Wipeout! Stress is the Main Cause of Subluxations!

December 7, 2011 by 2 Comments

Hi this is Dr. Rob with your weekly health blog. This week we’re going to talk about causes of subluxations. There are 3 main causes which in reality are just one cause: stress. The inability of your body to adapt to stress causes subluxations. It could be a physical stress, a mental type stress, even a chemical stress.

Let’s discuss one of the causes, Physical Stress, the most obvious one. If you want to see a way one can subluxate himself, tune into Wipeout on ABC on Thursday Dec 8th at 8 p.m. You’ll be able to see my daughter as one of the contestants on Wipeout subluxating herself!
Take a look at the way people can subluxate themselves then we can discuss the biomechanics of it later!

This is a friendly reminder to always get your kids checked out, ’cause it seems like with kids every day is a wipeout!

Have questions? Call me at Bates Chiropractic at (310)710-4787 or contact me on the web at www.chiropractormanhattanbeach.com

Don’t forget check out Autumn Bates this Thursday on Wipeout, channel 7 at 8:00 pm!

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Maintain Your Spine

July 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This week I’d like to talk about a concern of mine for others. A statistic came out stating that about 80-90% of all Americans will have a serious bout of back pain sometime in their life. It wouldn’t be the case if people learned how to maintain their spine.

Think about it. How many people maintain their spine? How many people actually know how to maintain their spine? Were you taught how to? No, because we weren’t taught that way.

We’re taught how to take care of our teeth. We know we have to brush and floss regularly, eat right, and get regular check-ups with a dentist, but we aren’t taught how to take care of our spine.

It’s a big concern of mine. I had a lady come in yesterday. Her first visit was in 2006, she had a serious bout of back pain; I adjusted her and her back pain went away. But, people don’t realize that if you don’t maintain your spine, it can create problems. One thing that can happen is that your spine can form a situation called Degenerative Disc Disease; most of the time is a silent process.

When you look at the neck, there should be a nice arc. But if you look at the patient who came in 2006, you can see she had a reverse forward posture. The posture resulted in decreased discs and a big bone spur in her neck. We went ahead and adjusted her, she felt fine after one adjustment, so she thought she was fixed. We talked about how to correct and maintain her spine, but the problem was that she thought that if she felt okay, she was okay. That’s the way we were taught to take care of our health and this concerns me.

She came back just yesterday, 5 years later, she had back pain again. We took another picture of the neck, and you can see that the area where she had the bone spur before is almost fused together and that there are other bones that are starting to do the same thing. She was completely shocked; she couldn’t understand. She hadn’t experienced pain since the last time she had come in.

“How can that be?” she asked. “Because,” I said, “if you don’t maintain your spine, it will degenerate.”

If you don’t maintain your spine, it will go down hill. That’s what we do here at Bates Chiropractic, we correct and maintain the spine. You want to maintain your spine and not your problems. Unfortunately, a lot of people only manage their problems. So, the key to it is really maintenance.

If you want to learn more about maintaining your spine and that of your family, you can contact us at Bates Chiropractic at (310)545-4188 or online at www.chiropractormanhattanbeach.com

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Sickness Vs. Health

June 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Aloha from Kaanapali, Maui coming to you with our weekly health blog. This is an exciting topic, an interesting topic. We are going to talk about sickness versus health. When you think about sickness versus health, keep in mind this analogy:

You walk into a dark room and you flip on the light. What happens to the darkness? Nothing, because darkness is a non-entity whereas light is an entity.

Now, if you have a sickness or an illness, what happens to the illness? Nothing, because illness is a non-entity. You only get sick when you pull away or take away health.

So, what is health? Health is the body’s capability to adapt to its environment from internal mechanisms. Your ability to adapt comes from the inside out.

Now, what allows your body to adapt? One of the most powerful things that allows your body to adapt is your nerve system. The brain’s job is to coordinate all functions of your body via messages through the nerves. That means your ability of your body’s immune system to fight off infections. Your cardiovascular system, your digestive system, your reproductive system, all of it needs the proper coordination of the central nerve system so that it can stay at a higher level of health in order to function.

Chiropractically, when you have a subluxation -a bone out of alignment which interferes with nerve messages- the body can’t use the nerve system to coordinate its tissues or its systems as well so you have a lower level of health. This, in turn, opens the door to dis-ease, dysfunction, and for some people, disease.

When you get an adjustment, it puts the bone back into alignment taking pressure of the nerve allowing the body to communicate through that pathway. This allows the body to coordinate at a higher level and function at a higher level which means you’re going to have a higher level of health. That’s why it’s essential to get in for regular adjustments – not just for you, but for your kids, your parents, your aunts, your uncles, your neighbors, they should all be getting regular adjustments. That’s how you build health and keep at a higher level of health. That’s one of the most powerful things that you can do.

That’s were the analogy we talked about comes into play. We are not treating sickness; it is a non-entity, we trying to building health. We add health to the body. That is our goal chiropractically.

If you would like more information about this, contact us at Bates Chiropractic at (310) 545-4188 or www.chiropractormanhattanbeach.com

Stay regular with your chiropractic adjustments! Mahalo!

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Rubber Band Exercise

April 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is Dr. Rob with your weekly health blog. I’ve been seeing a lot of people who work in front of the computer -most people work in front of the computer and text quite a bit- having problems with carpal tunnel syndrome. This is typically due to the position they’re putting themselves in: head forward, hand in a claw-like position. After awhile, the muscles in your hand begin shortening because of the constant position it’s put in.
Here’s one thing I want you to try for a week:
Get a rubber band, place it around your fingers, and as you’re driving or walking around, start pushing your fingers outward. Make sure the rubber band is not too thick just thin enough to provide resistance as you open up those muscles. If you keep opening those muscles, it will begin to develop the muscles on the opposite side of the hand.
That’s your homework for this week; you’ve got to do it a couple hundred times a day. You can easily do it while you’re driving or in front of the computer. You will see that you will soon have less pain in your hand.
We will talk more about how to correct forward head posture which is more complicated. Until then you can always call me at our office Bates Chiropractic at (310) 545-4188 or on our website: www.chiropractormanhattanbeach.com

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When The Cure is Worse Than The Cause

April 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is Dr. Rob with your weekly health blog. This week I’m concerned with an article I recently read. My concern is that a lot of times we do certain types of treatments on our bodies where the cure is actually worse than the cause. An article just came out in the New England Journal of Medicine stating “super-bugs” are being created due to an over-utilization of antibiotics. We’re using antibiotics for viral infections when they’re really designed for bacterial infections. What happens is when you take an antibiotic, most the bacteria die except for maybe a few, and those few will adapt over the course of weeks, months, and even years. Their offspring then become resistant to that antibiotic, so now when you go to take the antibiotic, it won’t work.
It forces our technology to try to keep up with the super-bugs, but what they’re finding is that it takes seven to ten years to develop a new antibiotic where it only takes a few months for super-bugs to multiply. We’re being faced on relying on our bodies to fight off these bugs where the antibiotics fail to work. We have to focus on building health from the inside out. We all know we have to eat right and exercise, but we also need a good nerve supply.
Why? Because the nerve system controls and coordinates the immune system.
When the body has interferences from subluxations, the immune system won’t work as well. So, it’s very important to get regular spinal checkups-even if you don’t have any pain- to make sure your body’s working well from the inside out.

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Life is Motion, Motion is Life

March 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Life is motion and motion is life, and the same goes for your spine. What we find is that when you lose motion in your spine, the body begins to lose health. That’s why it’s really important to keep exercising, doing yoga and whatever types of stretching exercises you like to do, because it keeps global motion in your body.
When it comes to individual segments of your spine, the spine needs to move segmentally to work properly. If the spine begins to lose proper motion, it starts to create problems. The brain sends out messages and data to all of the organs of the body, but there are also messages and data that feed back up to the brain. When the vertebrae are moving properly, it actually sends out electrical impulses from the spine and nourishes the brain and allows the brain to regulate the physiology of all your organs to keep you healthy.
When the spinal vertebrae are not moving properly, the electrical impulses and data of those particular segments are no longer feeding into the brain. Now the brain is no longer receiving the electrical nourishment and is not able to regulate the physiology, meaning your health will suffer. That is called a subluxation.
That’s why we have whole families that come in, the children and grandparents get checked on a regular basis. Your body needs to have regular motion in the spine, that’s why we look for the subluxation. It’s very important to get family check ups. If you aren’t doing so, give us a call and we’d be glad to check you, your kids, and your whole family. If you have questions about this, don’t hesitate to contact us at Bates Chiropractic (310) 545-4188 or www.chiropractormanhattanbeach.com

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Are You Practicing Proper Spinal Hygiene?

March 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is Dr. Rob with your health blog for this week. I want to ask you a question, and I want you to reflect honestly on it: Are you practicing proper spinal hygiene?
Think about it: Do you brush your teeth? Do you floss? Do you go get your teeth checked by the dentist?
Hopefully you’re doing all those things, because that’s proper oral hygiene. If you don’t do that, what’s going to happen to your teeth? Later on, you won’t have teeth, right?

90% of the American population-one time or the other-have had a serious bout of back pain, which means that the majority of people in the United States don’t know how to properly maintain their spine.
Think about this: Are you waking up in the morning and performing certain types of spinal hygiene exercises that we give you? Before you go to bed, are you doing the same thing? It only takes 5 to 10 minutes to do those. Are you coming in on a regular basis to get your spine checked on a maintenance level? If you aren’t, your spine will be degenerate faster and your body will suffer due to a lack of impulses from the brain. In other words, if you aren’t doing what we’re talking about, you’re just maintaining a problem your whole life instead of maintaining a healthy spine.

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March is Blood Pressure Awareness Month

March 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

According to the American Heart Association, March is Blood Pressure Reduction Month. The reason being that high blood pressure is a big problem; about 1 in 3 people have high blood pressure. 21% of the people that have high blood pressure don’t even know it!

Interesting enough, a study done in the Journal of Human Hypertension found that a specific adjustment done on the neck helped reduce blood pressure.

According to the study, 50 test subjects had specific chiropractic adjustments applied to their upper neck area. There is a specific area in the upper cervical area that can control blood pressure.

What they found was that on an average, the adjustment dropped the blood pressure 17 points!

This drop would take the equivalent of two prescription drugs to get the same results as this one adjustment.

A follow up study done 8 weeks down the line showed that blood pressure levels were still lowered, which means to get the same results you’d have to take the two blood pressure medications every day for not only those 8 weeks but for the rest of your life. The problem with taking drugs is that there are always side effects. And drugs are poison. Taking drugs for the rest of your life means that you’d be poisoning your body for the rest of your life just to try to keep the blood pressure low instead of just allowing the natural processes of your body to work the way it’s intended by relieving pressure of the nerve.

Chiropractic’s not for high blood pressure, but your body doesn’t need the interference. That’s why you should have yourself and your family checked for subluxations.

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The Damaging Effects of Forward Head Posture

February 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Journal of Geriatrics came out with a study in October 2004; what they found was that people with forward posture or a hunchback, the more their spine hunched forward and was stuck in that position, the closer to death they were. Let’s look at reasons why that could be:

If you look at Patty, she’s stuck in this forward posture. This posture is closing down on all the nerve pathways and it’s inhibiting her ability to breathe and move properly.

We’re going to do a little exercise. I want you guys to participate in this too. I want you to get into that poor posture that you usually are in front of the computer or maybe you’re stuck that way all the time or perhaps you’ve even noticed your kids in that position because of their heavy backpacks.

Go ahead and get into that posture, so you can join us and feel this. This is experiential; I want you to feel what happens in this forward head posture. Now try this: try to bring your arms all the way up and over your head. How far do you get? Notice how far Patty can bring her arms over.

Now go ahead and bring your head over center, so that your ears are over your shoulders. Now go ahead and try that again. See how Patty is able to get her arms up there with no problem? One of the things that happens with forward head posture is that it puts a lot of pressure on the nerves that feed out into the shoulder, and mechanically doesn’t allow the shoulders to open up which can lead to problems like carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic rotator cuff strains, neck problems, and headaches.

Now try this other exercise, get back into that posture again, as if you were in front of the computer, and take a deep breath; feel how that feels. Now bring your ears back over your shoulders and see how the posture pops back up. Now go ahead and take a deep breath. How does that feel? There’s a big difference. This will cause you to be unable to oxygenate your tissues. It causes nerve damage to the nerves that feed out to the lungs and the heart, the shoulders and the hands. Just by correcting posture is a huge thing.

That’s what we do: we correct the subluxation which allows those nerve channels to open up. But, we also do things to correct the posture so it’s not a problem either. You have to do both those things to be effective. Then your body would be healthier than it’s been in a long time.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate in contacting us at Bates Chiropractic at (310) 545-4188 www.chiropractormanhattanbeach.com.

Remember, we’re having our Health and Nutrition Workshop at Fusion Sushi on Thursday, February 24th at 6:45 pm. Space is limited, so make sure to sign you and your guest up at the front desk!

You and your guests will enjoy a great meal and learn life-saving information. We look forward to seeing you there!

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How To Prevent The Flu

December 1, 2010 by 2 Comments

This week we’re going to talk about flu season. As we go into the holidays, it gets colder; people wrap themselves up, stay inside and don’t get enough sun. Typically people have a tendency to get the flu and upper respiratory infections during this time.

I’d like to go over ways to prevent the flu; since we know that getting the flu shot is not 100% effective, we will go over some ways that will build up our immune response:

One of the best ways to do so is to make sure your nerve system can properly communicate with the immune system. You do that by making sure your spine is free of spinal subluxations.

Studies show that regular spinal checkups help improve the immune response.

Another thing you can do is take vitamin D, because we’re not out in the sun as much, we’re not getting the sunshine vitamin. The studies show that taking vitamin D helps improve the immune response. You want to take 2,000 to 5,000 IU a day.

Also, you want to avoid sugar, excessive sugar, which is tough to do during the holidays.

You want to get plenty of rest and make sure you’re washing your hands. You also want to work on breathing exercises to reduce the stress and also regular exercise.

All of that is very important to boost your internal environment so that you can be passed by the flu where other people would drop like flies.

Make sure you spread the word to your loved ones. Many people blindly go get the flu shot, and that, by no means, is going to completely protect you against the flu.

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