Featured Article
A publication for patients and friends of Westford Family Chiropractic
Westford Family Chiropractic's
"The Spinal Times"
To all of Westford Family Chiropractic patients; welcome to our bi-monthly health newsletter!
Find us on Facebook 
Like Us!
Every two weeks we will attempt to address two or three areas that will help improve your health.
westfordchiropractic@yahoo.com
Please comment in the BLOG section of the website.
May 2012, Edition 11
In addition to the electonic Newsletter,
Westford Family Chiropractic provides a quarterly
"paper" Health Newsletter issued through the mail.
If you wish to receive this Newsletter you can sign up
in the office, call, or send us an email.
Dr. Leigh
I
Half-Empty or Half-Full
|
Chiropractic Care Helps Support a Positive Mental Attitude
|
|
It's tough to focus on the positive when you have pain. Headaches, neck pain, and back pain can often take the joy out of what had started out as a beautiful day. Even when we have good tools, when we know, for example, how to return to the breath and find our center, physical pain can be insistent and continue to take over our attention.
Chiropractic care can help intervene in a cycle of pain and help restore normal function. By helping spinal joints work more effectively, chiropractic care removes many sources of physical pain. A more normally functioning spinal column leads to more effective function in the nerve system. All body systems improve and overall health and well-being increases. As a result, chiropractic care helps us focus and regain our positive mental attitude.
|
What's your worldview? Are you an optimist or a pessimist by nature? Do you always expect good things to happen or are you waiting for the other shoe to drop? Our mental attitude affects how we interact with others and how we respond to events and the comings and goings in our daily lives. Remarkably, our mental attitude also affects our health and well-being. How we feel, not only mentally but also physically, is significantly impacted by what has been termed our "internal guidance mechanism".
Back in the 1960s a plastic surgeon named Maxwell Maltz wrote Psycho-Cybernetics, a groundbreaking book that has been continuously in print for almost 50 years. Psycho-Cybernetics, one of the original self-help books, popularized the idea that the subconscious part of our mind is a goal-seeking mechanism. Maltz famously compared the subconscious to a guided missile, stating that the subconscious would do exactly what it is programmed to do. If you want to achieve a goal, Maltz proposed, visualize its successful completion. Visualize yourself driving that red sports car. Visualize the fun you and your family are having on your trip to Hawaii or Italy. Visualize living in your beautiful home. Provided that the instructions are clear, your subconscious will go to work to cause your goal to manifest in your life.
This wasn't mumbo-jumbo. Maltz was a scientist and made a very strong case for his theory, backed up by decades of interaction with his patients. Since then, of course, hundreds if not thousands of self-help gurus have sprung up, publishing books, giving seminars, and being interviewed in broadcast media. Maltz, Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Emmet Fox, and Ernest Holmes were the originals, the pioneers who promulgated the concepts and precepts of taking charge of your own life.
In terms of health, for example, attitude is critically important.1,2,3 How do you respond, internally, if a nearby co-worker coughs or sneezes throughout the day? Have you noticed that if you think that you, too, are going to get sick, that in fact you do? But others, exposed to the same environment, do not. Is it possible that these others paid no attention to the ill co-worker, that they did not internalize the notion that they were being exposed to contagion? Such a scenario is not necessarily true, but it is possible. The conclusion could be that our thoughts matter. As Earl Nightingale, one of the pioneers of the personal development field, famously stated, "You become what you think about".
So what should we do? Think happy thoughts all day long? Not really. But it is important to remember that attitude counts. If we are more frequently seeing the glass as half-full rather than half-empty, it is possible that we are going to have a more productive, more successful, more fulfilled day. And, unbeknownst to us, our subconscious mind will build on those successes and help to bring us more success, personal growth, happiness, and well-being.
1Matsunaga M, et al: Association between perceived happiness levels and peripheral circulating pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in middle-aged adults in Japan. Neuro Endocrinol Lett August 5, 2011 (Epub ahead of print)
2Layous K, et al: Delivering happiness: translating positive psychology intervention research for treating major and minor depressive disorders. J Altern Complement Med 17(8):675-683, 2011
3Sadler ME, et al: Subjective wellbeing and longevity: a co-twin control study. Twin Res Hum Genet 14(3):249-256, 2011
Living With Pain
Chronic disease is a major problem in U.S. health care. More than one-third of Americans have one or more chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The personal costs to patients and families are often severe, daily, and ongoing. The economic costs to society are almost $1 trillion annually.
|
Chronic disease is a major problem in U.S. health care. More than one-third of Americans have one or more chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The personal costs to patients and families are often severe, daily, and ongoing. The economic costs to society are almost $1 trillion annually.1
Heart disease includes high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, coronary artery obstruction, angina, and heart attacks. Most of these conditions represent a chain of events. Left untreated, of course, high blood pressure is a leading cause of heart attack and stroke.
Most cases of diabetes develop from a pre-diabetic state which is also known as insulin resistance. Insulin - a hormone produced by the pancreas - is necessary for cells to be able to absorb glucose from the bloodstream and use the glucose for energy. If cells become insulin resistant, glucose stays in the bloodstream, leading to a pre-diabetic condition.
Left untreated, pre-diabetes likely advances to diabetes, in which insulin resistance is combined with insulin depletion, as the pancreas loses its ability to produce this important hormone. Diabetes may lead to many severe problems, including kidney failure, and is a leading cause of death from heart failure.2
Cancer is now being recognized as a chronic disease.3Rather than being a mysterious disorder that occurs randomly, many cancers are now understood to have many elements in common with other chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Pain is a common element to chronic disease. Affected persons often take daily pain medications. Most people become tolerant to their medication and require increasingly stronger doses. The pain of chronic disease is notoriously difficult to treat.
In recent years a holistic approach has been successfully applied in the treatment of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Chiropractic care is an important component of the holistic approach.
Chiropractic care helps restore more normal biomechanical function to the spine, which in turn improves the ability of the nerve system to effectively communicate with the rest of the body. Important benefits of this restored function may be an improvement in the body's ability to repair damaged tissues, a strengthened immune system, and reduced levels of musculoskeletal pain. Such improvements may help lead to improved daily functioning. As levels of pain decrease, a person may be able to engage in more physical activity. Multiple benefits follow.
Chiropractic care is a key part of an integrative approach to the management of the pain of chronic disease. Your local chiropractor will be glad to help you determine whether chiropractic care is right for you.
1“An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease”. Santa Monica, CA, Milken Institute, 2007
2Eddy DM, et al: The metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk: implications for clinical practice. Int J Obes 32(Suppl 2):S5-S10, 2008
3"Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer". Washington, DC, American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007
|
| Physical Activity and Chronic Disease |
In recent years, study after study has shown that physical activity is one of the top factors in lowering the risk of developing chronic disease. Risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer are lowered by consistent, moderate exercise.
These remarkable findings have profound implications. Exercise now becomes much more than a quick fix to get yourself ready for the summer and summer clothes. Exercise is now known to be a critically important life-prolonging activity.
If you're concerned about diabetes -exercise. If you're concerned about heart disease - exercise. If you're concerned about cancer - exercise. Exercise is not all there is to do, of course, but if you're not exercising, you're missing a key factor in maintaining good health.
Of course, no one is going to start exercising because they think they "should". Exercise is always a choice. Federal guidelines recommend 30 minutes of exercise five times a week. These 30 minutes may be spread out over the course of the day, if needed. If we choose to be healthy, we can do this.
|
A Westford Family Chiropractic "ALERT"! 90% of prospective patients will find their chiropractor ON-LINE. Positive reviews are so important...and we / I hope that you feel Westford Family Chiropractic and myself provide you with top quality (5 star) chiropractic care. I ask that each of you who receive a newsletter would kindly take the time to "write" positive review on one (or more) of these sites:
Click on the logo for the site which you may wish to provide a "review" and type "Chiropractor near Westford" in the search box. Click on the Westford Family Chiropractic heading...Thank You!
When creating a "review" you will need to "verify" your authenticity by providing an email address. THANKS!
May 2012 Special !!!
Inflatable low back cushion is exclusive to persons NEW to our office. Westford Family Chiropractic will always be happy to provide x-rays and evaluations to past and present patients for$25.00.
For any existing patient that refers someone to our office; we will provide you with a neck or back roll as our thank you!
Call Westford Family Chiropractic today!
(978) 692-4476 or
request an appointment on-line.
Top
