7 Common but not NORMAL conditions

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1. Allergies:

Chiropractic care doesn’t treat allergies. So, why do so many people with allergies mention that they see improvement by receiving care in our practice?

It’s Not the Pollen

There are many signs of an allergic reaction. Itchy eyes. Runny nose. Sneezing. Skin rash. More serious reactions can include constricted air passageways, vomiting and even death. read more»

All this from a handful of peanuts, an encounter with a cat or microscopic grains of pollen in the air!
If everyone reacted to these common substances, we could fix the blame squarely on the nut, dander, shellfish or pollen. But not everyone reacts.
What is it?

Inappropriate Threat

Your nervous system is the master system that orchestrates your immune system, glandular system, respiratory system and every other system that reacts inappropriately to an allergen. Normally, these systems help you respond and adapt to the world around you. read more»

But suffering from uncontrollable sneezing around a house cat is probably an inappropriate reaction.
If your nervous system isn’t working right, you don’t work right. So, rather than direct our attention to the countless potential allergens, we locate and reduce the disturbances we find to your nervous system.

A Full Bucket

Each of us was born with the capacity to withstand or adapt to stress. If we’re unable to deal with things we eat, breathe or come into contact with it may be because our margin to adapt is used up.
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Pretend that this bucket represents your capacity to adapt to the physical, emotional and chemical stresses of life. Every stressful encounter your body faces, fills up your bucket.

If your bucket is already full and you encounter pollen, foods or other chemicals, your bucket overflows. When that happens, people say they’re having an allergic reaction. But what they’re really saying is, “I’ve lost my ability to adapt. My margin is used up.”

Chiropractic: Nervous System

So, we don’t treat allergies. We look for ways to restore your ability to adapt to allergens by locating and reducing disturbances to your nervous system. Simple, really.

2. Ear Infections

As parents, it makes us feel so helpless. Our child is suffering but there seems little that we can do. No wonder reoccurring ear infections (otitis media) account for a huge number of pediatrician visits.

The traditional approaches include:
Antibiotic therapy. This may be effective for acute bacterial infections, but many cases are viral, for which antibiotics are useless.

Tubes in the ears. Surgical implantation of artificial drainage tubes require the administration of a risky anesthesia and then, they often come out! However, many parents are choosing a more conservative approach:

Chiropractic care. A thorough examination to locate, and adjustments to reduce, nerve disturbances that may make the ears prone to infection.
Our bodies have an incredible capacity to fight infection. When that ability is impaired, it means something else is going on. With our focus on the integrity of the nervous system, we start there.

Nerve Compromise It surprises many to learn that some of the nerves that control, regulate and monitor the ear begin in the brain stem, continue down the spinal cord and exit out from between the bones of the spinal column. Changes to the function of the bones in the upper neck may compromise the quality of the nerve signals to and from the brain. Obviously, this can affect the ability of any organ or tissue, in this case your child’s ear, to “defend itself” from infection.
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Impaired Drainage Nerve compromise is often accompanied by abnormal tension to the muscles that support the spine. Besides “protecting” the spine from further compromise, these muscle spasms can exert pressure on nearby lymphatic drainage ducts. This prevents natural drainage, further compounding the problem.

What We Do
Our approach is simple. Since chiropractic care isn’t a treatment for infections of any type, when parents bring their child for us to check, we look specifically for distortions in the upper spine. If nerve tension is detected, we gently reduce it with safe and natural chiropractic adjustments. This helps restore nervous system integrity. For a child or infant, this usually requires little more than a light touch with our fingertip at just the right place and direction.

3. Colic

Your tummy hurts. You have a terrible headache. You can’t sleep and you’re cranky. One more thing: you can’t ask for help because you’re only two weeks old!

So you cry. And cry. And cry. Lacking the ability to speak, newborns cry, indicating that something isn’t right. And parents feel helpless.

Indigestion?

Infantile colic was first thought to be merely indigestion. The most widely accepted definition of colic today is “unexplainable and uncontrollable crying in babies from 0 to 3 months old, more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week for 3 weeks or more, usually in the afternoon and evening hours.”

Birth Trauma?

If a baby is inconsolable, it’s hard to know if it’s a digestive disturbance. Consider another explanation. Upon examination, we often find spinal distortions in the baby’s upper cervical spine. These babies are probably suffering from head and neck pain. This is especially common if there was a difficult birth.

A 67% Reduction in Crying

The results of a randomized controlled trial published in the October 1999 issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiologic Therapeutics tracked a small group of 50 infants. Half received the drug dimethicone and the other spinal manipulation. read more»

At the conclusion of the two-week study, the babies being adjusted saw a 67% reduction in crying and the drug therapy group saw a 38% reduction.

Little Research

While large scale research results are lacking, and colic is considered a condition that resolves on its own with the passage of enough time, there are many case studies showing improvement, sometimes dramatic, among colicky babies with subluxations.
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Chiropractic isn’t a treatment for colic! If subluxation is present, interfering with the proper function of any part of the body, restoring proper nervous system control often allows the body to heal. This may happen regardless of age and regardless of what the particular symptoms are called.

4. Bedwetting

Bedwetting takes a tremendous toll on children. Embarrassment. Alarms. No sleepovers. Plastic mattress covers. Frustration. Unable to fit in. Even diapers.

Up to the age of four or five, most children have poor bladder control at night. But after that, the inability to stay dry at night may be a sign of an underlying problem. While chiropractic is not a treatment for bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis), countless children have been helped with safe and natural chiropractic care.

Bladder Physiology

Two key muscles control the emptying of the bladder. Their technical names are the detrusor and trigone muscles. Nerves that exit the spinal column in the lower back and sacrum control these muscles.
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During the early years of life, the sacrum has five separate segments. Later, they fuse together to form the triangular-shaped bone that adults have at the base of the spine. If these segments misalign (falling, learning to walk, ride a bike, etc.) they may compromise nerves that are responsible for bladder function. We look for these sometimes subtle misalignments during our examination. When these misalignments are reduced with safe and natural chiropractic adjustments, nervous system control and regulation of the bladder may often be restored.

Published Reports

The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics document many studies showing the positive benefits of chiropractic care.
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  • A study of 46 children received chiropractic care for a 10-week period. A quarter of those receiving chiropractic care had 50% or more reduction in the wet night frequency, while none among the control group saw a reduction. (JMPT 1994 (Nov-Dec);17 (9): 596-600)
  • Children with a history of persistent bed-wetting received eight chiropractic adjustments. Number of wet nights fell from seven per week to four. (JMPT 1991 (Feb);14 (2): 110-115)
  • The lumbar spine of an eight-year-old male bed wetter was adjusted once and at a one-month follow-up. There was a complete resolution of enuresis. “This happened in a manner that could not be attributed to time or placebo effect.” (JMPT 1994 (Jun);17 (5): 335-338)

Will Chiropractic Care Help?

Since chiropractic care isn’t a treatment for bedwetting, a thorough neurological examination is necessary. If the bedwetting is caused by nerve interference from the spine, many children see great results with chiropractic care. We approach these cases with sensitivity and compassion. Your son or daughter will appreciate and understand our explanations.

5. Asthma

Chiropractic is not a treatment for asthma. However, many who suffer from asthma report improvement by receiving chiropractic care. There is research that suggests a link between the spinal column, the nervous system and the respiratory system. This may be why many have mentioned improved breathing by consulting our practice.

Drugs may temporarily reduce symptoms but ignore any underlying nerve disturbance.

Countless Causes

Asthma cases seem to be rising at an alarming rate. Some think it’s due to a combination of factors, especially the increase of chemicals in our environment.
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These days, airtight, super-insulated homes can trap chemicals, molds, formaldehyde and other irritants. Even the increasing use of cesarean births, antibiotics and our fascination with germ killing have been cited.
If these factors were the only issue, why wouldn’t all children living in the same house and breathing the same air, suffer equally?

Chiropractic Connection

Your diaphragm is the primary muscle used for breathing. Nerves that control each breath leave your brain and exit the spinal cord in the mid-neck (C3, C4 and C5) area. Spinal problems in this area can have a profound affect on the nerve supply to the diaphragm.
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Reducing subluxations in the spine may help restore proper nervous system control of the lungs and improved function can begin.

More Research is Needed

In fact, research published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research documented the results experienced by 81 children with asthma who received chiropractic care. read more»

The two-month study revealed that those under care saw a 45% decrease in the number of “attacks” and that 31% of the subjects voluntarily chose to decrease their medication.
All this from improved nervous system control of the lungs!

6. ADD & ADHD

We do not treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
However, since ADHD appears as a neurological disorder and chiropractic care attempts to reduce nervous system disturbances, many parents who want a natural, non-drug solution for their child have found chiropractic care helpful.

Common Symptoms

The classic signs that parents and teachers notice:
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  • Inattention, hyperactivity and being easily distracted • Difficulty concentrating and sitting still
  • Inability to control impulsive thoughts and behaviors • Easily distracted by noises and activities
  • Always moving—fingers, hands, arms, feet or legs

First Things First

Begin by making nutritional and lifestyle changes. Rule out environmental factors by reducing your child’s exposure to substances that are increasingly common these days:
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  •  Remove food dyes, preservatives and additives from the diet.
  • Focus on natural, organic foods grown without pesticides or herbicides.
  • Determine if an allergy is involved such as dairy or gluten and eliminate.
  • Eliminate all sugars and artificial sweeteners.
  • Reduce the use of cleaning agents, detergents, fabric softeners and other chemicals.

These are wise choices whether your child has the symptoms associated with ADHD or not!

Traditional Treatment

A popular approach to controlling symptoms of ADHD is to administer regular doses of methylphenidate. read more»

More commonly known as Ritalin®. This prescription is a Class 2 psychotropic drug. ® is a schedule II controlled substance related to, and producing similar effects as, amphetamines and cocaine. The side effects, including personality changes and permanent changes to the brain, cause many parents to look for alternatives.

Chiropractic: Pure and Natural

Instead of treating the various symptoms of hyperactivity, we look for disturbances to the child’s nervous system. We often find problems caused by spinal distortions in the upper neck.
In fact, this link between the spine, brain stem dysfunction and ADHD is common. read more»

A thorough chiropractic examination can reveal noticeable spinal distortion, even a reversal of the normal neck curve.

That’s why we often recommend a schedule of safe and natural chiropractic adjustments to help reduce the accompanying nervous system tension.

7. Headaches

Headaches are common, but they’re not normal.

Pain relievers of various types are the most common approach to headaches. In our practice we take a more natural approach. Our objective is to find and reduce the underlying cause of a headache.
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A common cause of headaches is from spinal bones in the neck that aren’t supporting the head properly. You might not notice your reduced ability to turn your head. But these vertebral subluxations affect nerves, muscles and even the blood supply to your head.

Our thorough examination detects vertebral subluxation patterns that could be causing your headaches. If vertebral subluxations are present, you’re likely to benefit from chiropractic care.

Some are surprised to learn that their headaches are being caused by problems in their lower back! The upper spine compensates, shifting the head off center, causing headaches.