Posts Tagged ‘acupuncture Park Slope’
You Are What You Eat: Explained
So, you really are what you eat
Hopefully that doesn’t make you feel too uncomfortable. But think about it this way: if you are consistently consuming foods that are devoid of nutrition, how can your cells rebuild, repair and literally regenerate, properly? How can you expect to feel well? The western diet, replete with meats and sweets, has had crippling effects on the American population for exactly this reason: with such inferior inputs, our bodies are literally incapable of repairing themselves properly. It’s time to start giving your body the nutrition it needs to support your lifestyle.
Eating wisely begins with awareness
It is difficult to simply swap out a sweet with a fruit, or a meat with a legume. We are programmed from a young age to crave such delights. But what if you could replace your craving for sweets with a craving for optimal wellness? At Community Chiropractic & Acupuncture of Park Slope, we go about this by helping people realize how much better they feel with a balanced diet. Once you unlock the awareness of how good it feels to maintain a healthy diet, the cycle will keep feeding itself, if you’ll pardon the expression. There is no denying that our bodies simply work better with a properly balanced diet- if you need help getting on board the healthy-eating train, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. We work with you to identify and change any aspect that is holding you back from feeling your best.
Waking Up Without the Grog
Time to face down the day
Morning grogginess is a telltale symptom of a busy lifestyle. Here are natural ways for energizing yourself in the morning time:
- Discipline yourself: no Snooze button! Choose an alarm which gets you excited to wake up and only press it once.
- Practice deep breathing as soon as you wake up
- Take a shower that alternates hot and cold. Make sure you finish on warm!
- Set yourself a morning object of desire: whether it be a particularly tasty breakfast, or an early morning walk with the dog.
Waking up refreshed in Park Slope
At our office in Brooklyn, we want to help you leave that groggy feeling behind. Our natural modalities reduce pain and boost circulation, helping you feel more comfortable and relaxed when bedtime rolls around. When your spine is aligned, and your nervous system is firing on all cylinders, your body can be a very comfortable place to be! Let us help you start waking up refreshed by giving our office a call to schedule an appointment today.
The Problem with Ignoring Back Pain
Pain is a signal- a signal that requires a response
The truth is that most incidences of mechanical back pain do resolve themselves. One side of your brain is telling you that you can just keep going and the pain will go away while your more rational voice is telling you that you are simply fooling yourself. Pain is a signal that something is wrong- a warning symbol that if you keep doing what you are doing, injury could occur. That‘s why you become stiff and sore- if you moved those muscles any further than their restricted range of motion allows, there is a good chance you would incur injury.
The problem is that once that pain goes away, it rewards you for your inaction. But did that pain really disappear? If you make no positive actions to account for the health of your back, and you continue with a lifestyle conducive to spinal degeneration, that pain will just recur over and over again. Ignoring your back pain signals is a great way to set yourself up for injury and disability in the future.
Taking proactive measures to beat back pain
We are not suggesting that you panic at the first sign of back pain. Rather keep a steady eye on your symptoms- where and when the pain occurs, the severity and how frequently it recurs. The prudent person takes action to prevent back pain in the first place, but we understand the predicament of being too busy to care for your spine. If you reach a point where back pain is becoming a constant source of worry, give our office in Park Slope a call. We prioritize the health of your spine and reduce back pain to prevent problems from compounding and leading to disability down the line.
Using Chiropractic to Promote Weight Loss
The relationship between back pain and weight gain
There is a reason why the two seem to coincide. Back pain contributes to weight gain because you are less likely to move when you are in pain. It also causes mental anguish which leads you to seek comfort foods in times of distress. Weight’s role in causing back pain is more obvious. Each extra pound you hold over your target weight is an additional burden to your spine, causing untold damage from muscle strain to subluxation and spinal degeneration.
An equation for success: managing back pain and weight at the same time
By reducing back pain, we can help you maintain a healthy weight. By reducing weight, we can help you manage your back pain. As we have demonstrated above, the two go hand in hand. Using chiropractic adjustment, we reduce nerve interference and reduce back pain which allows you to move more freely and burn calories. Simply creating the possibility for exercise is chiropractic’s greatest role in the weight loss game. If you are interested in using our natural modalities to effect great improvements in your health this New Year, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.
Planning 2018 With Less Headaches
Natural modalities for preventing headaches
When it comes to preventing headaches, many in the health community agree that circulation is a good place to start. Chiropractic techniques and acupuncture both boost circulation by opening up blood vessels in the head and neck. We can also show you simple stretches that reduce tension and get your blood flowing in moments of stagnation. By promoting better blood flow and reducing inflammation, we make the first step in preventing tension headaches and migraines.
But circulation is just the start!
Circulation is just step one. Factors including diet, hydration and posture are also primary considerations. At Community Chiropractic and Acupuncture of Park Slope, we want to help you design a holistic solution for your headaches. This includes identifying triggers, whether they be particular settings, foods or activities. We can effect a wholesale change in the way you see, treat and prevent your headaches. Let’s make 2018 the year where you start to fight back against the grip of headaches in your life- give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.
Maximizing Wellness in the Shadow of Chronic Pain
The cost of chronic pain
We should hold no punches- chronic pain is a public health crisis. It costs society billions of dollars in lost productivity and taxpayer burden. It costs individuals in terms of medical costs, mental anguish, depression and addiction to pharmaceutical “treatments,” that do nothing more than treat the surface symptoms. Western medicine is simply unprepared to treat the intangible nature of chronic pain. And while we continue to search for cures, many in the medical community fear that we may never find one. Of course, we will keep trying; in the meantime, choosing to face your chronic pain head on is the only realistic chance you have of living a happy life despite your symptoms.
Maximizing wellness despite chronic pain symptoms
At Community Chiropractic and Acupuncture of Park Slope, we focus on helping people design solutions for managing their chronic pain. We recognize that our modalities can not possibly promise to reverse chronic pain completely; instead, we focus on using our natural modalities to ease symptoms and improve functionality of the body and brain. In this way, we hope we can help you find a happy life despite the presence of chronic pain. At our office in Brooklyn, we use natural techniques including chiropractic and acupuncture to effect significant improvements in well being. If you are interested in finding out more, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today.
The Stress of Holiday Shopping
Keeping stress down while shopping
At Community Chiropractic and Acupuncture of Park Slope, we are concerned with the toll that holiday shopping can take on our state of mind. Here are some things to keep in mind when you are caught up in the rush of shopping:
- Listen to your body: a headache is a certain sign that you are overdoing it. So…
- Take frequent breaks: do you really need to be going so fast? The more you rush, the higher the stress. Take a seat, a deep breath and inhale the aroma of…
- A hot tea: herbal tea is relaxing whereas caffeine can actually increase stress levels. Over your tea, contemplate…
- Could this shopping be done online? Simple gifts can be found online, in the relaxing hours at the end of the day, when you can also work on…
- Relaxation techniques to get you in a state of mind conducive to sleep.
Sleep concludes our list of the most important ways to keep stress down during the holiday season. Too many of us suffer from poor sleep patterns during the Christmas season thanks to interruptions in our normal routine.
Keeping stress down with natural modalities
At our office in Park Slope, we are standing by to provide you with natural methods for reducing stress. Both chiropractic and acupuncture are effective modalities for combating stress and keeping your body and mind balanced this holiday season.
Don’t Forget to Treat your Muscles this Holiday Season
Natural modalities for overcoming muscle pain
If you need some inspiration this holiday season, stop by our office in Park Slope to find out how we speed the recovery process for sore muscles. We do it using a dynamic approach that combines several proven modalities:
- Deep tissue therapy: massage sparks circulation, bringing healing nutrients to a region in need of rebuilding.
- Stretching: reinforce the pliability of your muscles and send oxygen where it is needed most.
- Heat therapy: penetrate deep into sore muscles and improve tissue elasticity.
- Acupuncture: as discussed in our Acupuncture for the Modern Athlete series.
- Chiropractic: adjustments regulate the nervous system, improve range of motion and relives nerve impingement.
We believe in the power of renewal that the holiday season brings
When it’s all said and done, draw yourself a bath and let the hot water soothe those last aches and pains right out of you. The holidays are a time of treating yourself right! We want to show you how easy it can be to make improvements in your spinal health and overall wellness without resorting to medication or surgery. Give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.
Improving Athletic Performance by Maximizing Mobility
How mechanical back pain affects athletes in Park Slope
Mechanical back pain makes us less mobile. All of your joints are designed for movement- it is essential to their maintenance and their mobility is all the more important for athletes. The most common mechanical back pain that affects athletes is caused by joint dysfunction; spinal joitns that move out of alignment and becmoe restricted in their range of motion. This could make moving the region sore, and contribute to other impairments:
- Lost range of motion
- Reduced strength, endurance and speed
- Back pain, whether local or radiating
And the problems can compound to leave you with more serious spinal conditions including herniated discs, degenerative disc disease and sciatica. Don’t let range of motion Hold you back from achieving maximum performance- read on to find out our plan for helping athletes overcome mechanical back pain in Park Slope.
Helping athletes overcome mechanical back pain in our community
Overcoming mechanical back pain starts with a proper diagnosis. At our office in Park Slope, we provide every athlete with a full physical examination that pinpoints the source of the pain and dysfunction. From here, we create a dynamic plan that seeks to reduce pain and maximize mobility. A properly-aligned spine imparts the following benefits on athletes:
- Body balance: even development of the musculature in the spine.
- Muscular coordination
- Improved endurance and strength
- Better circulation
- Less back pain
Using natural modalities such as chiropractic adjustment, we restore alignment to the spine and restore mobility to joints which are restricted. Deep tissue therapy, acupuncture and heat are all used to facilitate healing and improve ciruclation in the restricted region. Our goal is to get you back to full health and maximum mobility as fast as possible. If you are interested in starting this process, give our office in Brooklyn a call to schedule an appointment today.
Acupuncture for the Modern Athlete: How Blood Flow Affects Performance
Improving blood flow to improve your athletic performance
During workout
Better blood flow, in which sufficient oxygen reaches your muscles, allows you to effect a longer and more beneficial workout. As you move, your heart rate rises and your heart pumps blood to all the parts of your body which are necessary to keep you moving at this higher level. Your metabolic rate then increases, meaning that your body needs more energy to keep going without feeling fatigued; it acquires this energy by producing ATP, an energy molecule whose two main inputs are glucose and oxygen. A healthy circulatory system ensures that oxygen is getting where it needs to be in your body during workout.
Post workout
In the period immediately following your workout, you should be intaking protein and nutrients that will help your muscles rebuild from the micro-traumas that they incur during exercise. Better blood flow means that these nutrients will reach your muscles in the right quantities to facilitate effective regrowth.
Athletes should make good blood flow a priority
At Community Chiropractic & Acupuncture in Park Slope, we use acupuncture to help improve blood flow in athletes, helping them get the most out of their activities. Acupuncture stimulates circulation by dilating blood vessels and decreasing muscular stress. If you are interested in using acupuncture to effect improvements in your athletic performance, give our office in Brooklyn a call to schedule an appointment today.