Posts Tagged ‘chiropractor Park Slope’

The benefits of sports massage

Studies consistently show that athletes who receive massages post-workout have enhanced blood flow and less muscle fatigue than those who don’t get a massage. At this point, circulation is everything: it ensures that your muscles get the oxygen and nutrients they need to repair and regrow stronger. Massage also gets in deep and breaks up scar tissue adhesion, and helps muscle fibers grow back quicker and more effectively.  Further benefits of sports massage include:

• Relieving muscle tension and spasm
• Increasing joint mobility
• Increasing the pliability of muscles 
• Increasing blood flow
• Reducing stress

This translates to less time on the sidelines nursing your sore and stiff muscles. If you are interested in adding sports massage into your athletic recovery plan, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Making old age more comfortable

Acupuncture benefits seniors in the following ways:

• Reduces inflammation: stimulates the body’s pituitary gland to release cortisol which fights inflammation
• Relieves pain by stimulating the release of the body’s natural painkillers
• Improves respiration
• Helps with digestive problems
• Treats neck pain and headaches
• Improves mood
• Relieves arthritis pain

And it does all this without a prescription! As an alternative form of healthcare, acupuncture does not seek to replace your primary care, but rather to augment it. Acupuncture is proven natural healthcare that adds another dimension of support for your aging body. If you are interested in finding out more about how you can benefit from acupuncture, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Acupuncture delivers serious relief

In the early stages of RA, a primary goal of Western medicine is to slow down the inflammation response, thereby limiting the end damage to the joints. Acupuncture attempts to relieve arthritis pain by stimulating the body’s natural painkilling response and improving the function of affected joints. By stimulating blood flow, your body is able to deliver oxygen and nutrients to an are that is in serious need of support. 

The argument for acupuncture

There is a growing trove of research and evidence that suggests acupuncture is an effective treatment for arthritis. If you have turned to seemingly every corner of the medical world and found little relief from your symptoms, it could be time to try acupuncture. Acupuncture is a safe, minimally-invasive procedure that adds another dimension to any pain management strategy. If you are interested in finding out how acupuncture can help you manage your RA symptoms, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. 

How does acupuncture directly address headache symptoms?

• By relaxing muscular tension
• Reducing pain by releasing endorphins and enkephalins
• By regulating blood flow and the body’s circulatory response
• Regulating the central and autonomic nervous system

Acupuncture is not for everyone’s headaches. It is important that we take the time to exhaustively detail your medical history, symptoms and current condition. By determining what types of headaches you suffer from, we can create a coordinated treatment plan that includes chiropractic and acupuncture techniques to naturally treat your symptoms. 

Thanks to clinical research, acupuncture is being proven as a non-pharmacological method for managing tension headaches. If you are interested in making acupuncture a part of your healthcare routine, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. 

A multi-faceted approach to treating TOS in Park Slope

Because TOS is a compression syndrome, we focus our efforts on alleviating compression through manual adjustments, trigger point and myofascial release. Even teaching and implementing better posture has been shown to help relieve symptoms of TOS. In combination with these gentle, effective modalities, we also offer acupuncture as a therapy for relieving the discomfort of TOS. 

Acupuncture reduces inflammation and helps to relax the muscles; by improving the body’s circulatory system, we make more oxygen and nutrients available to the thoracic outlet as it attempts to heal. Acupuncture works with our chiropractic modalities to rebalance the body and make significant improvements in the symptoms of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. If you are interested in finding out more about our natural approach to wellness, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Direction of gravity in relation to your COG

This is where things get interesting. Gravity is a downward force; because you are in the middle, gravity travels through you and your COG toward the center of the earth. Your COG is part of your base of support– the area beneath you, including the points of contact your feet make with the ground. This base of support determines how stable you are- if the line of gravity travelling downwards stays within your base of support, you are stable. However if the line of gravity falls outside your base of support, you are unstable. 

It therefore follows that a larger base of support therefore increases stability, and helps explain why a low center of gravity is advantageous; the lower your COG, the less likelihood that the line of gravity will fall outside your base of support.

Stability and the center of gravity

At Community Chiropractic and Acupuncture of Park Slope, we want to help you get to know your center of gravity. Balance is an important part of wellness and we want you to start taking advantage of it to prevent injury and function optimally. Give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.

Acupuncture for improving muscle function

Acupuncture focuses on restoring muscle balance and function. It is able to do this in a variety of ways: firstly, when we activate an acupuncture point, it stimulates the production of nitric oxide. allowing blood vessels to relax and opening the arteries. This results in more oxygen and nutrient flow to your muscles, helping them to rebuild quickly and effectively. This overall uptick in circulation contributes to a reestablishment of homeostasis, or balance, throughout the body, helping your musculoskeletal system to reach peak levels of performance. 

What’s more, your recvovery post-workout relies on relaxation. After exercise, our muscles are often in state of tension that is counterproductive to recovery, while also causing us to feel stiff and sore. Acupuncture releases endorphins that fight pain and necourage muscle relaxation.

How can acupuncture help you become a better athlete? 

Acupuncture can help you become a better athlete by encouraging musculoskeletal balance, boosting circulation and improving the effectiveness and speed of your recovery between workouts. If you are interested in finding out how acupuncture can take you to the next level of sports performance, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Why seniors should focus on strengthening

Whether you identify as a senior or not, strengthening should be an indispensible part of your weekly workout routine. We generally recommend lifting the appropriate level of weights 2-3 times a week, focusing on the major muscle groups of the core, arms and legs. The main types of strength training include:

• Using weights to create resistance: Resistance training
• Swimming with the natural resistance of the water. 
• Body-weight training: using your body’s weight as the resistance for your exercise

While focusing on these areas of exercise will not reverse aging, they will directly address some of the main symptoms of aging, including:

• Loss of muscle mass
• Loss of bone density
• Loss in strength, endurance and vitality

In fact, strength training, along with aerobics, are your body’s only natural defense against these incursions of age. They also help you avoid inherent dangers like falling by increasing your body’s natural range of motion, coordination and balance. 

Importance understood, now how do I start?

No single exercise plan fits all. Every single person should approach their strength training based on their level of ability and the condition of their body. If you are living with a debilitating spinal condition, you need to take extra care before employing any plan to strengthen. Many movements, exercises and stretches that are considered appropriate for people with average fitness can actually increase the severity and pain inherent in your condition. If you are looking for a completely customized plan for strengthening as you age, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Science speaks: the best sleep setups for different conditions of the spine

• Herniated disc: depending on the location of the injury, you may feel moree comfortable sleeping on your side or your stomach with a medium-firm mattress that allows your shoulders and hips to sink in a bit, but maintains the alignment and curvature of your spine. 
• Osteoarthritis: a loose fetal position is generally recommended: sleeping on your side, with your spine in alignment throughout your neck, but with your knees pulled up. The goal is to relieve pressure on embattled spinal facet joints, which can also be achieved using an adjustable bed or reclining chair to elevate the knees.
• Degenerative disc disease: people with this condition often find relief sleeping on their stomach, on a firm, supportive mattress with a pillow under the stomach. The goal is to reduce stress on the affected region and, in particular, to open up space between the discs to allow for relief from compression. 

No matter what spinal condition you suffer from, we are certain we can help you find more comfort and support in your sleep setup. If you need help finding more rest and rejuvenation to ease your spinal condition, give our office in Park Slope a call. We are your go-to resource for spinal health and we want to help you start sleeping better today!