Posts Tagged ‘chiropractic’
Why Guitarists, Bassists, And Pianists Seek Chiropractic Treatment For Relief Of Carpal Tunnel Pain
When I became a chiropractor in Glendale, I discovered that my technical skills were surprisingly advanced due to the fact that I’d been a guitar player for more than fifteen years. Needless to say, my hand coordination was advanced! I also became aware of the hand problems that many musicians develop, like carpal tunnel syndrome. In fact, I was not only known as a Glendale Chiropractor, but I became known as “the music doctor” because musicians from all over started coming to see me to “fix” their hand problems. The pain relief and increased mobility that my patients experienced, and the carpal tunnel surgeries (often ineffective or worse!) that were avoided resulted in plenty of “thank yous.” In fact during the holiday season, I not only got numerous “fruit baskets” from my grateful patients, but plenty of “fruitcakes” from grateful insurance agencies who were compelled to spend far less each year in compensating for chiropractic treatment than they did for carpal tunnel surgeries!
Why do so many musicians, especially guitarists and pianists, experience carpal tunnel challenges in particular? Well, the carpal tunnel is located within the underside of the wrist! This “tunnel” or “passage” is the place through which the Median nerve passes on its way to affect and animate the hands and fingers. Nerve entrapment is often the result of the types of repetitive movements performed by many musicians. to be sure, such nerve entrapment disorder is quite common. The nerve is impinged between other tissues when the size of the tendon enlarges due to irritation and inflammation caused by overuse…long hours of practice, as well as extended performance, are generally the culprits. Plus, such activities can cause a misalignment of the carpal bones. Commonly, musicians development pain, numbness, pins and needles, and tingling in their fingers and hand(s), particularly their thumb and adjacent two fingers. Quite a few musicians routinely awaken from sleep with these symptoms. And, the absolutely disastrous effects for musicians is that CTS can make hands feel undexterous or weak, and fatigue quickly with activity. If treatment is not addressed, in due time, grasping small objects (like a guitar pick or the bow of a bass) with the thumb and fingers can be extremely affected. And, although the keen musician who has discovered the efficacy of chiropractic care would not allow this to happen, untreated Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can become the complete disability of the hand.
In addition to musicians, anyone else who is suffering from repetitive stress pain should see a chiropractor who is an expert when it comes to recognizing the symptoms and solving the problem, like your Glendale chiropractor. He can tell you more about the drug-free, natural approach of chiropractic care. Would you like to find out what chiropractic care can do for you? Then call a chiropractor today!
Treat Your Sports Injury Like You’re a Professional
As a writer for health articles for you to consider in making day-to-day health choices, I cannot think of a more serious subject about which to write about than how to lessen the impact of sports injuries. More and more adults are joining in sports activities (the weekend athletes) as a way of getting or keeping in shape. And, more and more kids are involved in not only very intense sports play, but practice as well. Sport injuries are up — way up! With men and women of all ages active in sports like golf and tennis, and or other healthy activities like running, aerobic classes, and weight training, and kids competing like they were professionals, risks of injury have increased significantly.
Most professional athletes know what to do when they’re injured, but the average sports participant is often caught off-guard both with the injury, itself, and what to do until professional help is found. Here are a few helpful tips:
- Be sure to protect the injury to avoid further damage
- Stop all activity once you are injured and rest the injury
- Ice the injury to decrease swelling, bleeding, muscle spasm, and pain
- Compress the injury, if possible, with a specialized support or elastic bandage to support injured tissues
- Elevate the injury, especially when the damage is to ankles and knees
Of course, proper diagnosis and treatment are essential in order to insure complete recovery. Many chiropractors are expert in the field of sports injuries and can accurately determine the magnitude of your injury. Seeing a chiropractor as soon as possible after an injury has occurred is essential in getting a jump-start, so to speak, on recovery treatment. Sprain and strain injuries, for instance, can cause long-lasting problems, e.g., joint instability, painful and weakened joints and muscles, and lack of mobility, if not cared for correctly. Most sprains and strains are related to some degree of swelling, even internal bleeding, especially where ankles and knees are involved. Strains and sprains require appropriate attention, particularly during the initial stages to assure proper healing and protect against future disability. Experienced treatment of your sports injury by a chiropractor will help to insure that your injury mends quickly and properly, and you’re back in the game!
Chiropractic for Health Includes a Healthy Lifestyle
The best doctors’ therapy, whether they be doctors of medicine or alternative health, is a good, healthy diet. As many people are beginning to discover, the more natural a person eats, that is to say, the less processed foods and artificially enhanced foods, the healthier a person is going to be (period). And, eating well keeps a person at a healthy weight and, therefore, prevents many weight-related diseases such as cardio-vascular diseases and even cancer. That’s right, according to recent research, losing weight can help reduce a person’s cancer risk and losing weight eating the right kinds of food can reduce it even further.
The Mediterranean-style diet, for instance, not only promotes a life-long dedication to good nutrition, but includes foods that build a strong immune system, are easily digested, and provide natures own health therapies, like: Plenty of fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based foods; using herbs and spices, instead of salt, to flavor foods; eating fish and poultry, while limiting red meat and alcohol consumption; and, using healthy fats like olive oil and canola oil, rather than butter.
Add whole grains and beans, and a regular exercise to this type of healthy eating, and a person will likely find themselves not only free of heart disease and cancer, but less likely to be laid up with colds and the flu!
So, eat your vegetables and fruit, munch on those grains, choose fish and fowl over red meat, and get moving in your life, and you may not only live a good, long life, but a long life of good health!
Your San Diego Chiropractor Wants You to Know That Those Seemingly Harmless Extra Few Pounds Can Make a Big Difference As You Age
As a Chiropractor in San Diego, I counsel many individuals who come to my clinic who want to lose weight. I know how hard it can be, and I also know how important it is to lose those extra pounds. Before you decide to add a little more “stretch” to the fabric in your wardrobe, there’s something you may want to know regarding those few extra pounds you may have gained. Over time, they can add up to a surprising number of health challenges from heart and pulmonary diseases and diabetes to back pain and joint degeneration. Surplus poundage puts harmful stress on organs, like the heart, as well as on joints in the low back, hips, and knees. Over half (62%) of men and women in America are overweight or obese, according to recent studies. That is an extremely compelling figure and an enormous problem (no pun intended).
It is likely no surprise to you to learn that the human body was not intended to transport surplus poundage in the form of body fat. Just 20 or 30 extra pounds can, in point of fact, overload and even overwhelm the joints and muscles of the body. Excess weight in the abdominal region, for instance, requires that the body compensate (counterbalance the weight) by tilting the pelvis forward. This angle puts pressure on the joints of the low back. Joint compression inhibits nerve activity and causes painful inflammation. Most people who have a heavy midsectionsuffer from low back pain caused by a compressed sciatic nerve or spinal misalignments that restrict nerves due to weight-bearing stresses. If ignored, misaligned vertebra not only continue to irritate the degenerative changes that have taken place already, but can produce new arthritic changes in the spine in the future.
Are you wondering how chiropractic can help? To begin with the obvious, a “normal” body weight is necessary in order for the musculoskeletal system to act and respond in the way it is designed to. Chiropractic treatment can not only relieve pain created by excess weight compensation, but it can aid in weight reduction. Here’s how. Chiropractic adjustments relieve nerve impingements in the spine and assist in getting motion back into the joints of the musculoskeletal system, such as in the low back, hips, and knees. And, naturally exercise and physical activity are a lot easier, and more beneficial for the body, when the spine is in alignment and the joints have good movement. The added benefit of exercise the, in addition to helping with weight reduction, it can actually reduce degenerative changes as we age.
It is always a good idea to review your diet and exercise options with a healthcare professional, like your chiropractor. In addition to assisting men and women suffering from back pain and joint inflammation, chiropractors can provide expert guidance regarding the particular lifestyle changes that can help you to stay healthier, more energetic, and more active through the years. Arthritis and immobility due to aging don’t have to be compulsory. The structure of the human body is designed for an entire lifetime of pain-free movement.
So, if you’ve been throwing your weight around and all you’ve been getting in return is back and joint pain,as your San Diego chiropractor and someone who cares about your health, I can help relieve your suffering. Make an appointment today!
Corona Chiropractor Explains How Chiropractic Management Can Eliminate Hip Pain
Where hip pain relief is concerned, your chiropractor in Corona provides potent non-invasive, drug-free treatment. As most of us know, surgery should be a last resort whenever possible. Therefore, before you schedule a surgery to replace that hip, ask yourself the following questions: Does hip pain wake you up at night and make it impossible for you to get a good night’s sleep? When you get up in the morning, and/or when you get out of your car, are you stiff and do you find it hard at first to get your legs moving properly? Do you feel pain whenever you rotate or twist them or when you cross your legs? If so, you may have asymmetries and alignment problems in your lower extremities that are not only causing your hip pain, but can over time lead to osteoarthritis in your hips if not treated. The good news is that whether or not degenerative changes have already taken place, chiropractic treatment can help!
It may be true that you’re getting older and your hip joints just aren’t what they used to be. Nonetheless, did you know that your hip pain (and related problems), which routinely are thought to be age-related degenerative conditions, may not actually be created by osteoarthritis? That’s right. In the majority of cases, rather than being the original source of your condition, osteoarthritis of the hip joint is more often than not the outgrowth of a earlier injury (or injuries) to your hips.
More often than not, hip problems have to do with asymmetry or imbalance when you are in motion, like walking for example. If you tend to walk “pronated” with your toes pointing away from your body (like a duck), it is inevitable that you will feel pain in your hips as a result of the asymmetrical stress on your hip joints and your body’s efforts to compensate. However, you can make changes in your gait pattern at any age, and your chiropractor in Corona can help you to do it.
In addition, you may have undergone gait changes due to an ankle sprain or knee strain, and since “the knee bone’s connected to the hip bone,” these biomechanical accommodations create pain in the hip(s). There is no doubt that, if not treated, your hip joints will suffer further consequences, like wear and tear that produces degenerative changes.
Other activities that can frequently adversely affect the hip joints are starting a new job or beginning a new sport that makes it necessary for you to move your body in atypical ways. Also, carrying a child (or grandchild) on one hip can create hip pain. Even your sitting position or driving for prolonged periods of time on a routine basis can cause hip injury and pain.
See? Not every pain is caused by “old age,” though we may start to feel more pain as a consequence of the progressive activity of untreated injuries.
In addition to your adjustments, as an integral part of your chiropractic management, your Corona Chiropractor will recommend appropriate rehabilitative exercises that include gentle muscle stretching and strengthening, and will also analyze your gait and may recommend simple pattern changes.
Your hip pain won’t go away on its own. Hip pain means that there’s an injury that needs treatment. If neglected, it is very likely that at some point you will require that hip replacement surgery. So, don’t put off until tomorrow, what truly needs to be done today. Your chiropractor in Corona can eliminate your hip pain, get your body back into balance, and help you get to back to enjoying your life again!
Santa Clara Chiropractor: Chiropractic Treatment Can Take the Pain Out of Growing Older
If you’re over forty years old you know that as we age our body feels and acts differently than it did when we were younger. It hardly seems right that our body seems to become less “cooperative,” while our mind appears to improve and become more “inventive.” We’re stiff in the morning; many of the activities we do during the day make us sore in the evening; and, if we’re not cautious, even a movement as simple as turning too hastily or bending over to pick up a dropped pencil, can send our back or some other muscle group into spasm. The good news is that there are specialized techniques accessible that can not only slow down the aging process of the body, but help us to avoid some of those problems altogether.
For instance, arthritis. In point of fact, with the exception of pharmaceuticals, allopathic medicine doesn’t address this age-related condition. Why? The answer is that most medical professionals are only concerned with the symptoms of arthritis. The chiropractic method is to uncover the cause of the condition and get rid of the pain at its source. For more than one hundred years, chiropractors, like your Chiropractor in Santa Clara, have been helping people suffering from back pain and other challenges caused by arthritic changes in the musculoskeletal system.
Arthritic changes occur as your body ages because, over time, wear of particular joints takes place due to repetitive stresses, and years of poor gait, bad posture, and lack of beneficial movement. Chiropractic treatment brings back motion into your joints and reduces pain, and it corrects any vertebral misalignment that may be causing irritation and restriction. In addition, did you know that misaligned vertebra, along with causing arthritic changes in the spine and escalating pain, can also weaker your resistance and immunity? It’s true, and this could be one of the reasons why it may seem that as you age you experience more health issues and that it frequently takes longer for you to feel better again. Studies have shown that older individuals who are under chiropractic care stay healthier. To put it another way, as you get older, chiropractic care is good for what ails you!
When it comes to the health of the musculoskeletal system, chiropractors are highly proficient whether it’s the small, growing frame of an infant or the full-grown body of a mature adult. Your chiropractor understands the aging process and has special observational and diagnostic skills that aid in finding spinal misalignments and joint conditions. A chiropractic examination can, in fact, frequently reveal some age-related changes before they’ve had a chance to create noticeable pain. Moreover, your Chiropractor in Santa Clara can assess your posture and observe your gait to determine if there are any inappropriate patterns that could cause more arthritic changes in the future.
So, if you have been feeling your age lately, but you’d like to feel a whole lot better, see your Santa Clara Chiropractor today!
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
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!
Your Chiropractor in Oxnard Offers An Unexpected Solution to Your Allergy Discomfort
Dr. Donald Bolt, your Chiropractor in Oxnard, is aware that allergic reactions can make your daily activities unpleasant. A stroll in the park, a play date with Kitty, a seafood dinner, or even something as small as a nut feasibly can result in such miserable symptoms as itchy eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, or a skin rash.
However, quite often a person’s allergic reactions can increase from just plain aggravating to serious and even life-threatening as the air passageway begins to close and breathing becomes labored. This kind of development of difficulties can typically produce a state of extreme stress and also a trip to the ER.
Allergy symptoms can, indeed, change into an incredibly serious disburbance and cause you to feel sidelined and not able to take part in daily life. In point of fact, if you are one of those unfortunate individuals who have allergies, it may perhaps appear to you that, every once in awhile, your environment is a pretty antagonistic space and that the world around you is, actually, out to get you!
Perhaps you wonder why it is that other human beings seem to be so invulnerable to the identical environmental challenges that send your body into overwhelm. Others seem either unaware of or plainly`totally unresponsive to the would-be irritants that lie in wait at every turn, while your body reacts, or rather overreacts, to them. Why you? It’s a logical question. The answer is that many folks, such as you, have a hyperactive immune system that virtually “goes wild” whenever you come upon everyday substances such as pollen, dander, shellfish, or nuts.
Can your Oxnard Chiropractor assist you in obtaining a significant decrease in your allergy symptoms? Happily, the answer is a booming “Yes,” and the explanation might surprise you. Many chiropractic patients have noticed that they experience freedom from their allergy symptoms following a chiropractic treatment, even though chiropractic care doesn’t necessarily directly address allergies, per se. The scientific explanation for the decrease in allergy symptoms is because chiropractic manipulation affects your complete nervous system, which includes the autoimmune system, which is at the root of your allergic responses. Whenever there is a dysfunction within the nervous system, coupled with other problems, the autoimmune system, whose job it is to allow you to adapt and respond appropriately to your environment, has the potential to become under-active or overactive. When it comes to your allergies, the reaction is the latter (it becomes overactive).
Because chiropractic adjustments are intended to lessen or even entirely remove disruptions within the nervous system and recreate symmetry and relaxation to the entire body, together with a variety of corrections, the manipulations restore homeostasis to the autoimmune system also. A vigorous immune system responds properly to so-called allergens in the environment.
So, as pointed out previously, your Chiropractor in Oxnard doesn’t actually target allergy symptoms, nevertheless that doesn’t indicate your allergies won’t improve or go away completely. On the other hand, you could point out, instead, that relief from your allergies is solely the consequence of your rebalanced nervous system. If you would like to get back into harmony with your environment as quickly as is possible, visit Dr. Bolt, your Chiropractor in Oxnard, today. He will help you get your life back!