2018

Orewa Chiropractic / 2018

How To Choose A Mattress?

How to choose your mattress?

We spend two hundred thousand hours in our bed, roughly one-third of our life and the quality of our sleep is essential for our mood, well-being and health.

We turn something like 40 times each night, so we don't sleep in the same single position. Some prefer to sleep on their back and others on their side. As you probably know, it is not recommended to sleep on your stomach as it creates a large amount of strain on your cervical spine.

You may think your bed is too old and time to change it. Bed stores are quite well-minded, and they will be happy if you try these tips:

Lie on your back and pass your hand under your lower back arch. If there is no problem, the mattress could be too firm. It should provide good firm support but with enough softness so that your musculature can release.
Turn on your side and push down the mattress with your elbow. If it's too deep, it may be too soft. You may think it's comfortable, but your back won't like it, especially if you hhave suffered from it.
Lie in your favourite position and try to feel your muscles between your shoulder blades and pelvis released.

We should change our bed every ten years, whatever its purchase cost. It is important to be aware that mattresses made with springs will lose some of their properties sooner than latex ones.

Don't hesitate to ask for more information from your chiropractor. Chiropractors are experts in spine health and will advise the sort of mattress that you need according to your spine needs when they are assessed. It is simple to choose a bed when you have the correct information.

How to Choose a Pillow?

"How to choose the best pillow for neck pain?"

This is one of the most common questions that health providers can hear.

The best pillows improve your sleep and quality of life

We spend one-third of our life sleeping, something like 200,000 hours in our life.

Thousands of New Zealanders could needlessly suffer from disrupted sleep due to lousy support choices at bedtime.

According to the Massey University Sleep-Wake Centre, 37 per cent of New Zealand adults aged 30 to 60 are sleep-deprived.

Several studies have shown that a proper neck support pillow selection can significantly alleviate your sore neck.

If neck pain is the most apparent condition due to a wrong choice, it may also create lower back discomfort, headaches, shoulder and arm pain, and restlessness.

It would also improve the quality and duration of sleep. Chiropractic practitioners believe that more education on pillow and bed selections could improve their patient's quality of life.

Choose the filling of the pillow.

Today the choice is vast. There are now pillows on the market made from memory foam (developed by NASA), natural latex/bamboo or Merino wool. They have been shown very effective for neck pain suffering and improving sleep quality. But, they can be a significant initial investment.

Polyester filling, less expensive than down and memory foam, provides proper and firm neck support and holds its shape reasonably well. However, it is also the least durable of these materials.

Consider your sleep position.

It is essential to choose a pillow that is of material and a shape that suits your sleep position. Consider the way you sleep to pick the height of your pillow; different positions require different types of support. It will determine how comfortable you are.

Back and stomach (not recommended) sleepers may want to choose a flatter pillow that helps keep the natural curvature.

However, if you sleep on your side, higher cervical support, which fills the gap between the head and neck, is generally better.

We all have different necks, with varying widths of shoulders. That’s why there isn’t a standard “best of the World” pillow.

The point is to have the cervical spine (neck) aligned with the rest of the body spine, not allowing any head tilt.

It doesn’t need anything contouring the neck or with a specific edge; sometimes quite uncomfortable. Orthopedic or ergonomic pillows are not necessarily a reference.

Take special needs into account.

You’ll find plenty of specialty pillows on the market tailored to specific situations.

For example, people with allergies might think about a pillow with a cover and filling specifically formulated to keep away dust and mites.

If you snore, consider a pillow-shaped to position your head, neck and shoulders in a way that will prevent your airway from becoming compressed.

Finally, we recommend a more breathable and lightweight pillow for sweaty sleepers.

If you are in any doubt, book a visit with one of our chiropractors at Orewa Chiropractic. We will be more than happy to point you in the right direction.

Chiropractic - 11/01/2018

Why Do Knuckles Crack?

What is it that makes that popping sound when you crack your knuckles? A team of researchers led by the University of Alberta Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine have confirmed that it is because of vacuum cavities forming in the joint's synovial fluid.

How? By pulling the fingers of a test subject inside an MRI machine.

"We call it the 'pull my finger study' — and pulled on someone's finger and filmed what happens in the MRI," said Professor Greg Kawchuk of the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. "When you do that, you can clearly see what is happening inside the joints."

The idea for the study came from Nanaimo chiropractor Jerome Fryer, who approached Professor Kawchuk with a theory. Rather than beat around the bush, they decided to take a natural look using magnetic resonance imaging.

"Fryer is so gifted at it, it was like having the Wayne Gretzky of knuckle cracking on our team," Professor Kawchuk said.

Fryer's fingers were inserted, one at a time, into a tube attached to a cable; this tube slowly pulled on each finger until the knuckle cracked. And in each instance, it was the bubble formation in the synovial fluid was associated with the popping sound, occurring within 310 milliseconds.

"It's a little bit like forming a vacuum," Professor Kawchuk explained. "As the joint surfaces suddenly separate, there is no more fluid available to fill the increasing joint volume, so a cavity is created, and that event is what's associated with the sound."

"The data fail to support evidence that knuckle cracking leads to degenerative changes in the metacarpal phalangeal joints in old age," the study concludes.

Uncategorized - 10/01/2018

Is Chiropractic Safe?

Is Chiropractic Treatment Safe?

Chiropractic is a safe practice as millions of chiropractic are provided worldwide every day. Discover why it is as safe as any care.

Evidence Chiropractic is Safe

A new major study reports evidence that chiropractic is safe for neck pain treatment

The large American study, using the records of 40 million people, researched the link between chiropractic care and VBA stroke.

As it was expected, it shows no obvious causality between chiropractic manipulation and vertebrobasilar artery (VBA) stroke.

This study supports the results of another previous and independent made by Cassidy, Boyle et al.

Indeed, the latter concluded that neck adjustments do not cause a stroke.

However, an association between the two events may exist.

The Study Results

In this new study, the researchers analysed up to 30 days before the date of hospital admission for VBA stroke:

They controlled if their patients visited chiropractors and/or GPs.

Positively, the authors' conclusions were unequivocal: “there was no association between chiropractic visits and VBA stroke found for the overall sample or samples stratified by age."

In contrast, “there is an association existing between GP visits and VBA stroke incidents regardless of the length of hazard period."

The likelihood or odds ratio of there being an association between a stroke and a GP visit “increase dramatically from 1-30 days to 1-1 day."

This is consistent with “the hypothesis that patients are more likely to see a GP for symptoms related to vertebral artery dissection closer to the index date of their actual stroke.”

“Overall, our results increase confidence in the findings of (the Cassidy, Boyle et al. study) which concluded there was no excess risk of VBA stroke associated with chiropractic care compared to primary care".

Reference:
Kosloff T, Elton D et al. (2015) Chiropractic Care and the Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke: Results of a Case-Control Study in U.S. Commercial and Medicare Advantage Populations. Chiropractic and Manual Therapies; 23:19. (Appendix A)

Chiropractic / Chiropractor - 09/01/2018

Orewa Chiropractic

Clinic

Florence House,
16 Florence Ave, Orewa

Book Online

Contact Info

09 426 4545
[email protected]

Mon to Thu: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm

Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm