May 2022 Health Newsletter

What most everyone already knows is that the recent pandemic was stressful, and what a lot of people are noticing is more joint pain as of late. What most don't realize is that this stress could be connected to their joint pain.

Pandemic or not, stress can result in or contribute to joint pain. The good news is that chiropractic care can help with joint pain, and even help your body let go of stress.

How Stress Triggers Joint Pain

Back in the day, stress was a survival mechanism. Nowadays? Not so much. We're so caught up in having to work, pay bills and manage our household (including kids, pets, spouse, etc.) that all that stress energy doesn't have enough of an outlet to get expended. When we’re stressed, we can develop headaches, stomach issues, sleep issues and yes, even joint pain.

What's happening is that stress makes you tense up. Your body primes itself for fight or flight even though there isn't a saber-toothed tiger that’s about to try and eat you. When there’s no fight or flight to expel that energy (or a good workout regimen), stress remains in your body, alters your posture, and can physically manifest in many ways, including joint pain.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help with Joint Pain

Since every patient has unique healthcare needs, chiropractors will evaluate your health history and current state to determine the best course of action for your joint aches and pains. 

A chiropractor's goal is most commonly multifaceted–reduce stiffness and tension, return normal flexibility and function, and restore blood flow as well as reduce pain. By identifying and treating those problem areas, stiffness and limited joint motions can be restored and normal function and blood flow can be returned. 

The better we feel the more we tend to move. The more we move, including the movement of those affected joints, the more blood and nutrients flow throughout our body and into our joints. As a result, the body can begin to relax, range of motion improves and pain can begin to dissipate. In fact, many patients report immediate pain relief.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help with Stress

Chiropractors aren't a replacement for counselors or psychotherapists. Instead, they strive to help your body physically release and reduce stress. Oftentimes, reducing and removing the physical effects of stress can help reduce and remove the stress itself. 

So while there is a strong emotional side to stress, remember that there's a physical side as well, and your favorite chiropractor is here to help. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that headaches have enormous costs to society and are hugely widespread throughout the world. According to the report, 47 percent of all adults have some sort of headache disorder. In the European Union (EU) alone, it's estimated that 190 million days are lost from work annually, solely due to migraine headaches. One in six women and one in twelve men are affected by migraines making it the most expensive brain disorder in the United States and EU with an estimated total annual cost of $229 billion. Doctors of chiropractic are highly trained to diagnose and treat a number of headache related disorders. In fact, many causes of headaches are soft-tissue based and can be successfully managed with safe, natural chiropractic procedures. If you experience headaches, no matter how severe or subtle, don't continue to suffer. Call your licensed doctor of chiropractic today for a professional, thorough consultation and/or examination.

While there are many philosophies and beliefs in regards to chiropractic care and exactly how everything works and what conditions chiropractic care can affect, there are also those clinical results experienced by chiropractic patients daily that are plain and simple, chiropractic miracles. Rather than get into the specifics of how chiropractic works and why, we’d simply like to share a case study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine. In this study, a 7-year old girl presents to a chiropractor after having suffered from cyclic vomiting syndrome for the previous 4 1/2 years. She additionally had a 2-month history of headaches and stomachaches. After receiving a thorough chiropractic evaluation, she was treated with a safe, low-force chiropractic procedure to her upper neck region. According to the case study, her symptoms improved within an hour of treatment. Chiropractic care has helped millions of people not only get out of pain, but similar to this case study, resolve their medical mysteries, so-to-speak, and experience their own chiropractic miracles. We encourage those who are suffering from pain and other health problems to contact their local chiropractor today for a consultation to see if chiropractic care can be their miracle too!

A recent medical study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that women who drink green tea at least three times a week enjoy an overall 14% reduction in risk of colon, stomach and esophageal cancers. The study, conducted by the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, followed 69,000 Chinese women for over a decade. Women who drank green tea often and for long periods of time experienced lower cancer risks. Those who said they'd regularly had green tea for at least 20 years were 27% less likely than non-drinkers to develop any digestive system cancer and were 29% less likely to develop colorectal cancer. While the exact reasons the beverage may help resist cancers is unknown, researchers point out that green tea contains a compound known as EGCG and other antioxidant chemicals that may help cells resist the damage that can lead to cancer and other diseases. However, the study discounted a direct cause and effect relationship between green tea consumption and lowered incidences of cancer, pointing out that the test subjects were generally more health-conscious. None of the participants smoked or drank regularly and nearly all of them exercised regularly. The researchers conclude that clinical studies would be required to prove causation, and suggest that anyone considering green tea as part of an anti-cancer regimen consult first with their doctor.

Individuals partaking in even just a small amount of low-intensity exercise are significantly less likely to die prematurely than their sedentary counterparts, according to researchers.  The findings come from examining data from 10 previous studies of more than 36,000 older subjects.  The evidence is becoming more clear – stop moving, and the risk of death increases significantly.  Being sedentary 10 hours a day increased death during the close to 7-year study by 48%.  Those that pushed their sedentary lifestyle to 12 hours a day nearly tripled their risk of death during this time frame.  The good news is that researchers found that literally any level of physical activity level was beneficial.  Thus, you don’t need to run a marathon or even run to reap the benefits.  Simply get up, get out and just move!