The chiropractor Brooklyn Blog at Community Chiropractic & Acupuncture located in Park Slope, Brooklyn 11215, was started to let you know how we apply both Eastern and Western medical theory to establish a diagnosis and treatment plan designed specifically for each patient.
Furthermore, our goal is to help our patients enjoy an optimal quality of life with improved physical health, mental well-being, and a sense of spiritual tranquility.
Take a look at some of our health tips below in our chiropractor Brooklyn blog for information about improving your life.
A self-imposed drought
In America, there is a water-related paradox: many of us are fortunate enough to have regular access to clean drinking water. But we treat our bodies as though there is a drought, foregoing sufficient hydration because of laziness and taste; against our better instincts, we will choose sugary, caffeinated drinks that actually dehydrate us further. Chronic dehydration is ubiquitous in America, as evidenced by the fact that there are now apps which will remind you regularly to drink water. Many of us have become so used to being dehydrated, that it is our new baseline for normal, and this is no way to live! Every cell in our body contains water and relies on water to function effectively- by not providing your body with the water it needs, you effectively function at a lower level. This drought effect becomes even more startling when you look at it through the lens of spinal health.
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The precarious relationship between back pain and exercise
When you are experiencing a flair up of lower back pain, rest might be the only thing that sounds good. And while rest is important, especially if you are heating/icing, movement is equally important. Back pain prevents people from exercising- by some estimates as much as 40% of people will forego exercise if they are experiencing mild back pain. But movement, especially the purposeful kind involved in exercise, helps speed healing by improving circulation, decreasing inflammation and boosting immunity. It also builds strength in regions that matter; for example, a spinal injury like a herniated disc may have you feeling down and out, but building strength in the surrounding soft tissues helps lend support to an embattled region. Read on to find out how you can keep exercising despite lower back pain.
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The spines of tennis players face a unique mix of stresses For being classified as a low-impact sport, tennis actually contributes to a lot of wear and tear throughout the body. Once you look at the nature of the sport, you begin to see why injuries are so common in the tennis community. To begin with: Shearing forces in the lower extremities: you speed up then come to a full stop, then accelerate in the opposite direction. This unpredictable procession of motions wears down the load bearing joints in the…
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Food for thought
Here’s something to think about: every 35 days your skin replaces itself, cycling out old, dead cells and replacing them with new, healthy ones. This process of regeneration is performed by other organs, albeit on differing time scales; the liver, for example, takes about 30 days. While some parts of our bodies are capable of such regeneration, other parts don’t repair at all. Your body is only able to produce these new cells because of the nutrients you provide through respiration, hydration and digestion- in this respect, you are what you eat.
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Just one more cup of coffee…
Do you ever feel chewed up and spat out after a day of work? Perhaps it was a deadline day, and you barely moved from in front of the computer for hours at a time. Looking back, the whole thing feels like a blur. But the feelings of stiffness and pain in your neck and lower back let you know that it was all too real. Often, this scenario is followed by a poor, unrestorative night’s sleep that leaves you reaching for coffee first thing the next morning. Productivity is contingent on so many factors and, more often than not, we set ourselves up for failure. At your Park Slope Chiropractor, we believe that a big part of productivity is based in happiness, and one of the main ways we can increase happiness is by focusing on comfort.
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Why is it so hard to get out of bed?
Grogginess is a bane of the morning time. It is a vicious cycle that feeds itself: your busy lifestyle makes sufficient, restful sleep hard to come by during the week; you naturally have less time throughout the day to achieve your health objectives, whether they be eating well or working out; you wake up feeling tired rather than refreshed, which can make it exceedingly difficult to even get out of bed. And then you are expected to be productive! This is the recipe which leads us to reach for caffeine first each morning. Read on to find our tips for facing down your day the natural way:
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Ignoring pain is a bad habit
What is it about us humans? We can simultaneously process hundreds of sensory perceptions and categorize them while performing daily tasks that range from the ordinary to the highly-specialized. So what happens when just one of those sensory perceptions is pain? You feel a twinge in your lower back, or a stiff, achy feeling in the your neck and what do you do? If you are like so many Americans, you feel, process and store that pain at the back of your priority list. You go about your day ignoring the pain, telling yourself that it will either go away or you will deal with it later. Does this sound like you? Read on to find out why ignoring pain does more harm than good.
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Cardio is excellent for back pain
From boosting circulation to releasing endorphins, cardio is just as important for spinal health as it is any other system of the body. Circulation helps cells in the back get the oxygen and nutrients they need to repair; just 30 minutes of exercise can release feel-good endorphins into your blood stream, helping to relieve pain. A further application of cardio in managing back pain is in helping people maintain a healthy weight. Every single pound counts in your spine’s fight for longevity and its ability to retain a healthy curvature. But some forms of cardio can be harsh on spinal joints, causing repetitive trauma that corrodes the cartilage in your intervertebral discs.
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The dynamic healthcare system offered by chiropractic
Spinal manipulation is the heart and soul of chiropractic care: it is a modality that treats the spine as a foundation of wellness for the rest of the body. By improving function in the spine, and by extension the nervous system, chiropractic adjustment helps you feel less pain and move better. By freeing up the spine and surrounding musculature from dysfunction, we believe that you can manage chronic pain, while preventing the onset of injury and illness. However, chiropractic is an ever-evolving practice, and we look to integrate with and augment primary care, while also providing a whole range of other natural modalities that help the body heal. In this way, it is a truly modern healthcare system.
What is spinal mobility?
While the upper and lower regions of the spine are designed for stability, the segment in the middle, known as the thoracic spine, is designed for mobility. The spinal motion segments (vertebrae, intervertebral discs and facet joints) in this part of the spine are specifically designed for flexion, extension and rotation. With sedentary lifestyles on the rise, we are treating more and more people with poor thoracic (and thus, poor spinal) mobility. What does that mean for you?
- Slumped posture when sitting and standing
- Pain in the neck when exposed to twisting motions
- Restricted ability to perform basic daily movements.
And these problems, when left unadressed, will compound over time, leading to spinal degeneration, pain and dysfunction. You begin to see why thoracic mobility is a health priority at our office in Park Slope.
Read MoreMoreover, at Community Chiropractic & Acupuncture we are committed to providing individualized and compassionate patient care.
Dr. Karen Thomas founded the practice over 30 years ago with the express purpose of providing leading-edge healthcare to the Park Slope community.
As a result, the practice has grown considerably since then, and moved from its original location at Lincoln Place and Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue at Union Street, to its present location at 182 8th Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11215
We want you to know that we are prepared for you.
Furthermore, for the protection of our customers and our employees, we’ve followed the guidance of the W.H.O. and the I.C.C. and their directions to business owners.
Additionally, we have disinfected all surfaces and implemented recommended strategies to keep safe distances between all customers and employees to prevent any transmission.
In conclusion, our team is on top of the most current information available to businesses.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions about your health at 718-398-3100
We all speak English and...
Dr. Gabe is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese
Dr. Thomas speaks some Spanish but is not fluent
Yolanda, our office manager is fluent in Spanish
Steve, our front office assistant speaks some Chinese but is not fluent
Sofia, our medical biller is fluent in Russian