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The Cost of Living in Pain to Your Health and Wallet!

We would like you to think hard about your lifestyle choices and what they are costing you. No matter what you suffer from—neuropathy, diabetes, back pain, obesity, etc.—your poor health is an ongoing condition that depletes your resources over time. We understand money is tight, but that doesn’t mean you should forgo a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle will save you much more in the long run and greatly decrease your risk for becoming chronically, deathly ill!

A European study, involving over 23,000 Germans, showed that the cumulative effects of not smoking, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and maintaining a healthy weight, reduced the risk of diabetes by 93%, the risk of heart disease by 81%, and the risk of all cancers by 36%! If you fail to improve upon your lifestyle in these areas, your health will roll downhill and may even spiral out of control. For example, if you suffer from neuropathy and you don’t start cutting back on inflammatory foods like sugar, you may continue to drain your body of energy, damage your nerves, decrease your mobility, and increase your likelihood for becoming depressed and obese. Your poorly-functioning circulatory system may burden your heart and shed years off your life. Poor health is a rough and endless road. Nothing will change unless you decide to go another way. Read on to find out how much this road will cost you financially!

Obesity Will Cost You!

Chronic diseases are very expensive—and especially if you rough roadhave to pay to treat them for the rest of your life. Obesity has been named a cause for at least 20 different diseases and conditions including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and neuropathy. The treatment of obesity-related diseases costs the US around $147 billion annually; double what it was a decade ago. According to a George Washington University study, it costs an obese woman $4,870 more per year to live in America than a woman of healthy weight. It costs an obese man $2,646 per year. As you can see, a healthy weight will lower your health risks and save you money!

Drugs Will Cost You!

Spending in the US for prescription drugs was $259.1 billion in 2010, and is expected to double over the next decade. The number of drugs prescribed per person greatly increases with age. It doesn’t help that the drug industry shamelessly promotes their products as solutions when most always they are only helping you treat symptoms and bide your time. Those who suffer from one or more chronic conditions may face up to $1000 in out-of-pocket expenses annually just to treat symptoms. All in all, in the long run, you will be better off spending your money at the grocery store, rather than at the pharmacy.

Surgery Will Cost You!

Too often, patients are told surgery is their best and only option to stop their pain and/or lose weight. However, if they do their homework, they realize the odds that their pain or weight will simply melt away after surgery are not good, and there may even be dangerous side effects! On top of all that, the expenses are troublesome. Gastric bypass surgery, for example, costs nearly $30,000 to perform! Out-of-pocket expenses for back surgery have been known to reach over $16,000! Obviously, surgery has its place; but, remember, lifestyle changes, not surgery, are the true key to healthy, long-lasting pain relief and weight loss.

Nursing Homes Will Cost You!

In the last five years, the annual cost of living in a private nursing home has soared 24% from $67,527 to $83,950, according to Genworth’s 2013 Cost of Care Survey. Even assisted living facilities, which cost less, but don’t offer the same level of care, are increasing in price. The sad truth is, when the time comes, you may struggle to pay for the care you need. The best gift you can give yourself is to take preventative measures against poor health and chronic disease now. Lifestyle changes will help you become healthy enough to die in your own home! At this point, you cannot afford to not take care of yourself.

What Can You Do?

We would like to recommend a revolutionary treatment: take care of yourself! Make an effort to form a healthy lifestyle now, and your body (and your wallet) will thank you later. Imagine all the treatments, rehabilitation, therapies, surgeries, drugs, and more that will be deemed unnecessary if you start NOW. Also, don’t be afraid to seek help. Doing a lifestyle-adapting program like those we offer at Lighthouse Pain Relief will not only help you find great relief, it will save you money as well! Start your journey on the road to relief!

Visit www.burnfatillinois.com to see more information on Priority Health Weight Loss.

Foot Pain Can Be Helped With Chiropractic Yorkville

In our Chiropractic office we treat a lot of foot pain. Many people don’t realize that I can help them with two common foot problems: Heel spurs and Morton’s Neuromas. Heel pain can be treated with Chiropractic care and surgery can be avoided in many cases. Many patients will come in with pain and their doctors will have suggested cortisone shots or surgery. Both treatments will decrease the symptoms but unless the cause is address, the pain will return.

Foot pain in the form of heel spurs occur when the fascia along the bottom of your foot becomes stretched and Chiropractic care is very effective. This stretching occurs with injury or if you have flat feet because of the loss of the arch in the foot. The first this we would do to correct the problem is to adjust the ankle and foot to reduce the acute painful phase of injury. Understanding that adjustments are also a temporary fix we would support the arch either with ace type bandage or scan the patient for orthotics.

By providing long term relief with custom support the tight fascia is relaxed and the pressure is removed from the foot area. Go to our website at southingtonchiropractor.com to find out about the custom orthotics we carry in this office.

Another foot pain problem that can be treated successfully with Chiropractic is Morton’s Neuroma. A neuroma is a benign overgrowth of a nerve. In the foot, this overgrowth develops in the space between the bones of the foot called the metatarsals usually between the third and forth toes. As this area becomes irritated, the nerve responds by thickening itself which further irritates. It becomes a viscous cycle. As the neuroma grows the function of the nerve is interfered with and more pain results.

Mortons Neuroma is primarily caused by a change in the transverse arch of the foot. This arch is across the ball of the foot and any biomechanical dysfunction of the forefoot especially too much rotation or side to side movements of the bones will start the process of neuroma development. Your medical doctor will again suggest a cortisone shot or surgery but again if the cause is not addressed the problem will re-occur.

Treating Morton’s neuroma with Chiropractic care involves adjustments to the foot as well as custom orthotics. Another important treatment for Morton’s neuroma is proper shoes. Shoes with extreme point in the toes are a neuroma waiting to happen.

Treatment and Prevention of Muscle Cramps during Exercise

Muscle cramps that are caused by exercise can be very painful and can cause athletes to drop out of competitions. Muscle cramps can happen in any types of sports and are usually a result of muscle fatigue, a loss of electrolytes or dehydration.

Cramps are not limited to sports, they can happen even to people who are not involved in any type of sports. Repetitive cramps can be healed by a chiropractor by aligning the vertebrae correctly in the spine using various techniques.

Causes of Cramps

The American College of Sports Medicine published a review on the causes of muscle cramps during exercise – two possible causes were identified that lead to muscle cramps.

The first was credited to muscle fatigue. Neuromuscular systems are embedded into muscles to allow control of contraction of the muscles. When this system malfunctions, contraction of muscle takes place and then causes the cramps.

Muscles that are regularly used, such as those of an athlete or a person with a very active lifestyle, are at a higher risk of experiencing cramps or spasms.

The second major cause is a result of an excessive fluid loss from the body (sweat), which decreases the body’s electrolytes level. This depletes the body of sodium.

Body’s Natural Cooling System

The body is designed to cool itself by sweating when body temperature starts to rise beyond normal levels. The loss of electrolytes due to sweating can cause depletion of body’s electrolytes and if it is not replenished properly, it will cause cramps.

What are Electrolytes?

Electrolytes are minerals including sodium, chloride, magnesium and potassium. They are dissolved in the body and directly control the required muscle contractions and nerve conductions.

Consuming bananas to treat muscle cramps has no solid ground and there is no evidence to support such a remedy.

Treating Muscle Cramps

– Fatigued Muscles

Treatment of muscle cramps depends upon the initial cause. For those people who experience a muscle cramp due to a strenuous workload such as exercise or sports, chiropractors recommend treatments such as a massage, application of cold packs to the affected muscles and passive stretching.

Proper rest must be given to those muscles which have experienced an overload due to stress.

– Cramps due to Loss of Electrolytes

For those people who suffer from cramps as a result of excessive sweating and a deficit of sodium, the same methods of treatment can be used besides replenishing the lost fluid levels.

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Priority Welcomes New Chiropractic Physician Yorkville

Dr Andrew Weihler

Dr. Andrew grew up on a farm in western Illinois just outside of Sherrard, Illinois. Growing up on the farm instilled values of hard work and responsibility. At Sherrard High School, Dr. Andrew participated in cross-country, basketball, and baseball. Playing sports, he learned the importance of working as a team, being a leader, and having a competitive spirit.

Dr. Andrew studied undergrad at Illinois State University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology in 2008. During his academic career at Illinois State, he worked hard and was consistently on the Dean’s List. It was here that Dr. Andrew was introduced to Dr. Paula Weihler. She sparked his interest in a career in chiropractic by educating him on the power of an adjustment and described the many miracles she witnessed.

Dr. Andrew graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in June of 2013.

While at Palmer, he participated in the Palmer Clinic Abroad Program where he traveled to Salvador, Brazil. During his time in Brazil he provided chiropractic care to hundreds of people. Dr. Andrew also made the Dean’s list at Palmer and is very passionate about the art, science, and philosophy of chiropractic that Palmer offers in its curriculum.

Dr. Andrew is extremely excited to be a member of the Priority Health team and looks forward to being an active member in the surrounding communities.

Chiropractic Care to Relieve Symptoms of Pregnancy

A woman has to get used to the uncomfortable symptoms of pregnancy for 38 to 42 weeks. There are ways to relieve such pain through medication, but they can pose potential side effects on the mother and the child. Chiropractic care, on the other hand, has shown to have remarkably alleviated the symptoms of back problems associated with pregnancy. Therapy, nutrition and exercise are the basics of the treatment that makes chiropractic and pregnancy go hand in hand.

Chiropractic Care for Pregnancy

Chiropractic treatments are non-invasive and address the misalignment in the spine to alleviate pain. Studies have also shown chiropractic care to have no known side effects on pregnant woman and the innate child. It promotes development in the mother and the baby. The Webster Technique is commonly employed to treat pregnant women, as it tends to apply as less pressure on the abdomen as possible.

Common Symptoms of Pregnancy

Back pains are very common during pregnancy. Women put on extra weight during the period, thus increasing the pressure on the spine. This leads to nerve stress, which can halt the development of a child. Other common symptoms during pregnancy include:

Pelvic pain
Nausea
Vomiting
Morning sickness
Heartburn
Shortness of breath
High blood pressure
Swollen ankles
Hormonal changes

Complications That Can Arise

Dislocation of the vertebra, or better known as vertebral subluxation, can interrupt the nervous system and affect the ability of communication within a body. Subluxation can result in:

Nerve Tension – Muscles around the spine become tight and experience inflammation on areas with misalignment in the spine. This adds stress on the nerves, and these nerves lead to various parts and organs in the body, like muscles, glands and blood vessels. Neglecting nerve tension can cause degeneration in various body systems.

Body Imbalance – Subluxation in the neck can lead to head tilting on one side. The righting reflex in the brain causes lower cervical spine to bend on the opposite direction of the head tilt. This can cause one side of the pelvis to draw up, making one leg appear shorter than the other. The uneven distribution of weight puts more stress on the joints. Extremely painful for the mother, it may even cause problems for the baby to get into the right birthing position.

A visit to the chiropractor throughout pregnancy can help you get started with the treatment, and can make the pregnancy and delivery comfortable and faster.

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