recommend other beneficial lifestyle changes that will keep you well-adjusted and pain-free in the future.

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If you are experiencing back pain looking to a conventional healing approach may not automatically be the solution for you. As a matter of fact, frequently when medical science is ineffectual in helping a person overcome pain, some natural methods have been found to be highly effective. Medical approaches, by their nature, are disposed to treat the symptoms of an affliction, not the cause. But, natural techniques search for the fundemental cause of the symptoms. If you’re interested in experiencing natural techniques that have been shown to be effective in helping back pain and quite a few other afflictions, it isn’t necessary for you to look further than chiropractic and acupuncture.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been implemented for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine. These days, many individuals all over the world are finding relief from their back pain and other health challenges by coming in to see an acupuncturist on a regular basis. Pursuant to traditional Chinese acupuncture therapy, small needles are introduced into the body at precise points that are known to affect various areas of the body. In traditional therapy, only the needles are used, though at times and especially in recent years, small electrical currents are sent through the needles into the body. Although it may seem like it would hurt, it hardly ever does and, in fact, many people feel tranquil and pleasurable sensations during acupuncture treatments.

Chiropractic

Chiropractors, also called doctors of chiropractic, have been assisting individuals suffering from back pain and other problems for over a hundred years. A chiropractor offers therapy to those who are experiencing musculoskeletal and nervous system problems. Chiropractic medicine attends to the abnormalities of the vertebral column that impede the operation of the nervous system. These misaligned vertebra can lower resistance and immunity, therefore producing new health challenges. A proficient chiropractor has excellent observational and diagnostic skills that help in uncovering physical anomalies and joint problems. Many chiropractors employ neurological tests and orthopedic examinations. Some will analyze the posture of a person as a way of identifying postural deviations, and may also analyze an individual’s gait to identify faulty movement patterns. Chiropractic management non-surgical, drug-free treatment and in addtion will offer advice and provide education concerning the advantages of individual lifestyle changes, such as in exercise and nutrition.

So, if you are experiencing back pain, headaches, neck pain, hip pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, balance challenges, or arthritis, and you’ve tried a number of other things and and you’re still suffering, it could be time for you to try chiropractic and acupuncture. The only way that you’re going to be able to tell is to make an appointment with a good chiropractor or acupuncturist, and to allow them to explain to you precisely what they can do for you. It’s very possible that you will experience some relief from your suffering even after only one visit. With subsequent visits, you will make more advancements and improvements, and it is likely that you will discover that these natural treatments work best for your back pain.

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Controlling and preserving body position while staying still orin motion is the most crucial function of good balance. Good balance helps someone to walk without staggering, arise from a sitting position without falling, and to climb stairs without slipping.

Nearly 9 percent of adults, age 65 and older, disclose having challenges with balance. Good balance is essential in aiding an older person to stay independent, and implement daily chores and activities. Dizziness, “wooziness,” and challenges with balance are suffered by quite a few people as they age.

The label, vertigo, applies to the experience that some people have that they, themselves, or their environment is spinning. About 40 percent of individuals in the U.S. will encounter dizziness that is consequential enough to go seek medical assistance. And, among older adults, falls are the leading cause of extreme injury and deaths.

Balance and Inner Ear Conditions

There are a variety of balance disorders. Three customary types are benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, labyrinthitis, and Meniere’s disease. Of these three, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is the most common. Its symptoms involve a brief, intense feeling of vertigo with a change in head position, when rolling over to the left or right in bed or when getting out of bed, or when looking up for an object on a high shelf. This condition is more likely to happen in individuals 60 and older, but it can also take place in younger individuals.

There are an assortment of causes for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Inner ear infection, head injury, or simply aging can create the problem. Whereas it can be linked to other disease processes, frequently a simple Epleys procedure can correct the affliction. Your Honolulu Chiropractor has many years of experience in this procedure.

Labyrinthitis is an infection or iagitation of the inner ear that produces dizziness and loss of balance. It affects adults of any age and the cause is unknown.

Ménière’s disease is a balance disorder that causes vertigo, hearing loss that comes and goes, tinnitus (ringing or roaring in the ears), and a “full feeling” in the ear.

Though those over 65 years are more likely to encounter balance disorders, age is not the only cause for why these problems occur. Depending on the cause of the balance disorder, care will vary. A chiropractor is well-trained in diagnosing and treating a large majority of the causes. On occasion, even simple exercises for vestibular rehab can be the remedy to balance challenges. Consult a health care professional, such as your Honolulu Chiropractor, if you have encountered, or are currently experiencing, dizziness, vertigo, or other problems with balance.

While some balance disorders are produced by challenges in the inner ear, other disorders may involve another region of the body, such as the brain or the heart. Head injury, stroke, certain medicines, circulation challenges, upper respiratory infections and other viral infections, stress, fatigue, smoking, alcohol use,  high or low blood pressure, and heart disease are all factors that, along with aging and ear infection, may produce balance disorders.

Balance disorders produced by high blood pressure can usually be managed by less sodium intake,maintaining a healthy weight, and exercise. To assist in making the symptoms of dizziness less intense, frequently eating low-salt or salt-free foods, and staying away from caffeine and alcohol, will help.

Balance disorders are dangerous. It is the number one cause of falls and fall-related injuries in older people. It is crucial to have a suspected balance disorder analysed and treated as soon as possible.

If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, you should discuss the symptom(s) with your chiropractor:

• Do you have the feeling of being “unsteady?”

• Does the room seem to spin around you?

• Is there ever a time when you feel as if you are moving when you know you are standing still?

• Do you lose your balance and/or fall?

• Do you feel as if you are falling?

• Does your vision ever become “blurred?”

• Do you ever feel disoriented, or lose a sense of time, place or identify?

Don’t wait until it’s too late! Call your chiropractor today.

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