Early Warning Signs - Will You Listen or Suffer the Consequences?

Sign #1: Muscle Spasms/Tightness

Your spine is an intricate system of joints and bony canals that surround and protect your nervous system. Think of it as a flexible circuit breaker panel attached to the base of your brain. Your body will go to extreme measures to ensure the delicate nervous system operates without obstruction—with all circuits clear. Any potential interference to nerve function is countered by your body’s compensational systems: meaning, if your spine misaligns or curves too much or too little, your muscles tighten and go into spasm in order to lesson and prevent further nerve-interfering distortions. Think of the bracing effects of your muscles as a cast or splint. Tight muscles after certain activity (gardening, exercise, prolonged sitting, etc.) should recover in a day or two. If the tightness or spasm is severe or lasts beyond a few days, chances are you have a more serious underlying problem. This is the time to act and see a doctor of chiropractic.

Sign #2: Pain

Pain is an outward sign that something is wrong. It’s a warning, like a fire alarm or bright red dashboard “check oil” light. As with muscle tightness, it should not last more than a few days following a trigger.

Patients often state that they had pain for a few weeks, but then it went away with over-the-counter pills. A month later, it came back even worse. Prescription medication made it go away again. This scenario of ignoring persistent pain allows the problem to worsen. Keep in mind, the absence of pain, especially when drugged up, does not mean the problem no longer exists.

At this point, the spine may be better thought of as a ticking time-bomb. It may take just a simple activity such as putting on a sock or driving for an hour and, BOOM, it goes off. This is when I often meet people. What would have been a simple fix a few months ago is now a complex problem requiring more care, potential loss of work, and far greater suffering. When pain hits (even when minor) and persists, please see a chiropractor right away.

Sign #3: Weakness

As one of the more serious warning signs, weakness signifies many possible underlying issues. It can stem from pressure on a nerve supplying a muscle. When this is the case, you may notice specific symptoms such as loss of grip strength or difficulty on steps or getting in and out of your car with one leg. As discussed above, muscles may be working harder than normal to compensate for underlying spinal and nerve problems. This can result in noticeable weakness localized in a single muscle or a muscle group. It may appear as strain when lifting yourself out of a chair or when your head feels heavier than usual. It may only show up as general feeling of fatigue— especially at the end of the day. Any prolonged sign of weakness (especially of one side or region of your body) lasting more than just a few days warrants immediate chiropractic evaluation.

Your body speaks to you on a regular basis. It does not use actual words, but offers little signs and symptoms. You can take your chances by ignoring these warnings, or be proactive. Chiropractic intervention early on provides an effective, inexpensive and comfortable solution. It can save you from debilitating pain and high medical bills. Although I am happy to help patients when problems are severe and may have been avoided for too long, it is also nice to help people early on. After all, no issue is too minor to justify a check-up. 

Early Diagnosis Important in the Detection of Scoliosis

Scoliosis, a lateral or sidewards curvature of the spine, plagues an estimated 4 to 5 million Americans. This spinal disorder, often confused as a disease, usually appears during the early teens. Approximately 10 percent of the adolescent population has some form of scoliosis. It is more prominent in girls and is not limited to adolescents. Scoliosis can also affect younger children as well as adults.

One of the most common signs of scoliosis is a prominent shoulder blade, often the right one. One shoulder may appear to be higher and the child may tend to “list” to one side. The hips may be uneven and one may seem to be higher than the other. The first sign of scoliosis is often that clothes will not fit properly. The hems of skirts or pants will appear to be uneven.

Scoliosis is often confused with poor posture, but it does not disappear as the child gets older. It has been known to strike in otherwise healthy children and often runs in the same family. Delaying the treatment of scoliosis can lead to serious and even life threatening diseases of the heart and lungs. After the condition has progressed substantially, the correction becomes more difficult. More complex treatments, including surgery, may be necessary.

This is why regular chiropractic checkups of both you and your children are a must. An untreated spinal curvature may advance quickly, especially during the period of rapid teenage growth. When the curvature is discovered in time, there are chiropractic methods that usually correct the curvature or prevent its increase. Even as adults, chiropractic care can provide relief to scoliosis sufferers.

The 3000 mile Tune-up

The 3,000 Mile Tune-Up

The question arises over and over again…should I still continue to come for regular adjustments even if I don’t have pain?  Well, I am glad you asked.  I would personally agree with getting regular chiropractic adjustments because I have been receiving maintenance adjustments for over 25 years now.  I have only had low back pain or neck pain with my occasional biking or snowboarding accidents.  Pain should never be the controlling factor of why you return to get adjusted.

Your nervous system is made up of over seventy-five miles of nerves and the nerve impulses can be as fast as three hundred and fifty miles per hour.   Only 5% of your body registers pain and 95% controls functions like breathing, digesting, thinking and eliminating.  Only in the last moment of pressure on a nerve will you feel the pain, but well before that pressure your bodily functions will be affected and decreased. Would you rather just feel good and be out of pain, or be healthy?  The first symptom of one who is having a heart attack is most often death. Prior to that heart attack, that person felt good.  Again I cannot stress how important it is to have your nervous system functioning at 100%.  One of the greatest tests that you can use is the Thermal (HEAT) and EMG (MUSCLE) scanner at my office.  These tests definitively show if your nervous system is operating at 100%. 

Well Dr. Andrea, how often do you get adjusted?  I aim for an adjustment once a month, or often more frequently. Pretty much whenever I see my brother Dr. Michael, we make sure to adjust each other.  Why would I do any less for you and your family?

I had been going to my dentist Dr. Jarvin for about 22 years before he retired.  He had taught me very well the good habits of brushing and flossing.  Now with my current dentist, Dr. David, over the last six years, I continue my maintenance cleaning.  Since I started driving 24 years ago, I have been tuning up my car every 3,000 miles. Why would you not want your nervous system to run at its optimum peak for the entire life?  How long would your car last if you only tuned it up when the engine started smoking or the oil light came on? 

When it comes to your health and nervous system, it should be your number one priority with your family.  As Dr. Jarvin and my mechanic have taught me, “teeth and an engine can be replaced, but it can never be as good as the original.” 

You make the choice.  Health is your responsibility and you do have a choice to keep your family’s nervous system always operating at 100%.

-Dr. Andrea

Children And Chiropractic

By nature, babies are born very healthy.  They have been living in a perfect environment with everything they need being provided.  As children they usually do not have aches and pains and when they do, they are usually forgotten as quickly as they came.

However, something more serious could be going on.  It’s called Spinal Subluxation Degeneration.  It is a slow and relentless condition that results from spinal vertebral misalignment or malfunction and eventually erodes the structure and functioning of the spine.  It usually begins in childhood and results in permanent damage as an adult.  This structural damage is worsened by the scientific knowledge that this spinal malfunction results in nerve damage, even in children.

Your next questions are:  “How does this happen?” and, “Could my child have this?”  Most often this spinal trauma is caused from the birth process itself, especially if it was difficult.  Tossing your child in the air or yanking the child by one arm can cause a severe whiplash which is usually associated with car accidents.  Also, falling off a bicycle or the everyday bumps that happen to children could cause spinal subluxations.  Generally, children quickly become accustomed to these problems and go on with their daily activities.

Signs you can look for are:  Do your children get colds often?  Do they get ear aches or sore throats often?  Are they hyperactive?  When they were babies did they have colic or cry a lot for no reason?  Were they bed-wetters?  When your child walks or stands, look at his/her posture.  Is one shoulder or hip higher than the other?  Do their clothes fit unevenly?  Does one foot point out or in?  These are just some of the signs of spinal subluxation.

If you suspect a problem or just want your baby or child checked, let Dr. Andrea examine your child for spinal subluxations.  Only a Doctor of Chiropractic is trained to detect early stages of spinal degeneration.  Dr. Andrea will give you a full explanation of the problem and what is necessary for correction.  She is specially trained to care for babies and children, as well as pregnant women, and is the only pediatric chiropractor in the Sea to Sky corridor educated through the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA).

A Doctor of Chiropractic can also assist you in optimizing your child’s spinal health, such as, letting your child crawl as long as he/she wants.  This helps them develop the proper spinal curves that lead to a stronger and healthier spine, thus fewer spinal problems when they are adults.  When you bring your child to the Chiropractor, have the things you noticed about your child, and when they happened written down so the doctor can give your child the best care possible.

4 Fundamentals to Keep the Body Fit and Strong

Did you know that poor posture is seen in greater than 70% of work place injuries?  Poor posture indicates that muscles and joints are under stress, and this imbalance causes muscles and joints to have to work too hard or inefficiently which can lead to inhibited performance and potential for injury.  Poor posture can develop from overuse in certain sports (for example, 1-sided sports such as golf or tennis), repetitive stress injuries (doing the same movements over and over), or muscular imbalance (stronger dominant side).

It is important to work on endurance, stability, balance, and flexibility to keep the spine and body strong and fit maintaining good posture.  Let's talk about each of these.

Endurance:

The first step is aerobic.  You can build up to 30 minutes 3-5 times a week with an elliptical trainer, running, stairmaster, swimming, biking, etc.  Aerobic training also strengthens muscles making agility drills easier with an aerobic base (think sideways running, skipping, etc.)

Stability:

Prepare the body to move in short bursts.  Turns and lots of spinal rotations can put a lot of stress on the knees, so be careful and keep good form!  Focus on plyometrics which develop explosive, quick movements to generate muscle power and speed (try squat jumps and box jumps).

Balance:

Most of your balance comes from your core, which doesn’t just mean your abs.  You must be aware that the front and back of the body have to be equally strong.  Balance is important for quick reaction times, so incorporate a BOSU ball into your workout while doing lunges, squats, or single-leg exercises.

Flexibility:

Studies show that a 15% imbalance in flexibility increases your injury risk by 2 ½ times!  So                    stretching before a workout protects against injury, improves motion and flexibility, and stretching after a workout helps the muscles to return to normal length.  Also remember that connective tissue such as muscles, ligaments, and tendons shorten over time, so stretching is important especially as we age.  Try yoga for a fun and great workout promoting flexibility as well as strength.                                                                                                                     

In conclusion, human movement and function requires a balance of muscle length and strength between opposing muscles surrounding a joint.  Focussing on these four fundamentals will take you far, but remember that the only way to actually correct imbalance is through chiropractic adjustments.  In my experience, you are always better off first correcting the spinal misalignments before working on your posture with exercise.  The two together are an unstoppable force for the betterment of your health!

Matching Your Diet To Your DNA-Part 3

In this 3rd and final installment, we will go over what we should be eating for optimal health of our body.

What Should We Eat?

•          Our ancestors rarely consumed cereal grains and had no dairy, sugars, or processed foods.

•          Game and wild plant foods contained less fat, more protein, more roughage, and more micronutrients than do foods from our supermarkets.

•          Fruits and vegetables were consumed within hours of being gathered, typically with minimal or no processing and often uncooked.

•          Foods contained higher average content of vitamins and minerals (in excess of currently recommended dietary allowances).

•          73% of world-wide hunter-gatherer societies derived >50% of their food from animals, only 14% of these societies derived >50% of their food from plants (energy from proteins > that of carbohydrates).

•          organic, grass-fed lean meats (avoid grain fed), wild fish (avoid farmed), and eggs (free-range, organic)

•          plenty of fresh organic vegetables and fruit, emphasis on vegetables

•         Paleo diet is a good guide

This is not meant to promote any one "diet" over another.  You must think of food more as a lifestyle change, not a fad diet.  Developing good habits will go a long way and make it easier to stay on track with your healthy lifestyle.  Please remember, this is only a guide.  It doesn't mean you must change everything you are doing overnight, but may it encourage you to make a small change here and there until you are ready for another.  Don't complicate things, think simple and old-fashioned when it comes to what you eat. 

Matching Your Diet To Your DNA-Part 2

So what about our genetics?  Do they play a role in our health?  Here are a few key points in understanding the role of our genes and how often we blame our genes for the illnesses we suffer from when it's our poor lifestyle choices we should pay closer attention to.

•          Our genes our programmed for health. It is toxicity and/or deficiency affecting gene expression that leads to sickness and disease.

•          Our genes do NOT differ from our paleolithic, hunter-gatherer, pre-agricultural, pre-industrial ancestors.

•          Our ancestors, and surviving tribes that model their lifestyles, did not die from the diseases of lifestyle like heart disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and stroke or suffer from the degenerative or autoimmune diseases like arthritis, lupus, M.S., chronic fatigue, low fertility, depression, etc. like modern humans do.

•          The only difference between our healthy ancestors and our sick society is toxicity and deficiency.  The genes are the same!

•          Built into our genes is the blueprint for optimal nutrition (innate intelligence).  To be healthy, we must eat and live congruently with this innate intelligence (provide it with sufficient amounts of ingredients it needs and avoid things that are toxic or interfering).

•          Modern illness is due to environmental NOT genetic factors.  Modern illnesses are AVOIDABLE! Modern health is ATTAINABLE!

Excerpts taken from Dr. James Chestnut's book "The Innate Diet & Natural Hygiene".  The 3rd and final part will come out next week.  We will talk about what kinds of food support our genes, which are best to avoid, and ideas to help us achieve abundant health!

Matching Your Diet To Your DNA-Part 1

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."       

What Is Health?:  10 fundamental truths regarding health

•          All living things, including humans, are composed of individual living cells working harmoniously together in a self-healing, self-regulating ecosystem to maintain homeostasis (balance), health and life.

•          Our cells are genetically equipped from birth with all the necessary intelligence to function properly. Our cells are programmed for health and to NEVER dysfunction without a physical, chemical, or emotional stressor.

•          Our cells are all genetically programmed with the perfect recipe for health; it is our choices and our living environment that determine whether or not the proper ingredients are supplied.

•          Health, by definition is a state of consistent balanced cell function.

•          Sickness is a lack of consistent balanced cell function. Sickness is a lack of health just like darkness is a lack of light.  If we want to make someone healthier, you have to increase the amount of health, you have to increase the level of balanced cell function.

•          The function of our cells determines our state of health and sickness.

•          The cause of all non-homeostatic cell function is stressors.

•          All health stressors can be divided into one of two categories: deficiencies in the required ingredients for homeostatic cell functions, & toxicities that drive cell function away from homeostasis.

•          Because cells are born with all the required genetic intelligence for homeostasis and health, cells always function perfectly in relation to any given environment.  Symptoms do NOT represent an error in the intelligence of cells, but represent important signals from cells telling you that there is something wrong (deficiency or toxicity), and that they are under stress.  Illnesses represent the body’s best ability to adapt to a chronic unhealthy environment, to chronic deficiency or toxicity, to chronic stressors.  The cells NEVER function incorrectly, the environment is unhealthy!

•          In order to function properly and produce health, cells must have all requirements met and be free of toxicity.  In other words, it is impossible to be 100% healthy by supplying the cells with only some of the requirements or by eliminating only some toxins.  Plants can’t be healthy even if they have all the required sunlight, water, and nutrients they require if they are missing sunlight!

These 10 fundamental truths are taken from Dr. James Chestnut's book "The Innate Diet & Natural Hygiene".  Stay tuned for Part 2 addressing what part our genes play and what exactly we should be eating to express our body's fullest potential.

Welcome to my new website!!

I am pleased to announce my new website is up and running!  I know you can read a bit about me in the About section, but here is a blurb in 60 seconds or less...

My name is Dr. Andrea Bologna and I have been a chiropractor for the last 12 years.  It's hard to believe, but time goes by so fast and it seemed not that long ago I packed up my things and moved from my parents house in Kelowna BC and flew to Dallas Texas with 2 suitcases of clothing and a lap top to begin my schooling.  I graduated, then worked in a chiropractic clinic in the Dallas area for 6 years, and finally moved back to BC to work with my brother in his clinic in Whistler.  I have called Whistler home for the past 5 1/2 years.  This is where I play, where I bike, where I met my husband, where I got married, and where I choose to stay.

I see many amateur and professional athletes, but my passion is children (from newborns through all stages) and pregnant women.  I am specially certified through the Academy of Chiropractic Family Practice and the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association.  

Well, that's some of me:)  Stay tuned for more to come.  Also, like Village Centre Chiropractic and follow me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn  (see icons at the bottom of the page).

Andrea out.