Dr. Judd Lowrey's Sports and Wellness Chiropractic Blog

Have you made your resolution yet? Will you resolve to exercise more, eat less, quit smoking, stop drinking, or just take better care of yourself?. While most of us start the year off with ambitious intentions, the reality is that 65% of new gym memberships are cancelled in the first two months! Making health a priority takes discipline and focus, but the rewards of your efforts make it well worth it!

Why wait until something happens to your health to make a change?

You may know someone who had a recent health scare or may have seen firsthand the toll that not being fit takes on your life. Or, perhaps you saw former President Clinton change from a cheeseburger junkie to a health crusader after his recent quadruple bypass surgery. Simply put, being sick takes over your life. Being healthy is a lifestyle choice.

The payoffs from placing a priority on your health do not end immediately after a workout out or a healthy meal. Everything works better when you are healthy. Your body feels fewer affects from added weight and stress. Looking good and feeling good boosts your self-esteem and overall sense of well-being. You can wake up every morning to a better you!

Keys to Lifelong Success
Making health a priority is vital to long-term success. It can’t be treated as a short term solution to a long term problem, or you are destined to fail. Starting to focus on a few key areas in your life will help you along in your journey to better health.

• Eat Healthy – this does not mean diet. Depriving yourself of a specific food or food group is not sustainable over time. Learn about healthy food and eat it.

• Exercise – 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Do whatever you enjoy, just get out and get active.

• Stop Smoking – Isn’t it enough of an incentive to quit when you know that one out of every two smokers will die of their habit?

• Get regular checkups – Pick a day, the same day every year and go. As your mother probably told you, better to be safe than sorry. Knowing your “total health picture” will help you make better decisions about what you eat, what types of exercise you choose, and what exactly your body needs.

• Reduce stress – yes, this is a difficult one. Take time for yourself, make time to do the things you enjoy with the people you enjoy doing them with, take a vacation, visit a spa, get a massage, or even take an occasional “mental health” day away from work. Sometimes, small things work wonders.

• Regular Chiropractic Care – Your spinal cord is made up of bundles of nerve fibers that integrate virtually every aspect of your body, called the nervous system. By balancing your nervous system, your body is able to perform and work at its optimal level. Chiropractic adjustments not only correct fixations that develop in your joints from every day use but it also helps increase range of motion and allows your discs to function better by receiving more nutrients. When the nerve becomes irritated, it can cause many problems including sciatica, headaches, muscles spasms, and pain. Since pain is often the last thing to tell your body that something is wrong, it is important not to wait for it. Be proactive and get your spine and nervous system checked to increase your overall wellness.

Exercise, a sensible diet and regular chiropractic care will help you enjoy the best of health well into the future. Make health a priority this year!

It is time again to get ready for the school year ahead. Of course, preparing for back to school includes buying necessary supplies and clothes, but it should also include creating a plan for wellness to ensure your children stay healthy throughout the year. Along with having a trusted pediatrician who you can call when injuries and illnesses occur, it also makes sense to partner with a chiropractor who can help prevent and treat many soft tissue injuries that commonly occur in childhood.

Beware of Overloaded Backpacks!
Surprisingly, backpacks are a leading cause of soft tissue injuries during the school year.  Yep, backpacks!

Loaded with binders, textbooks, and now even laptops and tablets, children’s backpacks are often tipping the scales at over 30 lbs. Lugging this amount of weight can certainly lead to significant back, shoulder, and neck injuries – particularly when the weight isn’t evenly distributed.

According to the American Occupational Therapy Association, a child’s backpack should never weigh more than 15% of their body weight. And, a clear indicator that a backpack is too heavy is when a child is in a stooped position when carrying a backpack. Other signs of backpack-related problems include tingling in the arms and complaints of back and shoulder pain.

Needless to say, it’s very important to choose your child’s backpack carefully and to watch for signs of problems that can potentially turn into painful injuries. For questions about backpack safety or to receive a backpack check and fitting, it’s a smart idea to consult with a chiropractor who can evaluate the distribution of weight across the back and correct issues that could cause injury to the muscles and other soft tissues.

Treating Strains and Sprains
Like backpacks, after school sports are notorious for causing many childhood injuries. Strains and sprains commonly occur in children playing on the playground or participating in after school sports. These often happen due to trips and falls or children simply playing too hard.

If a fracture or break is suspected, it’s only prudent to seek medical assistance. However, in many cases, chiropractic treatment can be extremely beneficial. Treatments such as Active Release Technique (ART) can significantly help heal injured tissues while increasing range of motion, strength, and flexibility.

As we get closer to the start of school, we encourage you to visit our website and contact us for an evaluation. We’re dedicated to being a partner in your children’s wellness throughout their school years and beyond.

Lowrey Chiropractic, Dr. Judd Lowrey, D.C.

5007 Windplay Drive, Suite 2, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762

Phone: (916) 941-7508

www.lowreychiropractic.com

When a headache strikes, it can not only be painful. It can literally make it impossible to accomplish everyday activities such as working, reading, or even having a conversation.

For many, the solution is grabbing for a pain reliever to mask the pain. While medications can help relieve the pain of a headache for some, they do not address the underlying cause. This reality can lead to a problematic cycle for those who suffer from frequent headaches, resulting in overuse of medications and diminished ability to treat the pain.

Many headache sufferers are often surprised to discover that chiropractic care is an alternative treatment to pain medications that can address the underlying causes of headaches. In fact, an innovative treatment called Active Release Techniques (ART) is proving to be effective in helping individuals break the cycle of repeated headaches and find real relief from the pain.

Why Chiropractic Can Help
It is certainly understandable to think that headaches originate in the head because that is where the pain is felt. However, scientific evidence shows that many of the most common types of headaches begin in neck muscles, nerves, and joints.

The cervical spine area is comprised of seven vertebrae along with a complex system of muscles and joints that help support and control the weight of the head. When these muscles and joints are strained, often occurring with computer use, certain sports, and auto accidents, micro-trauma can occur, causing small amounts of damage to the muscles, tendons, joint capsules, and ligaments. This damage can lead to scar tissue and adhesions which can result in pain, stiffness, tightness, restricted joint motion, and diminished blood flow.

Chiropractic care, and more specifically ART, is a method of addressing problems related to scar tissue and adhesions. Chiropractors skilled in this technique first locate and then break up restrictive adhesions, free entrapped nerves, and then reinstate normal tissue flexibility and movement. The result is better flexibility, balance, and stability to the affected area.

Many patients report reduced pain from headaches in a short amount of time after undergoing ART. Significant improvement is often experienced in just four to six treatments.

ART also enables a chiropractor to find additional problems that are in the kinetic chain associated with movement compensations. These often contribute to headaches and other types of aches and pains. By treating these, areas of dysfunction and weakness that can become future sources of pain and injury can be addressed.

Because of the promising results of ART, many leading professional sports teams are now beginning to add practitioners of the technique to their training staff. As the positive effects of this technique are now being seen in both top athletes and everyday individuals, more and more will be choosing this medication-free approach to treating headaches.

Are you suffering from headaches and seeking an alternative to pain medications? ART might be right for you. To book an appointment, call our office today at 916-941-7508.

Along with maintaining a healthy diet, exercise is a fundamental part of staying healthy. Keeping active at any age can provide a wide range of proven benefits which can support good health throughout life. By taking a common sense approach to exercise and incorporating chiropractic care into your overall wellness plan, you can also help to prevent injuries from occurring. Of course, maintaining a consistent exercise regime and not overdoing it are also both essential.

The following are just a few of the many benefits of exercise.

Improved Heart Health
Cardiovascular exercise gets the heart to pump at a faster rate. Performed on a regular basis, running, brisk walking, swimming, cycling, and all forms of cardio-focused exercise can help improve the function of the heart muscle and make it pump more efficiently. With a heart working optimally, you’ll find yourself to be less winded while tackling everyday tasks such as walking up stairs, lifting heavy objects, or doing household chores. For those who have hypertension, regular exercise can help lower blood pressure to healthier levels naturally without the use of medications.

Increased Metabolism
Along with improving the function of your heart, exercise also increases your metabolism. This can make it easier to maintain your weight or lose weight if necessary. The more intensely you exercise, the larger the increase in your metabolic rate.

Better Hormonal Balance
One of the most beneficial effects of exercise is the release of endorphins, often called ‘feel good’ hormones, and a decrease in the production of cortisol. High levels of cortisol in the bloodstream have been linked to chronic stress and depression.

Management of Diabetes
Exercise helps the body’s muscles utilize glucose more efficiently. Thus, individuals who regularly exercise tend to have better management of their blood sugar levels and have fewer blood sugar swings. For diabetics, exercise can be an essential component to managing symptoms and disease progression.

Flexibility
As we age, muscles, joints and ligaments are more prone to injury. Exercise can help maintain their function. And by adding chiropractic care to regular exercise, many of the often-times painful effects of aging such as muscle pulls and torn ligaments can be prevented.

Both exercise and chiropractic care help circulation and muscle function which can promote healing of body tissues. Combined, they can also prevent back pain by keeping spinal muscles toned and flexible, improve restorative sleep, and reduce overall pain and stress.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of exercise and chiropractic care, contact our office today for a consultation. We’ll be happy to recommend a treatment plan that combines chiropractic therapy and exercise to help improve your overall health.

Dr. Judd Lowrey, D.C. | Lowrey Chiropractic | El Dorado Hills & Folsom Chiropractor | (916) 941-7508

With warmer temperatures finally here, spring is in full bloom. This means for more than 20 percent of us that suffer from seasonal allergies – sneezing, itchy eyes, rashes and symptoms of allergic rhinitis. While there are many treatment options available for allergy sufferers, chiropractic care has become increasingly popular because of its efficacy and absence of side effects.

Orthodox medicine does not offer a cure for allergies. The most common treatments are antihistamines to combat histamines that cause eye redness, sinus congestion, and other allergy symptoms. These medications used to treat symptoms of seasonal allergies often have a variety of side effects that can leave some feeling groggy and tired – particularly when they’re taken with alcohol, sedatives, or tranquilizers. More serious side effects of allergy medications include infection, suppressed immunity, and hypertension. A 1994 Journal of the National Cancer Institute also produced research showing a link between certain antihistamines and cancerous tumors in lab rodents.

Unlike medications that have side effects and have been developed solely for minimizing or masking allergy symptoms, chiropractic care helps restore the body’s ability to adapt to allergens by locating and reducing disturbances in the nervous system. As an allergen is introduced to the body, the immune, glandular, and respiratory systems can react inappropriately causing symptoms of allergies. The chiropractic approach to treating this over response by the body is to release stress on the nervous system so that immune system can function more effectively.

By removing stuck neurological patterns, stress can be relieved, and the body can begin to neutralize allergy-causing chemicals. With the nervous system in check, symptoms of allergies often subside. Thus, the focus on chiropractic care for allergies is truly building a healthier body, as opposed to either eliminating allergens or treating symptoms with medications.

Whether or not you’re suffering from allergies this spring, it’s beneficial for your long-term health to have a healthy spine. A spinal checkup can determine if you have stuck neurological patterns that could be contributing to allergy symptoms or other conditions that can affect your health, strength, and vitality. Call Lowrey Chiropractic, El Dorado Hills Chiropractor at (916) 941-7508 today to find out how chiropractic care can help you!