The Spinal Column, Spring 2018
Dear Patients and Friends,
After nearly four decades in chiropractic, I’ve noticed that appropriate exercise is tied with a healthy diet as the biggest factor that helps patients to relieve and prevent neck and back pain, stay healthy, feel good, and live longer. I’ve also noticed that many people do little or no exercise. When I ask patients about it, they often have very good reasons for not exercising. Patients tell me that they just don’t have the time or energy to “go out and exercise.” They work long hours and have no energy left for anything else, they have to take care of the kids (or grandkids), and frequently stress, pain and/or poor health makes any exercise at all seem like too big of a mountain to climb.
If you are not engaging in regular and helpful exercise, no matter what your good reason, you are not likely to stay as healthy or to feel as good as you could. If you are ready to consider the notion of some form of consistent exercise to improve your life, you might find these ideas helpful:
Do SOMETHING. Even five minutes a day can make a difference. Five minutes, on the floor of your own home (or even on your bed) of simple stretching and movement exercise can really help!
Look for chances to walk, whenever you can get them. Park one block away. Walk around the block. Walk the dog. Walk the baby in a stroller. Walk around the airport while you’re waiting for the plane. Walk as fast as you can while staying safe and in control. Even 5 minutes of walking is good. Every additional minute is even better, up to 30 or 45 minutes three to five days a week.
Do you spend time watching TV? If you do, how much of that are you willing to convert to exercise time? If you don’t want to miss anything, put an exercise bike in front of the tube and ride it, starting with 5 minutes and working up to a full half-hour show. Or get on the floor and do some stretching while you watch. (See the book Stretching by Bob Anderson.)
There are exercises that will loosen and strengthen your back and/or your neck in 10 minutes per day. There are exercises you can do in 2-minute (or even 30-second) breaks as you sit in front of your computer. If you want to feel better or avoid future injury, start doing them. If you need specific ideas and guidance, just ask your chiropractor!
Aerobic exercise (walking, biking, swimming, dancing, running…anything that will speed your heart rate and blood flow for a minimum of 20 minutes 3 times weekly) can lower your blood pressure, relieve depression, reduce stress, increase stamina, increase your libido, strengthen your immune system, strengthen your back, stimulate weight loss, relieve pain, and make your life better and happier. When you find a way to do it, that investment of time will reap huge dividends.
Yours for better health, naturally,
Mha Atma S. Khalsa, D.C.
Interesting Collection of Chiropractic Research
Safety of Chiropractic Care
From the world’s most prestigious medical orthopedic journal, Spine 2007, Volume 32, Number 21: “Safety of Chiropractic Manipulation of the Cervical Spine, A Prospective National Survey.” The reviewers looked at results from 19,722 patients involving over 50,000 chiropractic adjustments and found zero serious adverse events.
From European Spine Journal 2008: “Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke and Chiropractic Care” The reviewers looked at records of millions of patients over a 9-year period and found no evidence of excess risk of stroke associated with chiropractic care compared to routine medical care.
Chiropractic vs Physical Therapy
From European Spine Journal 2006: “A randomized clinical trial and sub-group analysis to compare flexion-distraction with active exercise for chronic low back pain.” Researchers found that the group receiving flexion-distraction (a standard chiropractic treatment technique for low back pain and sciatica) had significantly greater pain relief than those allocated to the exercise program and that patients with pain radiating into their leg had a greater decrease in symptoms with the chiropractic treatment. (NOTE from Dr. Mha Atma: We include flexion-distraction in our office for many patients with low back and/or leg pain. Also, other studies have shown that the best results come from combining chiropractic treatment AND exercise.)
Chiropractic Plus “Standard Medical Care”
From Spine 2013, Volume 38, Number 8: “Adding Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy to Standard Medical Care for Patients With Acute Low Back Pain.” Researchers found a statistical and clinically significant benefit to those receiving chiropractic treatment. 73 percent of patients receiving chiropractic treatment along with standard medical care rated their global improvement as pain completely gone, much better or moderately better compared to 17 percent in the medical only group.
Chiropractic vs Anti-Inflammatory Medication
From Spine 2013, Volume 38, Number 7: “Spinal high-velocity low amplitude manipulation in acute nonspecific low back pain: a double-blinded randomized controlled trial in comparison with diclofenac and placebo.” Researchers concluded that “in a subgroup of patients with acute nonspecific LBP, spinal manipulation was significantly better than nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac and clinically superior to placebo. No adverse effects or harm was registered.”
Chiropractic Maintenance Care
From Spine 2011, Volume 36, Number 18: “Does maintained spinal manipulation therapy for chronic nonspecific low back pain result in better long-term outcome?” Research conclusions included the following: “Nonspecific LBP represents about 85% of LBP patients seen in primary
care. About 10% will go on to develop chronic, disabling LBP.” “This study confirms previous reports showing that SM [chiropractic treatment] is an effective modality in chronic nonspecific LBP especially for short term effects.” “…as patients did benefit from the maintenance treatments, we believe that periodic patient visits permit proper evaluation, detection, and early treatment of an emerging problem, thus preventing future episodes of LBP.”
Thanks for Helping Us Help Others!
Carr Schilling
Sherry Burch
Francine Fernandez
Fran Reynolds-
Hughes
Jim Zink
Rahimah Shah
Pam Ziegenhagen
Javier Mosley
Andrea Tzvetkov
Richard Chiu
Rachel Hernandez
Linda Yudin
Felica Rondeau
Marlene Arroyo
Dayana Zambrano
Christophe Happillon
Dre Storey
Ted Loyo
Mariana Perez Novoa
Gloria Ibrahim-
Hogstrand
Mark Anthony Johnson
Gary Gooden
Donald Durham
Camila Greenberg
Carmen Fitzgibbon
Michael Coles
Denise Middleton
Sasha Ali
Pamela Dearing
William Taylor
Lynn Gifford
Maggie Malyn
Darlene Valle
Kenneth Brown
Gwen Williams
Linda Joyner
Marion Harris
Carlos Torres
Vivian Szawarc
Dennes Guevara
Barbara Rubin
Katherine Korniloff
Daniel Halevy
Lemor Alcalay
Zina Stepter
Danielle Forbes
Halleluyah Walcott
Shelly Benton
Ben Goodman
Mimi Levinson
Dan Kempler
James Draffen
Ron Schultz
June Baldwin
Diana Kavin
Angel Miranda
Allan Nguyen
Katie Queen
David Del Francia
Sarah Goldberg
Mickey Weill
Francis Rodriguez
Gralin Jerald
Susan Allen
Dustin Bowlin
Hilke Richards
Becky Koblick
Susan Veksler
Gary Manoi
Ryan Scanlan
Ellen Jagosz
Pat Harmon
Mark Mangum
Omar Regan
Laia Brothers
Pat Illing
Aaron Contreras
Christian Hand
Sepi Shyne
Nicole Weldon
Tami Adams
Lydia Olivier
Diana McFadzen
Harvey Lame
Cybele Parsignault
Kim Calvert-Lehman
Naomi Cohen
Julia Fisher
Govind Armstrong
Tess Kirsch
Jeanette Godoy
Madison Charap
Rayna Saslove
Leilani Parrish
Cheryl Collette-White
Tamar Barnoon
Janine Micucci
Laura Watts
Jim Pallett
Gloria Lederfine
Cody Silberfern
John Galich
Chris Smith
Scott Shapiro
Jackie Redner
Trish Wilfong
My Chiropractic Story
Jesse Malone
I had pinched nerves and stiffness in my back and neck on and off for years. The pain ranged from tolerable to sometimes severe. I found seeing doctors a waste of time, except for deep tissue massage which was somewhat helpful. I took ibuprofen sometimes but was worried about the health of my liver. I had tried several chiropractors with mixed results.
A coworker recommended Dr. Mha Atma so, during a particularly severe bout of neck pain, I decided to give him a try. I had my doubts about getting any lasting relief.
Dr. Mha Atma recommended various stretches, repeated chiropractic adjustments (twice weekly at first) and anti-inflammation supplements including Vitamin D, omega 3-6-9 and magnesium. I found his office to be clean and organized and I appreciated their flexible scheduling.
As treatment progressed I felt much improvement and experienced increasingly longer stretches of time without feeling the need for an adjustment. Since I’ve had very good results, I now recommend chiropractic to people I know who are having pain and wanting to feel better. I talk about it whenever health subjects come up.
I found that effective chiropractic treatment requires multiple visits in a short period of time, but it’s definitely worth it, and now more occasional adjustments continue to keep me feeling well!
Chiropractic quotes
“A wise man ought to realize that health is his most valuable possession.”
~Hippocrates
“Bodybuilders and fitness people have been using, very extensively, chiropractors in order to stay healthy and fit. Whenever I had a little problem with my body, I always ran to one of my dear friends [Franco Columbo, D.C.], he was always right there with the adjustments. This is how I found out the best way of going, is to use chiropractors, not only after injuries , but also before injury.” ~Arnold Schwarzenegger actor and former governor of California
“I got a chiropractor to come along to the [Patriot] shoot, because they can actually stick your back together within 15 minutes. He spent a week and worked on the entire crew. All the stunt guys were like, ‘Oh, fix my disc.’ The guy’s amazing. “ ~Mel Gibson
“The spine is the lifeline. A lot of people should go to a chiropractor but they don’t know it.” ~Jack LaLanne
“Regular chiropractic adjustments go hand-in-hand with good health.” ~Peter Fonda
“I rely on regular chiropractic care to keep in shape for my strenuous type of acting and singing.” ~Liza Minelli
“I didn’t know how much I could improve until I started seeing a chiropractor. Since I’ve been in chiropractic, I’ve improved by leaps and bounds, both mentally and physically.”
~Gerald Wilkins, NBA player 1985-1999
Plant the seeds of good health:
See your chiropractor regularly!
SATURDAY, April 14, 2018 is
Hope Day!
In exchange for a donation of $10.00 or more to a local organization which provides food and other essentials for those in need: