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Top 8 Benefits of Chiropractic Treatment

Ever fancied undergoing a chiropractic adjustment? Unless you have some severe aches and pains in your back and neck area, the answer is probably no. However, more and more people are discovering the many benefits of chiropractic treatment not only to relieve neck ache and back pain, but for over-all wellness as well. Do you have chronic pain in your hips? Your legs? Or some other body part? Are you suffering from poor digestion and metabolism? A simple chiropractic adjustment may be able to work wonders for your condition.

Here are just some of the many benefits of chiropractic treatment:

Pain Relief

Certainly, neck and back pain are always among the top reasons why you would seek chiropractic treatment, but these are not the end-all and be-all of chiropractic adjustment. In fact, spinal manipulations are so effective that they have been found to be more effective than medication in the treatment of certain types of pain, including severe neck pain. Headaches, frozen shoulders, scoliosis, and even ear infections may all be treated effectively with chiropractic adjustment.

Low Risk, High Reward

If you are a gambler, then you will love the low risk, high reward nature of chiropractic adjustment. The reward of course is that you will feel immediate pain relief after chiropractic treatment. The worst that can happen to you after a chiropractic adjustment is that there may be some soreness at the site of the adjustment. The good news is that this is merely a temporary setback and it is only in very rare cases wherein the chiropractic treatment actually worsens the pain.

Care For Cancer Related Pain

While it would be a stretch to claim that chiropractic treatment can actually be used as an alternative form of cancer treatment, this may not be so far-fetched. To set things straight, no, chiropractic adjustment cannot cure cancer. However, for people suffering from cancer-related pain in their joints, chiropractic adjustment works as a form of alternative, drug-free treatment.

Non-Invasive Treatment

Chiropractic adjustments do not use drugs nor is it a form of invasive surgery. This means that the treatment can be administered very quickly and without any damage to your body’s cells. Chiropractic adjustments are made by applying specific maneuvers that exert pressure on certain parts of the body – usually the neck and back area.

Your Gateway To A Healthy Lifestyle

Ever wanted to get started on a healthy lifestyle? Getting a chiropractic adjustment done can be the first step towards this. First of all, if you are experiencing pain in your neck, lower back, or any of your joints, a chiropractor can perform some specific adjustments to alleviate pain in these areas.  Secondly, a chiropractor can also advise you on proper exercise and nutrition for your particular age, weight, and body type.

Prevents Muscoskeletal Problems

Even if you do not have any particular problems with your back nor neck area, a chiropractic adjustment can also work as a way of optimizing and aligning your spinal column perfectly. This can help to prevent muscle stiffness, stiff neck, joint pain, poor digestion, pinched nerves and other similar problems.

Relaxing

Is your back feeling a bit sore after a hard day’s work? Try going to a chiropractor instead of a massage parlor. A chiropractor’s clinic is generally designed to be a relaxing place and feels a lot like you are inside a massage parlor. Simply relax and let your worries sink away while your chiropractor works on addressing the sore spots in your back.

Addressing The Main Source Of Pain

Chiropractic adjustments are not made to target any particular symptoms. It is a more direct type of treatment and thus, a chiropractor can directly target the source of pain in the patient. This is advantageous for you if you want some instant relief. If you have a headache for example, seeing a chiropractor may be a better option than downing that painkiller.

The Effectiveness of Chiropractic Care For Back Pain

One of the major selling points of chiropractic care is that it works wonders for back pain. If you are experiencing any type of soreness, stiffness, or pain in your lower back or even any part of your back, you might want to look into chiropractic practice in order to relieve any tension in your back and allow your body to naturally heal itself.

The Body’s Healing Factor?

Are you a fan of comic books? Have you ever heard of Marvel’s Wolverine? He’s a member of the X-men and has a pretty interesting origin story. Also, he is the first official Canadian superhero. With that said, Wolverine’s main natural superpower is his mutant healing factor. Basically, his body can recover from just about anything – even being shot in the head with a gun or having his bones broken in multiple places.

Well, while probably not to that extent, the human body is an amazing piece of work that has the ability to heal itself naturally. Of course, when certain nerves become trapped or if the spinal cord becomes misaligned (called vertebral subluxations), then this prevents or delays the body’s natural healing factor.

This is the basis of all chiropractic treatment: that the body’s natural healing factor can in fact heal many types of illnesses and pain, but that it needs to be given the proper environment in order to do so. In other words, the human body needs to be in the optimal condition in order to heal itself. A chiropractor’s task therefore, is to provide the body with said optimal condition.

Diagnosis Before Treatment

Chiropractic treatment is totally safe for the treatment of back pain. The main reason for this is that no professional licensed chiropractor will ever treat your back pain without an accurate diagnosis first. Before you are allowed to undergo a spinal adjustment, you will need to be put through some tests in order to properly diagnose the source of your back and/or neck pain. If you want to undergo chiropractic treatment for maintenance of good health, you will need clearance as well. At the very least, you need to be medically approved by a licensed MD before you can be allowed to undergo any chiropractic procedure.

Non-Invasive Treatment

One of the biggest advantages of chiropractic adjustment is that it is a non-invasive type of treatment that does not rely on drugs. Unlike invasive surgery, the techniques used in chiropractic maneuvers are all based on external inputs. This is done by either applying mild pressure to certain areas of the body or massage-like techniques intended to correct any subluxations in the spinal cord. Chiropractic techniques may also be used to relieve muscle and joint pain by releasing any trapped nerves in the affected area.

It is actually a more natural method of treatment than downing a painkiller.

What Can I Expect During Chiropractic Adjustment?

You should be mentally prepared when you undergo chiropractic adjustment so that you are not taken by surprise. The actual maneuver may involve the use of a controlled sudden application of force in a particular area of the back. This is intended to correct any spinal misalignment. It might seem violent,  but do keep in mind that your chiropractor is an experienced professional and knows exactly where to apply the force as well as how much.

But Is It Effective?

There are many studies that show how chiropractic treatment is actually an effective form of treatment for many types of ailments. However, the most well-documented and well-researched areas would be in the treatment of lower back pain, herniated discs, as well as relief from neck pain.

The Actual Researched Benefits of Chiropractic Care

Have you heard about all the benefits of chiropractic care? If you haven’t, then let us be the first to inform you that it is definitely not just all about your neck and back. In fact, chiropractic care covers a whole range of researched benefits that many people are not aware of. Even if you do not feel any pain or sores in your back and neck area in particular, seeking chiropractic treatment can help in the prevention of a lot of complications in the future due to a misaligned spine that you may not be aware of. In this article, we will cover some frequently asked questions and attempt to demystify the chiropractic process for you.

Is It Based On Actual Science?

Contrary to popular belief, the reality is that yes, modern chiropractic treatments are definitely based on sound science including the physiology and anatomy of the human body. While it is still classified as a form of alternative medicine, this does not relegate chiropractic treatment to the realm of witch doctors and shamanic beliefs. The reality is that all modern chiropractic adjustments rely on the actually physics of the human body – particularly the veins and their relation to the spinal cord.

How Do Chiropractic Adjustments Work?

The majority of all chiropractic adjustments are based on the sound alignment of the spinal cord. By correcting any misalignments in the spine, a chiropractor basically boosts the patient’s natural healing capacity and puts the body in the best position to heal itself from a variety of ailments. The chiropractor’s duty therefore is to place the body in the best condition in order to allow it to naturally heal itself without relying on drugs. This is why proper nutrition and exercise are now included as a part of the curriculum for all chiropractors in training in the US.

Can Chiropractic Treatment Alleviate Headaches?

Yes, of course. Chiropractic adjustment can be used to treat tension headaches as well as migraine headaches. There are actually over 230 peer-reviewed articles that reference the effectiveness of chiropractic treatment for alleviating headache pain. The studies so far show that aside from taking drugs and invasive surgery, chiropractic adjustment is unmatched when it comes to relieving headache pain.

Is it a safe treatment for hypertension?

Amazingly, the answer is yes. According to a research conducted by the Human Journal of Hypertension,  one upper cervical adjustment is just as effective as taking two blood pressure lowering drugs. Furthermore, the effects of the adjustment lasted more than six months. Also, hypertension isn’t the only area that chiropractic adjustment has been shown to be effective in. It has also been found that low blood pressure can actually be raised back to normal levels via chiropractic adjustment. Therefore, chiropractic treatment is a safe, drugless method of treating both hypertension and hypotension.

What Are Vertebral Subluxations?

To put it simply, these are misalignments in the spine and the majority of spinal adjustments using chiropractic techniques are aimed towards removing these subluxations.

What Techniques Are Used in Chiropractic Treatment?

All of the techniques in chiropractic treatment involve external treatments through the application of either hands-on techniques or with the use of certain devices such as the “activator” which allows the chiropractor to target certain areas more accurately. Manipulation using massage-like maneuvers are also used in order to coax any subluxations in the spine back to normal. Joints that have been damaged by tissue injury as well as trapped veins may also be relieved from tension using  manipulation techniques.

What Are The Risks of Injury From Chiropractic Adjustment?

It is very rare. This is because before you can undergo chiropractic treatment, tests will need to be run to see if you are suitable and it is recommended that you get a medical doctor’s approval before undergoing a spinal adjustment.

6 Tips If You Want To Try Fasting For Weight Loss

Ever thought of trying to lose weight? Well, one way to do it fast  — or at least much faster and more permanently than any other method is to simply stop eating. That’s right, this is the method known as fasting – or depriving yourself completely of food for long periods of time. Of course, do be careful if you do choose to go this route because if you don’t do it right, then you could be sending yourself to an early grave.

This is the reason why fasting should be done with the supervision of a doctor, or at least with the consent of your physician. Recently, fasting has been making a revival because new success stories have emerged of people who have become much healthier and lost a lot of weight in the process because of fasting. Perhaps the best news of all is that the weight loss from fasting is more or less permanent. You may gain a little more weight after fasting for some time, but you will never gain back the large volume of unwanted weight that you had on you before the fast.

Partially, this is because fasting also forces your body to basically cannibalize its own fat cells in order to supply nutrients to the brain. When the fat stores run out, your body will turn to your own muscles for those essential amino acids.

With these things aside, because fasting is such a risky weight loss endeavor, you should be aware of a few key points before you decide to engage in a fast.

Take It Slow

If you are convinced that fasting is the way for you, then take it slow. Don’t shock your body by suddenly depriving it of food. If you must fast, then start with just six hours of food deprivation at a time and make sure that you “break your fast” by eating normally afterwards. What you want to do is to slowly condition your body to go without food for longer and longer periods of time.

Eat Healthy

Meanwhile, this is also a good time to re-evaluate your eating habits as you begin fasting. Go for healthy whole foods that are rich in fiber and protein. Of course, if you are going to be fasting, then don’t forget to take in some carbs as well.

Stay Hydrated

Take at least 13-15 cups of water a day while fasting. Your goal is to eventually fool your body into feeling full when you are actually just replacing your usual calorie intake with water.

Don’t Go For Prolonged Fasting

If you fast for seven days, then you are simply just asking for an early grave. At this point, your body will become so emaciated and will be starving for so much calories that you will probably need to check into a hospital just to ensure that you don’t suffer from any complications.

Set Limits

How long you can actually fast will depend on how much stored fat and muscle you have. The more fat cells you have, the longer you will be able to fast. Even so, you should set limits. It is recommended that you do not fast for more than two days. With that said, if you have set your final limit to two days, remember to work your way up to it. Make those two days your final goal, but start slow. Again, start with six hours at a time before you eat normally again. Next time, you could try  lengthening it by one hour and so on.

Don’t Do Vigorous Exercises

This is one of the downsides of fasting. You should not be doing any vigorous exercises while you do this or you could damage your bones and muscle tissue. Remember that your body is already working overtime trying to find any available nutrients that it can supply to your brain.

7 Super Effective Weight Loss Tips

If you have been scouring the internet for a while for tips on “how to lose belly fat” or “how to lose weight” in general, you have probably come across a wealth of resources. It seems that almost anyone nowadays has some super secret technique on how to lose weight fast and it usually involves some form of diet, fasting, or taking in some kind of weird liquid concoction. Fortunately, we are here today to bring you some actual evidence-based tips on weight loss that do not really involve any drastic steps such as these. Keep reading and we will teach you how to separate the weight loss facts from the weight loss myths.

1. Drink Plenty of Water

Could water intake be actually related to weight loss? Well, as evidence suggests, the answer is a resounding yes.

You should definitely make an effort to keep yourself hydrated at all times. This is especially true before a workout or before a meal. Drinking water speeds up your natural metabolism and thus, helps you process food and burn energy faster. Furthermore, drinking about half a liter of water half an hour before a meal actually helps people to control their appetite and eat less.

2. Green Tea Works

You might have seen some people recommend green tea or red tea or other ginger tea and/or other types of tea with L-Carnitine and other ingredients. Well, the reality is that green tea is the actual winner here. It has these powerful antioxidants known as catechins and these are known to enhance the body’s natural fat-burning mechanism. So yeah, there is a lot of different evidence that show drinking green tea helps you to lose weight.

3. Coffee?

Of course, go easy on the creamer. It is actually pure black coffee that is really effective for losing weight. In fact, despite the negative reputation that coffee gets for being loaded with caffeine, it actually contains some pretty powerful antioxidants that facilitate weight loss. Studies have shown that drinking coffee can boost the body’s metabolism by as much as 11% but the real astonishing fact here is that it also boosts the fat-burning mechanism of the body by as much as 29%. That is a huge boost.

4. Low Carbs

Yup, if you’re Asian, go easy on that white rice and go for brown or black rice with more complete proteins.  Also, don’t try to find a rice substitute that’s loaded with white carbs like white bread, pastries, biscuits, or pasta. These are all empty carbs that may make you feel full, but it will also make your belly and cheeks look full as well.

A low-carb diet has been proven to be 2-3 times more effective than any other weight loss method. So yeah, try to think about how you can restrict the carbs in your diet and maybe replace them with high fiber foods.

5. Surround Yourself With Healthy Snacks

Actually, instead of eating three square meals a day, it is better to be munching on small portions of healthy food all day. Therefore, go grocery shopping for healthy snacks and eat your way to losing weight. It actually works.

Some suggestions would be, a sweet potato, one boiled egg,  fruits, nuts, baby carrots and yogurt.

6. Turn up the Spice

Don’t like spicy food? Then perhaps you should learn to love them if you want to lose weight. Studies have shown that the capsaicin in pepper and other spicy foods not only boosts metabolism but also curbs the appetite –both are factors in losing weight.

7. To Lose Weight, Lift Weights

As you endeavor to lose weight, you need to prevent muscle loss and of course, the best way to do this is through some form of resistance training such as lifting weights and bodyweight exercises. Furthermore, putting on more muscle means that you burn calories faster, so it’s a win-win situation.

3 Important Points About Chiropractic Treatment

Chiropractic manipulation has been known to bring about a host of benefits and has been scientifically proven in many different peer-reviewed studies to be especially effective in the treatment of back and neck pain. With that aside, it may also be used for specific types of joint pain including pain in the legs, shoulders, arms etc. Frozen shoulder syndrome can be safely treated via chiropractic manipulation as well.

Of course, if you are already interested in chiropractic treatment for neck pain, back pain, joint pain, or perhaps for a more specific purpose that has not been mentioned here, you might still have some misgivings.  In modern times, it is always good to take everything with a grain of salt. Is chiropractic practice just a bunch of snake oil? If so, does it come with several risks? Could you be putting your own safety in danger by seeing a chiropractor?

Well, to tell you the truth, the short answer is “no,” but here are some common questions and answers regarding the risks involved in chiropractic adjustments. After all, phrases like “spinal manipulation” can seem pretty intimidating to the uninitiated.

Is it safe to undergo chiropractic manipulation?

Allowing someone to manipulate your spinal column might seem like a pretty scary thing to do, but rest assured that it’s actually pretty safe. In fact, chiropractic practice prides itself on being safer than a majority of other types of treatment – especially for pain in the lower back and neck area. This is because chiropractic adjustments do not rely on either drugs nor on invasive surgery in order to get the job done. In other words, it allows you to preserve the integrity of your body without relying on external factors.

Complications associated with chiropractic treatment may include a herniated disc or worsening of certain conditions. Of course, it is worth noting that these are rare cases and the skill of the chiropractor including human error may be factored in as well.  Certain types of stroke may also be triggered after a neck manipulation – but these are extremely rare cases.

Over-all, the America Chiropractic Association believes that neck manipulation in particular is relatively safe. To quote: “neck manipulation is a remarkably safe procedure. While some reports have associated upper high-velocity neck manipulation with a certain kind of stroke, or vertebral artery dissection, recent evidence suggests that this type of arterial injury often takes place spontaneously, or following everyday activities such as turning the head while driving, swimming, or having a shampoo in a hair salon.”

But is it actually effective?

Yes it is. There are several actual researched benefits of chiropractic treatment. The majority of these actual benefits are in the area of relief from back and neck pain as well as correcting the posture. Studies show relief from Sciatica due to chiropractic treatment of subluxations in the spine from the European Spine Journal. Patients with low back pain and neck pain also reported positive results due to chiropractic adjustments in a separate study published in the British Medical Journal. The Journal of Manipulative and Psychological Therapeutics also published a different study showing chiropractic treatment to be effective for the treatment of chronic lower back pain. Another area where chiropractic treatment has been shown to be super effective is in the treatment of tension and migraine headaches. There are over 230 peer-reviewed studies on the subject.

Will chiropractic treatment aggravate a pinched nerve?

On the contrary, chiropractic adjustments can actually release the tension from a pinched nerve. Even a simple massage has also been shown to be able to solve the issue of a pinched nerve causing taut muscles.

2 Top Physical Fitness Tips You Shouldn’t Ignore

The one thing that most people get wrong about physical fitness is that it is all about achieving that perfect body with all the curves and those six-pack abs. In fact, this is the goal of many individuals who are new to healthy living and physical fitness. Fortunately, a lot of people see the error of their ways and slowly, they begin to understand the true goal of healthy living – and this is: to adapt a healthy lifestyle and feel better about your own body by being healthier, quicker, and feeling younger than you have ever been. This is why being healthy is a lifestyle and not a goal that you attain. As long as you are diligent, you may eventually achieve that dream body, or in some cases, you may not because of inherent differences in everyone’s physiology. Of course,  whatever your physique might turn out to be, you will definitely be healthier.

Therefore, if you are ready to start your journey into healthy living, here are some top tips to really get you started.

1. Eat Well and Eat Right

This might seem like a simplistic tip, but it definitely not one to be ignored. In fact, a lot of people do not understand the true essence of this golden piece of advice. Basically, you need to eat the right types of food and in the right portions. If you don’t do both of these, then you are probably still eating an unbalanced and possibly unhealthy diet. This is pretty basic but you should stay away from sugary drinks and sweet treats like pastries and candies which are overloaded with sugar. A candy bar is ok for that quick boost of energy before a workout, but if you get used to snacking on them all the time, then you are developing some very unhealthy eating habits. Empty carbs from bread, biscuits and pasta are some of the worst offenders. If you really want to stay healthy and even get into shape, then stick to fruits and veggies. One apple, for example, makes for a tasty snack and leaves you feeling full afterwards so that you don’t go around craving for more food. Fiber-rich food help to cleanse and detoxify your body. Don’t forget to get some protein intake as well. Lean chicken meat, fish, and turkey make for some good, lean protein that help you build more muscle. Take in some protein rich food after you do some resistance training if you want your muscles to grow.

Also, forget about the three square meals a day thing. Try to eat in small portions frequently and you can program your metabolism to work faster.  You can eat as much as six snack-sized portions of fruits, vegetables, and lean meat daily. This way, you will be eating less in terms of quantity but you won’t go hungry because you will be eating so frequently.

2. Exercise

Planning your nutrition is one thing, but your body has to stay active in order for you to be truly healthy and to get in good shape. Try getting in at least 30 minutes to an hour of exercise every day. If you want to do intensive training, then just 20 minutes of vigorous exercise should work just fine.

Still, if you have the time, you can take it a bit easy and just exercise lightly for an hour. Walking at a brisk pace counts as exercise already. You can even sneak this into your daily schedule. For example, if you don’t work very far from where you live, why not leave your car behind and walk to and from work? Just remember not to overexert yourself.