Have you ever put together a puzzle only to find that you are missing one piece. What does it do? It ruins the entire picture doesn't it? I tell my patients every day that they have to view their health as a puzzle. If you are missing one piece to the puzzle of wellness it leads to dysfunction in the body, and that dysfunction will eventually lead to disease if not addressed. We are going to look at 4 pieces of the wellness puzzle although their are many more which I discuss on my website. The first is NUTRITION. You are what you eat! Or more correct would be your health and wellness are dictated by what you eat. Be proactive in learning what is good and what is not good for your body. The second piece is Exercise. Surprise, surprise huh? But it is true! "If you don''t loose, you WILL loose it!" I always tell my patients that the day that they stop moving will be the day that they stop moving...in the ground! Motion is vital for the health and well being of the body. The third is a healthy functioning nervous system. The NS is what runs the entire body. How long do you think you would live with out food? How about water? Now, how long do you think you would live if I took away your nervous system? Thats right, you would die instantly! It vitally important that the nervous system is running at 100%, 100% of the time!! Chiropractors are the only doctors that work to help optimize the nervous system. We take away any interference so that your brain can communicate with the rest of your body! Forth is Positive Mental Attitude. With out PMA it is impossible to acheive wellness. The stress that is involved with a negative mental attitude will one day kill you, and it sure isn't quite as fun as PMA either! So go out and put your Wellness Puzzle together and make sure not to leave out any pieces!Call Bellevue Whiplash Center at Back in Action Chiropractic today at 425-635-0495

The Amazing Plastic Bellevue Chiropractor!

This morning I was discussing with one of my patients just how adaptable the human body is to stress. As I always say, this is a good thing cause if we didn’t adapt to stress (be it physical, chemical or emotional) we would all be either laid up in bed or dead! In neurology we call this process of adaptability “plasticity”. It is the ability of the nervous system, and the entire body, to change. This is why, when a Microsoft employee sits at the computer all day, they have a stiff neck at night. The body literally changes, like a piece of plastic, to the position that the person is sitting in.

Now these changes due to stress do not happen over night. Some take years and years to happen, but I can assure you, if the bones of the spine loose their normal position this will cause problems. Problems such as headaches, stiff and painful neck, sinus pain, jaw pain, etc… can all be the result of this process called plasticity. The good news is that the plastic nature of the body can also be a good thing! I work with plasticity of the human body every single day. As I am helping my patients regain the normal position of their spines, we are making changes in a positive direction.

The important thing to look at if plasticity has taken place in your body. Odds are, if you work in Bellevue at a computer you have developed what I call Bellevue Neck. If you have neck pain or stiffness by the end of the day, or have chronic headaches you have developed plasticity in your system and need to find a Bellevue chiropractor. A chiropractor can help to reverse the damage that has taken place and help to regain the normal positioning of your body.

The other sure indicator that this process had occurred is if you have ever been in a car accident. Car accidents deform the structures of the body making them more susceptible to this happening. Again if you have ever been in a car accident please consult a chiropractor to assess if you are a candidate for care.

Do not let the process of plasticity create disease in your body. Talk to a chiropractor today to reverse the damage done and find ways to prevent it in the future.

Car Accidents and your Bellevue Chiropractor

If you do any driving in a big or medium size city such as Bellevue WA, which is were I practice, you know that seeing a car accident on the highway is almost a daily norm. This is kind of scary when you consider the impact that a car accident has on your body. As a matter of fact a whiplash injury to the neck causes wide spread consequences to your health. “Whiplash injuries not only increase the incidence of chronic neck and shoulder pain, it also significantly increases the incidence of other systemic ill health effects. In other words,whiplash injuries cause more than neck pain and headache, it hurts the health of the entire body.”(Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2001)

If you have been in a car accident of any kind in Bellevue you need to be seeing a Bellevue car accident doctor. Car accidents can, and usually do cause injury to the neck and even the low back that, if left untreated can lead to worse problems in the future and even degeneration of the spine.

“It is estimated that 15-40% of those who are injured in a motor vehicle collision will suffer from ongoing chronic pain.”(Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, 2007)

Recent research suggests that even low impact (or fender benders of even 5MPH) can cause damage to the spine, and especially the bones of the neck. It has been documented in both medical and scientific studies that the damage to your vehicle is not related to the whiplash injuries suffered by you, the passenger of the vehicle.

A Bellevue Chiropractor will evaluate your spine by doing specific tests as well as take x-rays to look for any damage to the bones and motion x-rays to look for any damage to the ligaments (the things holding the bones together), and joints.

“Chiropractic spinal adjusting can essentially fix 81% of disabled patients suffering from chronic low back and leg pain, even when other treatment approaches had failed.” (Canadian Family Physician, 1985)

“93% of patients with chronic whiplash pain who have failed medical and physical therapy care improve significantly with chiropractic adjustments.” (Injury, 1996)

If you have been in a recent car accident in Bellevue call your Bellevue Chiropractor today. The sooner you can catch a problem the easier it is to fix!