Looking for extra golf tips?

Posted on August 23, 2010 by thedoc

People who are involved in sports and recreational activities experience numerous injuries in the pursuit of enjoyment.

One would think that the physical contact sports would be the ones producing most of these problems and a competitor would remain relatively uninjured in the more individual sports that involve no contact or collision with another person. This, however, is far from the truth especially when considering the more passive sport of golf.

In the United States alone, it is estimated that approximately 27 million people play the game of golf. It is actually quite shocking to look at the number of injuries occurring in the pursuit of this activity. In the United States, there are 13.5 million golf-related injuries reported each year.

Patients who come to chiropractors seeking relief from bodily aches and pains will quite often be suffering from some variety of repetitive strain syndrome. These patients are out on the golf course taking swings at a ball in such a way as to put undo and often extreme strain on muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints and bones. They swing repeatedly over the course of a round of golf that often involves playing 18 holes laid out over a 4 mile track that might involve 40, 50 or more severe rips at the ball.

There are several basic reasons a person causes injury to themselves, and patient education can go a long way toward preventing bodily damage from occurring. Very simply, the average patient does very little, if anything, to prepare or condition their body for the golf swing. Basically, they just play. This will often involve showing up at the course just minutes before their game is scheduled to begin. They walk out onto the first tee (location where the initial shot is struck on each hole) and “give it a go.” Generally, they embark upon this action with little or no stretching to get loose or get the body warmed up to play. Commencing to swing viciously at the ball is just as common for persons who visit the practice range to work on their game by bashing a hundred or more balls. No stretching, no warm-up, no preparation of the body or conditioning of the body for the rigors of the game.

When the forces that are involved in creating a full, hard golf swing are looked at further, it is easy to see how injuries, especially those caused by repeated strain, can occur. The average golfer can actually achieve a swing speed of about 90 miles per hour with a golf club. Professionals are only a bit superior at 115, but the 90 mile per hour swing is enough to require a major effort. It is surprising just how much work is required to swing the club.

“Amateur golfers achieve approximately 90 percent of their peak muscular activity when driving a golf ball. This is the same intensity as picking up a weight that can only be lifted 4 times before total fatigue.” This statistic comes from the book Biometrics of Golf by Paul Chek.

So, what can golfers learn to do before playing a round of golf to help in injury prevention? The basic recipe for success involves developing a simple set of exercises to warm up and stretch the body before play. It may also be

important to do some additional stretching during the round as golf these days can involve long delays caused by slow play or looking for errant balls. Additionally, golfers would be wise to have their bodies checked by a chiropractor to help eliminate source points of injuries which could stem from pre-existing postural instability or poor flexibility.

The key to solving the problem of many of the 13.5 million injuries would at least three-fold. One, visit a chiropractor to make sure the body is in good postural condition for the rigors of the game. Next, exercise regularly with an emphasis on stretching and flexibility while off the course or between rounds. Finally, make sure the body is completely warmed up before play or practice. Don’t just “grip it and rip it.” Arrive early, warm up and only then go out on a beautiful golf course and enjoy a pleasant day that is free of injury.

The Biomechanics of Golf by Paul Chek.Source:

Dynamic Chiropractic. “An Overview of the Current Crisis.” March 2008. http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/26/07/09.html

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Success Story- Polio patient avoids surgery

Posted on August 23, 2010 by thedoc
A woman who had been suffering from hand pain for 40-some years finally found relief when she visited a chiropractor.

As a post-polio sufferer, the 69-year-old retired civil servant had a number of health issues over the years including limited flexion of the fingers of her left hand.

This hand was very important to her as her right was severely wasted and quite useless as a result of the Polio. She also reported itching in her left hand.

Prior to visiting a chiropractor, the woman had seen a doctor who had recommended she have surgery for her left hand problems. This is when she decided to visit a chiropractor.

Her Chiropractic treatment totaled 13 visits. Over this period a number of improvements were noted, some of which happened very quickly. Following her first visit, the patient noticed improvements to both the feel and the look of her left hand. First, she noted that it changed color from white to a more normal pink. Improvements continued over the next few days that included no more itching.

The woman’s hand strength was also measured and monitored showing regular improvements. Noticeable improvements in her posture were also noted with a significant visual decrease in her scoliosis and an improvement to her gait.

The woman paid a return visit to her doctor at the completion of her Chiropractic visits. Her doctor was very pleased with the improvements in the appearance and function of her left hand. Surgery was no longer recommended.

 - what a great story on the ways Chiropractic care can help people suffering from a varity of diseases!

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The importance of lifelong chiropractic care

Posted on August 23, 2010 by thedoc

Chiropractic adjustments provide help and relief to thousands upon thousands of people daily. To get the most long-term benefit from their initial benefits received, patients would be well-advised to continue Chiropractic “maintenance adjustments” on a regular basis.

A study recently completed and published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics shows that persons who received “maintenance” Chiropractic care after completing their initial care continued to experience a reduction in their disability.

Thirty volunteers who had been suffering from long-term non-specific back problems were divided into two study groups. The first group received intensive Chiropractic care consisting of 12 visits in one month. Following this, they were put on a reduced schedule of one visit every three weeks for the next nine months. The second group received the initial intensive treatment, but did not receive any follow-up care for the next nine months.

Members of both groups were evaluated and monitored for both pain and disability levels.

Results showed that members of both groups experienced a similar reduction of pain anddisability after their 30 days of Chiropractic care.

After a nine month period, both groups were evaluated again. Findings showed two things. One, both groups continued to experience a reduction of pain. Two, while both groups had reduced pain, only the group members who had nine months of Chiropractic “maintenance adjustments” experienced a continued reduction in their disability. Those who did not receive “maintenance adjustments” returned to similar levels of disability they were experiencing prior to their initial adjustments.

The study incorporated an accepted measurement tool for disability known as “The Oswestry Disability Index.” This questionnaire addresses 10 different aspects of a person’s physical function capacities. Only the persons who received their regular “maintenance adjustments” were able to maintain the functional improvements received during the initial care, according to the Index.

“Intensive spinal manipulation is effective for the treatment of chronic low back pain,” said the researchers. “This experiment suggests that maintenance spinal manipulations after intensive manipulative care may be beneficial to patients to maintain subjective post-intensive treatment disability levels.”

Source: http://www.chiropracticresearch.org Maintenance Chiropractic Care Shown to be Beneficial in Study, 2004.

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Are you struggling with a colicky infant?

Posted on August 23, 2010 by thedoc

Infantile colic is commonly described as persistent and often violent crying for no apparent reason in seemingly healthy and thriving infants. The August, 1989 issue of the Journal of Manipulative & Physiological Therapeutics reports that 94 % of a group of 316 children with infantile colic responded very favorably to Chiropractic care.
The study, performed by 73 Chiropractors in Denmark, involved infants with an average age of 5.7 weeks at the beginning of the study and included reassessments at 1 week, 2 weeks and 4 weeks. The infant’s mothers were provided a diary and kept track of the babies symptoms, intensity and length of the colicky crying as well as how comfortable the infant seemed.
94% of the children in the study showed a satisfactory response to Chiropractic care within 14 days from the beginning of care. According to the study, “The results occur shortly after the treatment has been initiated and show both a reduction of the daily length of the colic periods and a reduction of the number of colic periods per day. In this study, an average of three treatments was found to be required to obtain a satisfactory result. No side effects were reported. ”
51 % of the children in the study had other, unsuccessful treatments for the colic previous to becoming involved in this research project.

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3 things you can count on in life!

Posted on August 23, 2010 by thedoc

“Today is the youth of your old age. What you do today will determine what your health will be like many years from now, or if you will even be here many years from now. ”
-Deepok Chopra, MD.

THERE ARE ONLY 3 THINGS YOU CAN COUNT ON IN LIFE: HUMOR, PARADOX, AND CHANGE

HUMOR

Youth is the most enjoyable time of your life. Do not just cherish it. Do not simply enjoy it. Take care of it and you just might keep it. The average man or woman will one day eventually find themselves 50 or 60 years old. However, the individuals who have respected life and its divine right to express itself will often find themselves 70 or 80 years young.

PARADOX
Those who spend little time on their health have little time. Those who spend lots of time on their health have lots of time. Those who do a few things for their health have many health problems. Those who do many things for their health have few health problems. Those who feel they have poor health and can’t avoid getting sick are right. Those who feel they are in excellent health and can continue getting healthier are right.

“If you do not think you have enough time to do something about your health you are absolutely right. Argue for your limitations and they are yours. ”

CHANGE

While there has been some improvement in our diets and exercise, there has been no improvement in our family’s health, in fact, it is much worse!
A posture or spinal problem always equates to lower health. We must change to focusing on the spine and nerve system and taking care of it the rest of our lives as well as eating well, exercising, and avoiding dangerous drugs for as long as we want to stay young and healthy.
Those who will settle for nothing but the very best very often get it.

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Chiropractic Care and ADHD

Posted on August 23, 2010 by thedoc

According to the Associated Press on November 19, 1998, a National Institutes of Health committee reports that doctors still don’t know how best to treat or even diagnose ADD/ADHD.

Dr. David J. Kupfer, chairman of the panel and professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh says, “There is no current validated diagnostic test for ADD/ADHD. He also pointed out that there are no studies that have examined the long term effects of common treattnent drugs such as Ritalin.

Conclusions reached by the panel members include:
- Panel member Janis Ferre of the Utah Governor’s Council for People With Disabilities said there’s inconsistency in diagnosing ADD/ADHD. “This results in over-diagnosis and under-diagnosis.”
- Panel member Donald Berry of the Duke University Medical Center criticized the lack of long-term effect studies on Ritalin and other strong, mind-altering drugs used in treating ADD/ADHD and said he thought they are prescribed too often.
- Panel member Dr. Robert Baltimore of the Yale University School of Medicine said, “There is no gold standard for therapy, so it is difficult to look at the current prescribing practice and say what is appropriate or not appropriate.” Other conclusions were reached by the panel:
- Although Ritalin may correct some behavior problems, there is no evidence that it helps children’s academic performance.
- There are no independent, validated tests for ADD/ADHD.
- Research that even establishes the validity of ADD/ADHD as a bona fide disorder “continues to be a problem.”
- Doctors and schools often do a poor job of communicating when treating ADD/ADHD and follow-up is often poor.
By way of commentary, this panel estimated that up to 5% of children are truly affected with ADD/ADHD, if indeed it even exists. Why then in some classrooms are upwards of 30% of the children on Ritalin? Could it be that in many school districts the school gets additional money from the state for each child diagnosed?
If your child has been diagnosed with ADD/ ADHD, you must seriously determine if you want a questionable disorder being diagnosed with questionable standards, being treated with questionable, high-powered drugs that have questionable long-term effects for your child. No doubt there’s a better approach we could be taking.
Chiropractic Wellness Care helps normalize and balance the nervous system by removing subluxation interference that can create the disturbances seen in the supposed ADD/ ADHD disorders. All children, not just those diagnosed with ADD/ ADHD need to have their spines examined for subluxation interference.

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Crohn’s Disease Reponds Well to Chiropractic Care

Posted on August 23, 2010 by thedoc

The November, 2002 issue of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research reports that a number of patients with Crohn’s disease and other allergies have responded very favorably after a regimen of chiropractic adjustments.
51 patients were divided into two groups. The first group of 17 received chiropractic care and the remaining 34 who received no chiropractic care served as a control group. All patients continued taking whatever medications they had been taking prior to the study.
According to the study, “of the 17 patients who received spinal adjustments, 12 showed long-term and stable remission of their symptoms and 9 experienced an alleviation effect. We found that vertebral subluxation is a common and characteristic finding in patients with allergies and Crohn’s disease.”
The study concluded that nerve compression, resulting from vertebral subluxation, may have had a “significant effect on the immune function” of the patients in the study. They postulated that this same nerve compression also “leads to a chronic functional disorder having a significant effect on digestion, absorption of nutrients and liquids, conveyance of food as well as various other functions of the digestive tract extending to excretion.

Commentary: There is no doubt that nerve interference from vertebral subluxation can cause the body to malfunction to the point that disease processes can result if the nerve interference is present long enough. How long do you want to wait to find out if you have interference from vertebral subluxation? Until the disease process begins? How about finding it as soon as possible by getting regular Wellness spinal check-ups from your chiropractor? That makes the most sense.

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VA RECOGNIZES VALUE OF CHIROPRACTIC CARE!

Posted on August 19, 2010 by thedoc

The largest medical provider in the United States has recognized the vital role Chiropractic healing plays in the health of their patients. As a result, this enormous service organization has greatly expanded the level of Chiropractic care available to the millions of individuals.

That organization is the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the largest direct health care provider in the U.S. by far. It’s excellent news for veterans that Chiropractic healing became part of the VHA service package in 2001 – even though it took an Act of Congress to do it. At that time, Chiropractic services were ordered into each of the 21 geographic regions of the VHA.

By the year 2004 this was fully implemented.

Twenty-four million living veterans and 38 million living survivors and dependents – totalling 62 million people – are now eligible for Chiropractic services through the VHA.

To provide a picture of the magnitude of the service facility, the VHA operates 154 hospitals, 136 nursing home units, 43 residential rehabilitation facilities, 875 outpatient clinics, and 206 Veterans centers. The VHA staff totals over 200,000 health care providers with a budget of $32 billion annually.

Chiropractors now play a vital role as specialty care providers to veterans in each of the 21 regions. Some DCs are full-time staff, others are contractors and some work on a parttime basis. In all cases, they work as part of an integrated team to provide enhanced care to veterans. They work on a wide variety of neuromusculoskeletal conditions after being referred by a primary care physician. As one might imagine, veteran’s health situations can be very complex.

One Chiropractor who provides care to veterans is Anthony J. Lisi of Connecticut. He sees great value in the service provided to veterans by Chiropractors and likes working as part of a professional team to help veterans. “There is an atmosphere of collegiality and cooperation for the patients’ best interests, which leads to a willingness among providers to consider Chiropractic treatment for their given patients. This is evidenced by the fact that virtually every Chiropractic clinic in the VHA is fully booked well in advance. There has been no shortage of patients reaching the Chiropractic clinics.”

Dr. Lisi adds that this new benefit not only helps the veterans, it also improves the field of Chiropractic itself as the VA is the country’s largest trainer of medical personnel. Patients learn about the benefits of Chiropractic and can tell others, and all types of medical personnel learn from seeing their patients improve because of their Chiropractic treatment.

That’s good for everyone.

SOURCE:

Chiro Web http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/24/14/05.html

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Chiropractic Treatment helps in sports injuries

Posted on August 19, 2010 by thedoc

Chiropractic care could go a long way toward preventing injuries commonly suffered by persons involved in sports or athletic training. And when injuries do occur, a Chiropractor can often put the sports enthusiast back on the competitive path without the patient having to undergo an invasive surgical procedure.

One type of injury that sometimes occurs even in the case of a well-trained athlete is a sports hernia. This is a tear in the muscles of the lower abdomen resulting in lower abdominal or groin pain. Men experience it more frequently than women. Over time, athletic activity involving lifting, twisting and straining can cause microscopic tears in muscles and fascia (connective tissue that binds muscles and organs).

The pain from a sports hernia usually begins gradually. Symptoms are varied but usually involve lower abdominal pain, groin pain or pain on just on one side of the lower abdomen. The pain usually is worse when coughing or sneezing. The initial treatment for a sports hernia involves rest, Chiropractic physiotherapy, sometimes the use of a support belt, and a set of exercises determined by the Chiropractor. An ice pack is generally recommended for use on the area for 20 to 30 minutes, three to four times a day, to minimize the discomfort.

With proper treatment, it generally takes a few weeks for symptoms to go away. Without treatment, it may take two to six months or much longer. In rare instances when Chiropractic physiotherapy and care do not relieve symptoms, surgery may be involved as a last resort.

Professional and recreational athletes alike would be wise to make Chiropractic consultation and direction a part of their training regimen to both prevent and care for injuries that can accompany vigorous sports endeavor.

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Welcome to Wichita Chiropractic Center and Babcock Family Chiropractic

Posted on August 19, 2010 by thedoc

Welcome to the blog of Doctor Randy Babcock and Babcock Family Chiropractic. We hope to be information, interesting and helpful in your quest for Lifetime Family Wellness.

Please feel free to comment us if you have any questions or give us a call.

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