Family Day at Complete Family Healthcare

The post Family Day at Complete Family Healthcare is courtesy of http://americanchiropractors.org/

This Saturday from 9-12 is FAMILY DAY at Complete Family Healthcare where I, Dr. JJ, will be seeing patients including many families.  Family Day started out as a one time event idea that has really taken off to become a 1x/mo event at our office.  I do not know of any other clinics in the area that set up their fee structure like this so that people are able to bring in their entire families for a capped fee of $75 during this one Saturday each month.  It definitely pushes my limits as to the amount of people I can see in a 3 hour shift and with the discounted fees some people choose to wait until Saturday vs. during the week to save money to come to family day, but when it is all done I really feel like I am helping people for the right reasons.  With family day, all insurance benefits and rules are thrown out the window and its about helping people and creating value for them and their families that they notice for a month at a time.  Call 770-772-3500 or email us through the website for more information...

from American Chiropractors Directory - Feed http://www.americanchiropractors.org/chiro/family-day-at-complete-family-healthcare/

Questions about Acupuncture

The following blog post Questions about Acupuncture was first published on http://www.americanchiropractors.org/

I am often asked questions about acupuncture. To get you the best and most accurate answers to your questions about acupuncture, I turned to Ashley Robillard at Firefly Acupuncture. Ashley is an acupuncturist right here in Plymouth and I have seen her myself.

Here is what she had to say about acupuncture:

There are a couple of questions that come up frequently when I tell people I am an acupuncturist. Often times people know that acupuncture is a natural therapy that includes needles. And they typically know somebody who has tried it, but has never met an acupuncturist before. So naturally, they are curious about a few things.

“Oh is that when you stab people with needles!? I hate needles!”

Agh! I do not want people associating a stabbing with what I do! Acupuncture needles are very fine, flexible, sterile and disposable. Each needle is used only one time and barely felt with insertion. Once the needles are inserted, the patient will rest for about 30 minutes and many times are sound asleep when I return to the room.

“I know somebody who had acupuncture for headaches, do you treat headaches?”

Yes! But there is so much more than just treating a headache (or back pain, or stomach pains, or joint pain). Why do you have this pain? What is the underlying cause? I will treat the symptom of the moment to give relief, but I will also ask many questions to get to the root of the problem. Then I will tailor the treatment specifically to you. We will go through your daily routine to notice triggers, look at your diet and find patterns that could be contributing to your pain. I will place needles in specific points that either tonify the deficiencies in your system or reduce the stagnation, or many times both! It is all about balance.

Many people think acupuncture is only about pain relief. But it is so much more than that. It is about bringing your system back into balance. Life is hard and exhausting and many of us do not stop to take care of ourselves, or to just breathe. Yes acupuncture helps with pain, but it also helps create a more restful sleep pattern, it helps balance mood swings and boost metabolism. When all systems in the body are regulated, the pain will decrease significantly.

“Do you like what you do?”

I can’t even explain how happy my job makes me. I absolutely love working one on one with people, hearing their stories and finding a way to make their life better. To see a patient walk out of the office relaxed and pain free when it was a struggle to walk in. To ask about a lifelong symptom and have the patient realize that it is no longer a concern. To have a woman struggling for months or years with fertility tell me she is pregnant. I am so thankful to be part of each journey.

If you have concerns that you would like to address with Ashley, she is right here in Plymouth. She also does acupuncture facials. I’ll let her explain that one to you herself. You can reach her at Ashley Robillard, L.Ac. Firefly Acupuncture
www.fireflyacu.com 763-300-1399

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Should you see a chiropractor when you are pregnant?

Should you see a chiropractor when you are pregnant? is courtesy of www.americanchiropractors.org

During pregnancy, a woman's center of gravity shifts forward to the front of her pelvis. This additional weight in front, causes stress to the joints of the pelvis and low back. As the baby grows in size, the added weight causes the curvature of her lower back to increase, placing extra stress on the fragile facet joints on the back side of the spine. Any pre-existing problems in a woman's spine tend to be exacerbated as the spine and pelvis become overtaxed, often leading to pain and difficulty performing normal daily activities.

Studies have found that about half of all expectant mothers develop low-back pain at some point during their pregnancies. This is especially true during the third trimester when the baby's body gains the most weight. Chiropractic care throughout pregnancy can relieve and even prevent the pain and discomfort frequently experienced in pregnancy, and creates an environment for an easier, safer delivery. It is one safe and effective way to help the spine and pelvis cope with the rapid increase in physical stress by restoring a state of balance. In fact, most women have found that chiropractic care helped them avoid the use of pain medications during their pregnancy, and studies have shown that chiropractic adjustments help to reduce time in labor. Your  chiropractor should be your partner for a healthy pregnancy. They can provide adjustments, as well as offer nutritional, ergonomic and exercise advice to help address your special needs.

Chiropractic tips for pregnant women:

Be sure to get adjusted regularly. Chiropractic care is important to help maintain a healthy skeletal structure and nervous system function throughout a pregnancy and childbirth.

Do some gentle exercise each day. Walking, swimming, or stationary cycling are relatively safe cardiovascular exercises for pregnant women. Avoid any activities that involve jerking or bouncing movements. Stop exercise immediately if you notice any unusual symptom, such as nausea, dizziness or weakness.

Wear flat shoes with arch supports. Your feet become more susceptible to injury during pregnancy, partially due to a rapidly increasing body weight, but also because the ligaments that support the feet become more lax.

When picking up children, bend from the knees, not the waist. Your low back is much more prone to injury during pregnancy.

When sleeping, lay on your side with a pillow between your knees to take pressure off your lower back. Full-length "body pillows" or "pregnancy wedges" are very popular and can be helpful.

Eat several small meals or snacks every few hours, rather than three large meals per day. This will help alleviate nausea, stabilize blood sugar and allow your body to extract the maximum amount of nutrients from the foods that you eat.

Take a prenatal vitamin with at least 400 micrograms of folic acid every day; 800 micrograms is even better. Folic acid has been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of neural tube defects in a developing fetus. Be sure to check with your doctor before taking any vitamin or herbal supplement to make sure it's safe for you and the baby.

from American Chiropractors Directory - Feed http://www.americanchiropractors.org/chiro/should-you-see-a-chiropractor-when-you-are-pregnant/

Know your farmer, know your food!

The article Know your farmer, know your food! was originally published on http://americanchiropractors.org

One little known fact about me; I was a vegetarian for six years. It wasn’t a health kick, I simply read a book about food that grossed me out. The book was called, Diet for a New America, written by the Baskin Robbins heir, John Robbins. He walked away from his family’s food empire and inheritance because he didn’t like how the animals were processed and raised. Specifically, he was disgusted by the hormones and drugs used in dairy production.

Many years later, I am back to eating meat. I am now incredibly picky about the source of my meat. I will happily spend an extra few dollars a month to insure that Mad Scientist practices aren’t used on my food and that the animal isn’t tormented while it is living. I was recently turned on to Hilltop Pastures Family Farm. Last summer, I would drive down to the midtown farmers market just to stock my freezer. Last month, as I was running low on meat that I had purchased at the fall farmers market, I realized they delivered twice a month to the Ridgedale Target. How nice to not have to leave the Plymouth or Minnetonka area! What I like about Hilltop Pastures Farm is knowing the animals that I eat were humanely treated and humanely butchered. They were raised with regular farming practices that I grew up with, not within disgusting factory farms.

Humanely Raised

I asked Sarah, the farmer, how her animals are raised and this is how she answered:

“We are a truly small-scale family farm where all of our animals are raised sustainably and organically. All of our animals are raised in the open air, sunshine, and on grass. Farming practices such as these utilize the natural symbiotic relationships between the different species. On our pasture-based farm, cattle, lambs, and goats (ruminant animals) are solely grass-fed and finished. They receive no grain at all. Our chickens, laying hens, turkeys, and pigs are also raised on pasture in addition to receiving a non-GMO grain. This is because they are a non-ruminant animal. Our animals receive no antibiotics or growth hormones, ever! We offer genuine, true farming practices that heal the land and soil and keep our animals and family healthy. We use organic principles when raising all of our animals. The multi species farming practices that we use versus single species is good for the land and the animals. All animals move around on the farm so that they are always receiving fresh grass and its wonderful nutrients. Our animals don’t just have access to the grass, they are on the grass, always. All the animals follow the cows on the farm. The hens are the last to follow so they can scratch at the manure piles. That break up the larva cycle sanitizing the pasture. The hens love the fresh grass and bugs that they find out there.”

Is it just labeling?
As a consumer, one of my big concerns when shopping for groceries is whether I am paying more for pretty advertising, or am I paying for sound farming practices? Finding Hilltop Pastures Farms solved this for me. Since I know my farmer, I know that the money isn’t spent on packaging. It doesn’t have fancy graphics, and it doesn’t have buzzwords. When I asked Sarah about this, she had a lot to say about advertising and farming practices of the fancy big box groceries.

“Our mission statement is: Know Your Farmer Know Your Food. I know in this day and age, life is chaotic and busy. We look for the most efficient ways to get things done. We definitely shouldn’t do that with our health. I know it takes time to research and find good food, but it is so worth it! We aren’t a factory farm pushing out animals every day to keep up with the profit margins. We are small scale. Animals are raised with care and attention. They are allowed to grow at the rate needed for their health and well-being. We are face to face marketing with our customers. We truly feel that you need to know who is growing your food in order to know for sure that it is raised right.

Our mantra is that as consumers we shouldn’t just put our faith in a label! A label on a fancy package in the grocery store doesn’t necessarily mean that the source of that meat was truly being raised in a healthy pasture based system! Eggs and chickens are often “labeled” as free-range, organic, cage-free, vegetarian or any of the other buzz words. The reality is that the chickens are often raised in massive barns with only a small access door to a little area outside that hasn’t seen a blade of grass in years! Chickens eat bugs! They love them! So they are not naturally vegetarians… Beef labeled as Grass-fed is often raised in large feed lots that finish the animals on grain or other high gaining rations. The animal is only exposed to pasture for a few months of its life so it’s allowed to be “labeled” as grass-fed. You get the point, labels are deceptive. The big boys in the food industry are seeing the food revolution happening. They don’t want to give up any of their profits. They are buying organic companies and heavily influencing labeling and production models. Bottom line is if you really want to know how your food was raised you must KNOW YOUR FARMER.”

If you are interested in ordering meat from Hilltop Pastures Family Farms, check out their website Hill I love their brats and bacon. Let them know I sent you.

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20 Tips for a Healthy Spine was first published to www.americanchiropractors.org

20 TIPS FOR A HEALTHY SPINE

Keeping your spine healthy is a great way to keep the rest of your body healthy, too. Back pain is difficult to overlook; after all, we’re talking about the core of our bodies, and every move we make – including breathing – can be felt in our back. Movements are magnified when we’re living with pinched nerves, sore muscles, spine misalignment, pain from an auto injury, or chronic illnesses.

Issue 1: Use the Mattress That’s Right for You

If you don’t feel good before you even get out of bed in the morning, chances are you’ll lack energy and suffer aches and pains the whole day through. Although there are many ways to improve your well-being, a great starting point is getting a restful night’s sleep – consistently – and that starts with the right mattress giving you proper back support.

It could be easy to feel overwhelmed by the myriad of ads on TV and the radio, plus all of the mattress brands and their different lines. Fortunately, there are excellent resources you can take advantage of to help you pick not only a consumer or doctor recommended mattress, but the one that’s actually the right fit for you!

The key to choosing the right mattress isn’t merely to listen to what everybody else is telling you, though. You wouldn’t buy a pair of jeans just because they looked good on somebody else, right? You’d try them on first. That’s right; you have to test each mattress out for yourself. And just like finding the right pair of jeans, you can’t simply put on a pair that feels comfortable – you have to move around in them for a while to see if they’re truly the right fit. Now, some of you may feel socially uncomfortable with the prospect of “trying on” a mattress, but the stores expect and encourage it, and it certainly beats the discomfort of sleeping with the wrong mattress night after night.

When you go shopping for that new perfect-for-you mattress, plan on spending some time in the store. Once you locate a mattress you’d like to try out, lay flat on your back and spend at least 10 minutes in this position. Then lay on each side, on your stomach, or in any other position combination in which you prefer to sleep, spending at least 10 minutes in each position. Take notice, too, that what may be comfortable at first may not be offering the proper support for your spine in each sleeping position. Although the call of a soft, plush mattress may be appealing and comfortable to lie down on for a small period of time, many doctors recommend a mattress on the firm side because they offer support to keep your spine in alignment. Of course, you want your mattress to give a little, with a balance of hugging and supporting not just your spine, but the rest of your body’s curves – whether you’re a side-sleeper needing to keep your spine straight or sleeping on your back and looking for your mattress to allow for natural curvature. A medium-firm mattress or a firm mattress with added padding better adapts to the natural curvatures in the spine.

"The spine is not a straight line, and padding or a moderately firm mattress 'gives' better to the concavities and convexities of the spine,” George McClelland, DC, spokesman for the American Chiropractic Association told WebMD in 2003. “Traditionally, what we have recommended is that a moderately-firm works best, or when using a firm mattress, you should add a 1½- to 2-inch thick padding on top of it."

Consumer Reports Magazine recently concluded their first-ever mattress study. Testing 12 mattresses by various means to show how each stood up to daily use, conformed to weight and curvature of different body types, adjusted temperature, and best supported the spine in different sleeping positions, they put together a list of the top three mattresses in both Innerspring and Memory Foam categories.

The Top Innerspring (or coil mattress) is the Simmons Beautyrest Glover Park Firm Pillowtop while the Top Memory Foam is the Tempur-Pedic Tempur Simplicity.

“Mattresses should allow for natural curvature when you’re lying on your back,” said Bob Markovich, Consumer Reports Home & Yard Editor on CBS News. “But side sleepers need the spine to stay straight, and these top two provide both.”

Here are the other top four mattresses:

• Serta Perfect Sleeper Elite Pastel Firm Pillowtop (#2 Innerspring)
• Novafoam Memory Foam Collection Serafina (#2 Memory Foam)
• Stearns & Foster Lois Luxury Firm (#3 Innerspring)
• Sealy Embody Insightful (#3 Memory Foam)

Of course, a great night’s sleep isn’t only good for your back, but for your overall health. Lack of sleep increases your risk of stroke, can make you add larger portions to your plate, and even negatively affect your memory.

And while many mattresses have tag lines and words that would lead you to believe they’ll feel a certain way, remember that you really must try them out for yourself as the descriptions used to label a mattress' firmness vary from maker to maker (what is “firm” to one may be “plush mediumfirm” to another). Also, speak with your chiropractor for personalized recommendations regarding your spine before you head to the store to make the experience even more productive.

Dont worry that the top recommended mattresses will save your back but break the bank;these mattresses are wallet-friendly to begin with and its recommended that you change yourmattress only every seven to ten years, making the initial cost even less daunting.If youve done your hands-on or, in this case, back-on research properly,

from American Chiropractors Directory - Feed http://www.americanchiropractors.org/chiro/20-tips-for-a-healthy-spine/

WHO NEEDS CHIROPRACtIC CARE?

The following post WHO NEEDS CHIROPRACtIC CARE? is courtesy of ACC Blog

SO WHO NEEDS CHIROPRACTIC CARE?    

The babies / the children / the athletes / the pregnantwomen (for them and their child) / the hard workingstressed out man or woman / the car accident
victims / the elderly... as these people all experiencephysical, chemical, and / or emotional stress from thebirth process itself and throughout life.

The average American spend 6-8 hours per day sitting at a desk/in a car/on an airplane. Chiropractic care is the mod cost-effective, logical, healthcare option for these people to relieve symptoms and/or prevent future problems.

WE ARE A FAMILY CLINIC,WHICH MEANS I MAKE IT EASYFOR FAMILIES TO BE HEALTHY TOGETHER!

Why leave a loved one at home (or even sitting in thewaiting room) suffering from subluxations while you areenjoying the benefits of being subluxation free? ...Whenyou bring your husband / wife and / or children to theclinic, Dr. JJ will not charge to have your family memberschecked for subluxation. We just ask that you scheduleextra time during your appointment when you want todo this so that other paying patients are not waitingwhile Dr. JJ provides this free service to your family. (ByLaw, Medicare patients do not qualify for this offer) 

Whether you need symptom RELIEF or you are seeking WELLNESS and preventative care, give us a call and let us customize a program for you.

from American Chiropractors Directory - Feed http://www.americanchiropractors.org/chiro/who-needs-chiropractic-care/

Pilates is the perfect exercise for your back

Pilates is the perfect exercise for your back Find more on: AmericanChiropractors

Why is Pilates the perfect exercise for your back? It is an exercise system specifically designed to strengthen your deep internal stabilizers, especially your spine. After years of working out at thebig gym, I’ve seen all types of dangerous exercises performed on the main floor to “strengthen” someone’s back or neck. I have all I can do to not walk up to them with a business card since they are going to need me at some point.

The scariest things I see are individuals with poor posture performing weight training exercises. If it’s at the gym, it doesn’t mean it’s safe. Individuals pulling their leg to their head in an attempt to “stretch” their hamstrings; and people who complain in my office about back pain but never change their exercise routine – still doing yoga and weights but never feeling better… Even worse, all the money spent at Orthopedic and PT clinics when learning how to use your body correctly is the key. It’s PreHab – Not Rehab. There are better ways.

I highly recommend Deb Dodge at The Pilates Advantage in Medina, MN. I have been referring her clients for quite some time and she and her competent staff are great at developing strengthening programs that work for each person. Her instructors are Pilates Method Alliance certified and this is important in the Pilates field of exercise.

Pilates isn’t going to make you sweat like crazy or build your cardio endurance. It is going to build the muscles that keep your body safe as it moves. While I don’t feel like I have earned a big cheeseburger after my workout, I do feel like it is the most important hour I spend each week. When I leave it as if all my joints have been lubricated.

Again, if you are looking for a knowledgeable, helpful and convenient Pilates studio, call Pilates Advantage. They will get you on the right track for feeling good!

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