Is your commute helping you lose weight?
Do you use public transportation to get around your city or town? If you do, a new study suggests that the extra bit of walking to and from your rail or bus stop will help you lose weight.
John M. MacDonald, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studied the effects of a new light-rail line in Charlotte, N.C says that using the subway or bus increased the physical activity, and therefore the body-mass index, of people who started using it.The New York Times reported that those Charlotte residents surveyed who began to walk to the light rail instead of driving to work walked on average 1.2 miles total on their commutes to and from work. The average weight reduction found was 1.18 B.M.I. point.
If you commute by public transportation, you can increase your daily physical activity by getting off a stop earlier. Everyone else can incorporate more exercise into their daily routine by using the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator, walking or biking short distances instead of using the car, or parking far away from the entrance of a store where you are shopping.
What are other ways to incorporate more movement into your life?
San Jose Chiropractor Explains How Chiropractic Care Can Decrease Back Pain Produced by Arthritis
When it comes to back pain and pain in other parts of the body because of arthritic changes, there is a variety of treatment options from which to make your choice, including going to a San Jose chiropractor However, many individuals who are suffering from painful arthritis and back pain still think that they ought to go to a medical doctor as the best way to find a cure for their affliction. But, you might be surprised to know that not many medical doctors are adept in helping individuals overcome the problem of back pain due to arthritis. Medical doctors are taught to treat symptoms through medication, rather than finding and treating the origin of the pain you are undergoing. And, even though particular medications may ease the symptoms of arthritis, there is plenty more that you can do not only for pain relief, but to genuinely slow down arthritic changes in your body.
One of the actions you can take to gain relief from your arthritis and back pain is to go to see a San Jose chiropractor. Chiropractors are doctors who practice entirely in treating the muscular and skeletal system, and arthritis is a joint problem. Chiropractic care has helped many people to slow the process of arthritis by getting their joints moving. Movement is crucial for joint health. A good chiropractor is extremely skilled in treating back pain, even when it is caused by arthritis
If you have never gone to a chiropractor before, you might be a bit concerned about what is going to occur once you are in the office. It might help to give a quick overview about what you can expect. You will be asked about your medical history, which will likely include a family history of arthritis. The chiropractor will want to know about your current lifestyle and may offer explicit changes that will be advantages in lessening the inflammation caused by arthritis. And, finally, you will receive a detailed examination. After the examination is finished, the chiropractor will let you know if chiropractic treatment can help your back pain, as well as relieve your painful arthritic symptoms. After that you will be told about the exact treatment you will need.
Chiropractic treatment is not only painless, but relieves pain gently and naturally. And, the most wonderful part of going to a chiropractor for your back pain and arthritis is that you can feel confident that the origin of your pain is being addressed, and that the ease you experience is not hiding the symptom of pain, but genuinely taking care of the origin of your condition.
Ventura Chiropractor Explains How You May Be Able to Eliminate Allergy Symptoms Once and For All!
Your Ventura Chiropractor is well aware that everyday life can be miserable if you suffer from allergies. A walk in the park, a play date with Kitty, a shellfish stew, or even something as small as a nut can produce such unwelcome symptoms as itchy eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, or a skin rash.
But, occasionally a person’s allergic reactions can progress from just plain irritating to dangerous and life-threatening as the air passageway becomes constricted and breathing becomes a problem. This progression of symptoms can frequently generate a state of panic.
In fact, if you are one of the many people who suffer from allergies, it may even seem to you that, from time to time, your environment is a pretty unfriendly place and that the world around you is, truly, out to get you!
Why does your body react, or rather overreact, to the environment with so extremely while other individuals appear to be unaffected? It’s a great question. The answer is because some individuals, like you, have a hyperactive immune system that actually “freaks out” when you encounter everyday substances such as pollen, dander, shellfish, or nuts.
Can your Ventura Chiropractor help with your allergy symptoms? The answer may surprise you. Many individuals have noticed that they experience freedom from their allergy symptoms after chiropractic treatment, even though chiropractic care doesn’t actually treat allergies.
The reason for this is because chiropractic adjustments affect the whole nervous system, including the autoimmune system. When there’s a disturbance in the nervous system, along with other problems, the autoimmune system, whose responsibility it is to assist you in adapting and responding appropriately to your environment, can become under-active or overactive. In the case of your allergies, the breakdown is the latter (it becomes overactive).
Since chiropractic adjustments decrease or remove disturbances in the nervous system and bring back balance and harmony to the body, the treatments bring that same balance and harmony to the auto-immune system as well. A strong immune system reacts appropriately to supposed allergens in the environment.
So, as mentioned above, your chiropractor doesn’t actually treat allergies. You could say, rather, that relief from your allergies is simply the by-product of a well-adjusted nervous system. If you’d like to get back into harmony with your environment as soon as possible, make an appointment with Ventura Chiropractor today.
Sacramento Chiropractor: If You'd Like to Avoid Golf Injuries, Be Prepared!
With any sort of sport, injuries are not unusual. You can often avoid getting injured in a particular sport by discovering what injury is apt to happen, and then do what it takes to avoid it. Sadly, sports injuries can’t always be avoided. Therefore, it’s important to take good care of your body to make injury less probable, or less traumatic. The most important thing that you can do is to be sure that you have a suitable fitness level prior to beginning to play a sport, such as golf. By maintaining a healthy lifestyle, keeping your joints mobile and your muscles limber, warming and stretching your body before activity, using proper form and good postures while actively playing, and giving yourself sufficient cool down and relaxation time, you may very well keep your body safe from injury.
Golf injuries don’t only happen to amateurs. Nearly a third of pro golfers playing in the same time frame are playing with injury. Fortunately, all-round good health and fitness can decrease how many injuries you may acquire and might actually deter them completely.
Proper body strength in the muscle regions most employed while playing golf is vital. However, before you make an effort to build muscle strength, it’s essential to make sure your spine is aligned and has good mobility. A successful golf swing relies on your spine’s ability to adequately move in a rotational fashion. Back injuries are the most prevalent sort of injuries sustained by golfers. To insure that your spine is in healthy alignment and there is efficient movement in the vertebrae, see your chiropractor in Sacramento. Chiropractic care can go a long way in helping you to avoid back injury.
It’s time to strengthen once you’re “straightened.” Safe, injury-free action on the green is contingent upon your being prepared for your golf activity. You can warm up your muscles and make muscle strain less likely by doing golf stretching and flexibility exercises. Full body range of motion (ROM) exercises will enhance flexibility, relatively speedily, in all areas of the body. Additionally, elastic band conditioning offers functional golf range of motion improvements and can advance needed power in the shoulders, hips and deep muscles of the core. Sports professionals, such as your chiropractor, are adding elastic band training to their golf conditioning programs because the bands supply dynamic resistance that regular weight lifting does not supply.
Besides back injuries, many golfers have painful “Golfer’s Elbow.” There is a minor difference between golfer’s elbow and tennis elbow despite the fact that they are almost the same. Whereas the outside of the upper arm is impinged in tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow impinges the inner arm. Golfer’s elbow, like tennis elbow, can be a reaction to a single intense action, such as (in golf) hitting the mat at the driving range or hitting a hard fairway surface. Although, it most often results from repetitive stress from smaller shocks. Moreover, it can occur for those who suddenly start playing too much golf. For instance, if those that generally play golf once or twice a month decide to play in a tournament, they are potentially at risk for developing the injury.
Golf makes exclusive requirements on our body. Fatigue can be a challenge because the game generally lasts longer than many other sports. Bad posture and lack of coordination are often the consequences of a fatigued body. These two factors combined can create a variety of injuries. In addition, due to continuous swinging of the golf clubs, the shoulder muscles are subject to injury. Just as it is crucial for you to stretch and warm up prior to starting your golf game, be sure to rest your body properly between games.
A surprising injury occasionally connected with golf is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. But, this injury can be induced by numerous games of golf played over several months continuously as it is a condition that comes about as a result of repetitive stress Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can be a serious injury creating incapacitation and on occasion needing surgery. However, if a health professional, such as your chiropractor, diagnoses it at an early stage, chiropractic management and, sometimes, the use of a brace will help the condition.
Many golfers seem to feel that injuries are just an unavoidable part of a golfer’s life. However, a healthy, mobile spine, judicious preparation, proper exercise and muscle conditioning, attaining and maintaining a a suitable fitness level, and reasonable rest and recuperation after your game is over, can assisting in making injuries far less a part of your golfing experience.
Dr. Yong Kim is a chiropractor in Sacramento with over thirteen years of experience helping thousands of patients get out of pain and get their lives back. His office is located at 1707 Professional Drive, Sacramento, CA 95825. He has special training in the area of sports injuries. Dr Kim is himself an avid health enthusiast. For more information go to his website at http://www.sacramentochiropractor.org
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yong_J_Kim
Regulatory Protection is Needed for Student-Athletes
I believe that exercise, often in the form of sports activities, keeps the body healthy and strong. But, as a chiropractor I see a lot of sports related injuries, not just the weekend warriors, but young student-athletes. Sports activities seem to inevitably lead to sports injuries, and some are far more serious than others. That’s why I am happy to see that there is currently a focus on concussions, especially repeated concussions, among young athletes who participate in school sports. The question people are asking is: Are schools doing enough to protect their student-athletes? Do you, as a parent, feel that your child is safe when participating in sports at school? Many parents worry that their young athletes are at risk for serious sports injuries, especially concussions. In fact, the latest C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health found that nearly two-thirds of parents of young athletes between the ages 12 – 17 worry that their children will get a concussion while playing school sports.
Work Injuries, Your Balance, and How Your Cincinnati Chiropractic Clinic Can Help
At my Cincinnati Chiropractic clinic I treat a lot of seniors who are challenged by balance problems. In fact, dizziness, “wooziness,” and other balance-related problems affect at least nine percent of adults, aged 65 and over. Good balance is extremely important, of course, in assisting elders to stay independent and to avoid falling down and sustaining injuries that are frequently extremely serious or even fatal. But, what you may not know is that falls are the cause of a large portion of work-related injuries for workers younger than 65 years of age, including those in their twenties and thirties. That’s right! No one is immune to balance challenges, no matter how young they may be. In fact, those who work in “high places” like construction workers, roofers, oil platform employees, windows cleaners, or any other place where a ladder is necessary are in danger of serious injury if their balance isn’t good.
The principal function of good balance is to help us to manage and maintain our body position, whether standing still or moving, and whether on the ground or high up on a platform. Good balance helps us to walk without stumbling, arise from a sitting position without swaying, and to climb stairs without missing a step. It is obvious, then, that good balance is vital to our health and well-being.
What come as a surprise to you is that you could have a balance dysfunction without any idea of how serious it is. On occasion someone is able to “shake off” a dizzy feeling and the sensation may not return for a while. The problem is that when precipetous dizziness comes about at a critical moment, it is too late to shake it off and a fall is usually inevitable.
Vertigo is the medical term for the sensation that you, or objects around you, are spinning. Nearly 40 percent of people in the U.S. will have at least one experience of dizziness that is serious enough to seek out a health professional, like your Chiropractor at Cincinnati Chiropractic. However, if you are involved in any of the activities listed above, it is an extremely good idea for you to see a chiropractor to have your balance checked prior to an unexpected episode of dizziness, instead of as a response to such an episode. Why? Because as a chiropractor, I can not only check your balance, and make corrections if necessary, but can aid you in maintaining good balance in the future. And, of course, having good balance may save you from serious injury or worse.
Balance disorders are risky at any age. If you believe that you might have a possible balance disorder, it is crucial for you to be evaluated and treated without delay. To help to make your decision easier if you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, even if the experience is seldom or infrequent, you should discuss the symptom(s) with a chiropractor as soon as possible:
• Have you experienced a feeling of being “unsteady?”
• Has the room seemed to spin around you?
• Has there ever a time when you felt as if you were moving when you knew you were standing still?
• Have you lost your balance and/or fallen down?
• Have you ever felt as if you were falling?
• Has your vision ever become “blurred?”
• Have you ever felt disoriented, or lost a sense of time, place or identity?
Remember: Balance problems are not isolated to a particular age group. Our falling down is an ever-present possibility from the time we learn to walk until we take our final step All the more reason to have your balance checked if you work in a job that makes your falling down a “critical” issue. Don’t wait until you sustain a work injury! Call a Chiropractor today, and if you’re in the Cincinnati area, I’d love to be your Cincinnati Chiropractor!
The Hottest Buzz: Social Media Marketing
The “hottest” buzz word on the internet today is Social Media. For those of you who would like to feel out Social Media marketing as part of your overall chiropractic internet marketing strategy, but aren’t really sure what all the buzz is about, let’s take a minute to talk about the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” of social media and you, that’s “Who.”
Social media marketing may seem familiar in some respects to other chiropractic marketing strategies you’ve engaged in in the past, but still unfamiliar at the same time. In the “familiar” category, you’d never consider trying any kind of marketing plan without taking the time to understand what you’re doing and what you want to get from it. It’s important to ask yourself, “What are my goals?” Once you know what you want, you’ll be able to use social media to your biggest advantage.
When you are ready to begin your social media venture, but before you start, it will be necessary for you to make sure that you “own your name” on all the social media outlets, that is to say, make sure that your name or the name of your clinic is available so that you can use precisely same name on each and every one of the social channels you want to use. When you’re ready, there’s a service, which is totally free, that will help you with your search. Knowem.com is the who to go to. Knowem.com will check where your name is and/or if it’s available or not on a large number of social media sites.
The next step, once you have all your social media accounts “captured”, is to make a decision as to where you ought to be active. Because you have a clinic to run and patients to see, in the beginning only a few social media sites is preferable and may actually be all you’ll need. That way you won’t get caught up in too many channels. How do decide which sites are best for you? The big ones (where most of the action is) are facebook, twitter, linkedin, and Youtube.
What your social media activity mission should be is to build a real presence in your community. What you should never do “sell” on your social media sites, that means don’t sell your chiropractic services, don’t sell products, don’t sell anything! The purpose of social media is for you to have an addition channel through which to network with the community. By all means, let them become aware what you do, but do it by becoming a participant. There is actually no difference between social networking offline and social media networking. People on social media sites don’t want to be sold to, plain and simply. Social media sites are similar to a neighborhood backyard barbecue. People are standing around chatting about who they are and what they do, and then a participant asks you what you do. Or, maybe you begin the conversation by simply stating, “Hello, I’m Dr. ____. The same kind of interaction applies with social media. Social media sites should be handled the same way you’d “work” offline networking opportunities to promote yourself, i.e., answer the questions and concerns that let people know who you are and gets them interested in the who that’s you!
Help Your Young Baseball Player to Avoid Injury
Okay, as a chiropractor I continue to advise my patients, young and old alike, that routine exercise is a vital component to good health. And, since one in three children in the US is either overweight or obese, it’s apparent that getting enough exercise is becoming a national crisis. That said, exercise, especially when it involves sports activities, should be engaged in with the utmost caution. And, not just for the middle-aged “weekend warrior,” but for children as well. In fact, here’s a shocking statistic regarding kids and the “great American pastime”: According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, in 2008, nearly 200,000 children aged 14 and younger, were treated in hospitals, doctor’s offices and emergency rooms for baseball-related injuries.
- Always take time to warm up and stretch before and after play. Research studies have shown that cold muscles are more prone to injury, specifically:
- If a child is pitching, he should concentrate on stretching his arm, shoulder and back muscles.
- If a child is catching, the focus should be on the legs and back.
- Children should not be encouraged to play through pain. It is important that they take breaks.
- Limit the number of teams on which your child is playing in one season. Kids who play on more than one team are especially at risk for overuse injuries.
- Wear a batting helmet at the plate, in the “on deck” circle waiting for your turn at bat, and during base running.
- Coaches must teach and allow practice of proper sliding techniques before using a bag, including breakaway bases. Players younger than 10 should not be taught to slide.
Chiropractic Internet Marketing Strategy: Do it Yourself or Outsource?
Here’s an interesting question for you to consider: Do you want to keep your chiropractic internet marketing in-house or do you want to hire a professional? There are pros and cons to both, and the answer lies in your particular situation. Let’s check out the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Advantages of in-house chiropractic internet marketing
- There is a lower monthly cost involved in using someone already employed by you.
- The staff knows your practice intimately. Your staff has a good understanding of your clinic’s particular services and, therefore, is able to describe your specialties easier than those who don’t know the specifics of your particular practice.
- You can communicate anytime. Being in-house it is easier to set up times to have meetings or just to chat about situations on the fly.
Disadvantages of in-house chiropractic website marketing
- The staff may not be fully aware of what SEO (search engine optimization) is, let alone how to accomplish it. In that case, a lot of education and training will be needed to make sure SEO gets done right.
- The staff may be overworked. Sometimes the time it takes to do SEO can be underestimated. It is an ongoing process that can actually be a full-time job. If a marketing manager has been told to do SEO as well as his or her full time job, obviously that person will be overworked and feel overwhelmed.
- Attention needs to be paid to detail. This goes together with Point #2. If the staff is overworked, they have no time to check out search engine news and keep up-to-date on how the search engines have changed the game each week and what needs to be done to implement those changes to keep your clinic internet presence up in the rankings.
Advantages of using an outside professional
- Chiropractic marketing companies are specialists in the field. They have experience in working on numerous clinics and their websites and optimizing them for SEO. They know, first hand, what works effectively and what doesn’t.
- There is a dedicated team at the company who will be working on your site and can give it the attention it requires.
- The company has a specific plan and won’t be just jumping around, going from short term tactic to short term tactic with no organized strategy and no clear way to reach your desired goals. In other words, they have an “integrated” internet marketing strategy.
Disadvantages of a chiropractic internet marketing company
- Let’s face it, it can get expensive, but costs vary widely from company to company. Some companies out there are charging $600-$700 a month for their services. It is definitely worth your while to shop around and research before you buy.
- There is usually a commitment. Most chiropractic internet marketing companies will want you to sign up for at least six months to a year.
- Account management can be a problem. With high turnover rates at many companies, especially the big ones, there may be a chance that you’ll get handed from account manager to account manager just when you were building a relationship of trust. You may have to start over again, maybe even have to redesign and reiterate your strategy with the new manager.
Now that you’ve taken a moment to look at the pros and cons of both keeping your internet marketing in-house or hiring a professional, the solution to SEO and your internet marketing strategy will depend on the size of your practice, the time and staffing you can devote to it, and your overall long-term goals.
Now, of course, we are a chiropractic internet marketing company that specializes in helping chiropractors with their internet presence. So, I will admit that I am a bit biased on the side of your hiring an expert to do it right. If you are thinking of hiring a company to develop and implement your internet marketing strategy, it is tremendously important for you to hire one that specializes in chiropractic clinics. Why? Because we understand the chiropractic profession intimately. Therefore, in the long run it will save you both time and money not having to explain what chiropractic is about to some general SEO company. There are several of us out there.
If you are going to go with an outside company, be sure to read the fine print. Look at the bottom of their page for a disclaimer. If they have one, read about their “typical” results. You don’t want to be fooled by outrageous claims even though such hype can be enticing. Remember, your internet marketing strategy is just one stream of new patient leads. Even though chiropractic internet marketing is fast becoming a great source for new patient leads, and even though internet marketing gets more important with every passing day, and even though it is a crucial area in which to generate new patient leads, it is still not the only source of marketing you will need to succeed in your practice.
Whether you choose to keep your internet marketing in-house or to hire a professional, you want to be sure that the time and money you spend on SEO gets you where you want to go. A member of your staff that does your internet marketing for “free,” while squeezing those efforts in-between other tasks, may “cost” you in the long run. A professional whose sole focus is internet marketing, won’t lose sight of your goals. Internet marketing is essential to your practice, so choose your chiropractic internet path wisely.
Exercising Can Make You Both Healthy and Wise
“Motion is Life.” That is my mission statement as a chiropractor, and my goal is to get as many of my patients as possible moving into pain-free daily exercise routines. There’s just no getting around it, our bodies are meant to move, and when we don’t let them (or in some cases “make them”), every system in our body suffers. Exercising is crucial to our overall well-being, and not just for physical health and strength, but mental “power” as well. In fact, a new study, led by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has found evidence that regular exercise speeds learning and improves blood flow to the brain.
I’m sure that if you already exercise you are aware that your thinking tends to become more clear and sharp after a good workout and cool down, even though you may have been unaware that by exercising you were actually increasing the volume of blood flowing to your motor cortex. The point is, exercise is clearly a “smart” thing to do. So, keep it up if already exercise, and if you don’t, GET MOVING. But, see your chiropractor first to be sure you’re well-adjusted! The findings are available in the journal Neuroscience.