Archive for September 2017
An Argument Against Painkillers in the Gym Bag
Painkillers hamper athletic performance
They do so in the following ways:
- Interfering with hypertrophy
- Preventing protein synthesis
- Inhibit nutrient absorption
NSAIDs do have a role in injury recovery because they can help mitigate the pain and inflammation that prevents effective recovery from acute injuries. However, if you are using NSAIDs simply to treat aches and pains post-workout, painkillers actually prevent the efficient recovery of muscle and connective tissue. Instead, many health professionals and sports-health specialists advise a more dynamic approach to recovery: the tested and true methods of rest, good diet and therapeutic stretching and exercise. You can go one step further by using chiropractic to augment your body’s natural healing response.
Chiropractic is a smart response for injury rehabiliation
We focus on aligning the spine, mobilizing joints and preventing scar tissue adhesion in order to maintain optimal range of motion. If you are interested in using our services to promote healthy recovery from injury or simply prevent injury in the first place, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today.
Improving Hip Mobility with Chiropractic
Chiropractic for hip mobility
Pelvic misalignment limits hip mobility. As your sport chiropractic specialist in the Park Slope neighborhood, we focus on improving hip mobility in the following ways:
- Ensuring the spine is aligned through the pelvis
- Strengthening the core stabilizing muscles
- Focusing on stability of the pelvic region
Weakness and/or tightness in the hip muscles which surround the joint capsule can also limit hip mobility, which means that targeted stretching to the internal and external rotators can help improve elasticity of the hip muscles and improve mobility. Our primary goal is to resolve misalignment in the lower spine to prevent imbalance in the hip muscles moving forward.
More hip mobility means better athletic performance
If you are interested in getting a leg up on the competition, give our office in Park Slope a call and find out more about how our natural modalities help you improve hip mobility.
The Importance of Postural Transitioning
Using postural transitions to your advantage.
Chances are you don’t want to remain locked into a stiff and stagnant position. But many of us end up this way because over time, our body learns that this is what we want, and our muscles respond to make this unhealthy posturing feel more comfortable. This is a trap! Even if your body feels better slouching, you are causing innumerable damages to your spine. At Community Chiropractic & Acupuncture, we want people to overcome stagnation by awareness. An ergonomically aware person should make at least one purposeful movement every 20 minutes of sitting or standing. These can be slight, like simply raising your feet onto a footrest from the floor, or stretching the back; or they can be more purposeful like standing up and walking to get a drink of water.
Postural transitions keep your core engaged
If your job involves a whole lot of one position, make sure that you listen to the signs of stiffness before they give way to pain. If you are interested in optimizing your work life and finding more ways to keep your body healthy despite the demands of your job, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.
Acupuncture versus Injection for Back Pain
Acupuncture is effective at addressing neck pain
While painkilling injections quite often achieve their goal of reducing pain and helping people live a more normal life, there is every chance that the pain will come back and the necessity for injections will continue. Acupuncture seeks to encourage the body’s intrinsic healing response and addresses pain in the following ways:
- Stimulates nervous system response in muscles and connective tissues.
- Releases painkilling endorphins and alters the processing of pain in the brain
- Reduces inflammation
- Releases muscles from stiffness and improves spinal joint mobility
- Increases local circulation to provide nutrients and oxygen to the injurious region.
Acupuncture for neck pain in Park Slope
At our office in Brooklyn, we specialize in the treatment of neck pain through holistic methods including chiropractic adjustment and acupuncture therapy. If you are interested in overcoming your long standing neck pain, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today.
Acupuncture for Overuse Injuries
Keeping an eye on overuse injuries at Park Slope Chiropractic
Here is how to discern whether that dull aching is typical post-workout soreness or an indicator of something more serious:
- Soreness sets in during activity or shortly after
- Soreness in the same area over weeks.
- Most often felt in joints or the surrounding regions
Classic example of overuse injuries include: hip and elbow bursitis, tendinitis in the wrists, shoulder impingement syndrome and tennis elbow. These injuries are primarily joint-related and respond well to acupuncture treatment.
Acupuncture treatment for overuse injuries
Acupuncture is tailor-made for athletes because it focuses on regulating the flow of energy throughout the entire body, and can be specifically targeted to account for overuse injuries. Acupuncture enhances blood circulation to an injurious region, bringing nutrients and oxygen, and carrying away lymphatic material and other waste. This works to enhance the body’s ability to heal itself. At Park Slope Chiropractic, we specialize in using acupuncture to help athletes overcome overuse injuries. If you are interested in using our services to overcome an overuse injury, give our office in Brooklyn a call to schedule an appointment today.
Acupuncture for Shin Splints
Acupuncture for shin splints
Acupuncture is well-researched for its ability to reduce pain and increase circulation in an injurious region, helping improve the speed of healing while reducing swelling. While your body will most likely resolve shin splints on its own, it can always use a helping hand and acupuncture is the most natural hand you can lend with very few side-effects to offset its efficacy. Some athletes, especially professional ones, can’t afford the time off necessary to let shin splints fully heal by themselves. Acupuncture is a great way to speed the rate of recovery and get you back on the playing field.
Acupuncture for sports injuries
Acupuncture for shin splints is directed around the site of the injury, where the tissue is injured. By inserting needles along the edge of the tibia, we promote fast healing of the soft tissue. If you are interested in using acupuncture for sports injuries, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.
Holistic Healthcare Starts Here
Holism is a philosophy
Holistic healthcare is born from the idea that we should treat the whole of the person in order to effect healing. In this line of thinking, a whole person consists of the body, mind and spirit and thus, treatments are most effective when they treat these three elements together. To delve into this philosophy further, consider that dysfunction in any one area (body, mind and spirit) or disharmony between the three can actually contribute to illness and injury in and of itself. Chiropractic medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine are both branches of healthcare that focus on the interconnectedness of the body, mind and spirit and use this connection to improve the body’s ability to heal itself and prevent injury from recurring.
TCM and Chiropractic are part of a holistic outlook on healthcare
There is a misconeption that TCM and chiropractic seek to replace allopathic treatment, which is certainly unfounded. Chiropractic and TCM instead seek to compliment traditional forms of treatment, and offer an alternative, non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical option in many cases. It’s no wonder that more and more surgeons are referring potential patients to our office in order to seek success with chiropractic before moving on to surgery when it comes to their musculoskeletal condition.
Holism as a way of life
In the end it is important to remember that holism is as much a way of life as it is a medical treatment. An important part of our job at Community Chiropracitc & Acupuncture in Park Slope is getting people to realize that many illnesses and injuries can be treated with a reasoned, conservative approach rather than jumping immediately into the deep end of pharmaceutical and surgical healthcare approaches which are the norm of Western medicine.