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It is important to keep a few things in mind when considering a visit to a chiropractic office for neck pain. Chiropractic began with the intention of working with the spine to improve health, and while most neck pain is related to the alignment of the spine, sometimes it’s not.

A chiropractic adjustment to neck or to the cervical vertebrae may carry with it some risks, even though the chance is very low. Your chiropractor should perform a thorough examination, as an improperly done neck manipulation may cause some problems ranging from stroke to severing major blood vessels.

Most chiropractors understand the risks involved and adhere to the premise that you should always outweigh the benefits versus the risks and make sure to take a complete case history to see if the patient is at risk for any problems. It would not be wise for a chiropractor to walk up to any person on the street and perform a neck manipulation. Still, it’s often the untrained person performing the manipulation that really puts the patient at risk.

Many conditions, including headaches, neck pain, and numbness and tingling in the arms, can be related back to the neck. The benefits of a specific cervical adjustment can mean the end to a lifetime of chronic problems, so people readily seek out chiropractic treatment only after they’ve exhausted more traditional methods of relief including medications and injections.

Chiropractic treatment can be very helpful in dealing with neck pain, even if it’s chronic. Many times this chronic neck pain may be caused by muscle tension or posture issues which can be fixed in just a couple of visits with a skilled doctor, even if the problem has been around for years. Because chiropractic is so effective in dealing with the spine, this can also affect how the person deals with muscle tension or how they carry their muscles and whether that translates itself into back or neck pain.

If you are concerned about whether chiropractic is right for you, you can set up a consult with a chiropractor or consider seeing your general practitioner first if you know of something in your personal medical history that you think might be a problem. He or she can help determine if chiropractic care is right for your problem, or if other treatment options would be more suitable for your problem. You can also seek out the help of friends, family members, or co-workers that have had a good experience with a chiropractor.

The doctor of chiropractic may do an x-ray examination of your neck (and maybe your entire spine) and then may suggest a regiment of chiropractic care that may include massage, heat, cold therapy, electric stimulation, or ultrasound in addition to chiropractic adjustments. These additional therapies are complementary to problems dealing with muscles and the spine.

As any mother will tell you, pregnancy takes a huge toll on the body. On average, a woman’s weight increases by 30 pounds during pregnancy, and her posture changes as a result. Carrying that extra weight around is not only strenuous, but incredibly exhausting for the body as well. To help alleviate some of the pains and pangs of pregnancy, our leading osteopaths provide some tips and exercises you can do before going through childbirth.

Work-out sessions: It is great to have a regular work-out routine when you are pregnant, but it is important that you adjust your routine accordingly depending on how much your body can take during pregnancy. We recommend doing three or four work-out sessions a week of approximately 30-minutes each during your first and second trimesters. When it comes to your third trimester, shorten your routine by 10 minutes so as to accommodate your heavier belly.

Types of Exercises: While cardio exercises can be beneficial, we recommend exercises that keep your heart rate controlled. It is good to break out sweat, but do not allow your heart rate to exceed 145 bpm. Exercises such as squats and lunges (without weights) are highly recommended, as well as swimming and brisk-walking. Swimming is particularly rewarding during your final trimester, as the water supports your body and relieves muscle tension. Cycling and gentle aerobics are also highly recommended. Carry out many short stretches before and after each work-out to stimulate the flood flow and improve the flexibility of your joints and muscles.

Movements/Exercises to Avoid: Avoid high-impact and contact sports, which range from football to squash. When stretching, do not hold a stretch for longer than 5-6 seconds. Because pregnant bodies are more vulnerable to stresses and strains, prolonged stretches causes a release of the ‘relaxing’ hormone that (while it is necessary for giving birth) is damaging to the areas around the joints. Also, abstain from carrying heavy objects so that you avoid overexerting yourself.

Dietary tips: A balanced diet is, of course key to helping you, and your baby, feel at your best. Just because you are eating for two does not mean you have to eat twice as much as you normally do – a pregnant woman needs about 2500 calories every day. In order to get the right amounts of energy and nutrition, it is advisable to eat something from each food group: fruits and vegetables, dairy products, whole grains, and protein (fish, meat, etc.).

Visit an Osteopath: In order to keep a close watch on the changes your body is going through, start seeing an osteopathic doctor early on in the first trimester. This way, if you are doing your exercises incorrectly, or if certain muscles are under too much strain, we can step in sooner than later.

It is never easy being pregnant, what with weight gain, back aches, raging hormones, and sheer exhaustion. But hopefully, with the help of an osteopath and the techniques above, your passage from pregnant woman to loving mother will not only be bearable, but enjoyable.

We have all had it: a sore back. We visit the doctor, she writes some prescription medication, and gives us advice on how to prevent further damage. We follow the advice, take the pills, and the problem slowly disappears. Or so we hope. Two months later, we manage to injure our backs once again by lifting a heavy suitcase, and the vicious cycle – doctor-medication-advice – seems to start all over again.

Treating psychical injuries is always an uphill struggle, unless you can find a way to eliminate the problem completely. This is where the role of an osteopath becomes central, since osteopaths don’t just treat the symptoms of a problem (as your local GP would), but will look at the entire body take the extra step of finding not only the cause of the ailment, but the cure as well. There are a range of other factors that differentiate an osteopathic doctor from a medical doctor:

1. Osteopaths are much more specialized that your local doctor. Since they have had special training in the musculoskeletal system, they are much more knowledgeable about how one part of the body can influence another. This gives then a diagnostic as well as therapeutic advantage over medical doctors, who simply have a general background knowledge in human anatomy.

2. Osteopaths can use Osteopathic Manipulative Training (OMT) – a special diagnosis technique with the hands. This form of diagnosis gives the body opportunity to heal itself naturally by allowing the blood to flow free to the areas that need it most.

3. An Osteopath not only uses their hands to diagnose a problem, but also to treat to the predicament. While a medical doctor would prescribe an anti-inflammatory drug to treat the symptoms at face value, an osteopath would work to free the muscle tensions, which not only stimulates circulation, but encourages the body’s own forces to eradicate the problem, preventing it from re-emerging in the future.

4. Osteopaths looks at history of the problem, while doctors deal with the symptoms at hand. If a patient has a problem with his knee, for instance, a medical doctor would take a patient’s history through means of laboratory-type procedure, such as blood tests and other physical examinations. An osteopath would acquire this same history by asking the patient whether the knee joints were stiff in the past, whether the pain becomes worse when the leg is placed in a different position, or if increase activity had worsened the problem in the past. By delving into a patient’s history, osteopathic doctors attempt to discover the root of the problem, and proceed to tackle it at the source.

Osteopathy is therefore highly beneficial in a multitude of ways, but are these advantages enough reason for you to see an osteopathic doctor instead of a medical one? That decision lies in your hands. Depending on the severity of your ailment, you might want to see both. The main question you want to ask yourself is whether you problem is persistent, and whether you are interested in treating its symptoms, or curing them.

We have all been there: we go to the doctor with an aching back, she gives us a diagnosis, and writes out a prescription for some pain killers, along with some medical advice of what we can and cannot do. We take the pills, follow the advice, and the problem goes away. Or does it? Two months later, we pick up a heavy suitcase and injure our back once again – and start the vicious cycle of doctor-pills-advice all over again.

Treating psychical injuries is always an uphill struggle, unless you can find a way to eliminate the problem completely. This is where the role of an osteopath becomes central, since osteopaths don’t just treat the symptoms of a problem (as your local GP would), but will look at the entire body take the extra step of finding not only the cause of the ailment, but the cure as well. There are a range of other factors that differentiate an osteopathic doctor from a medical doctor:

1. Osteopathic doctors are more specialized in the anatomic workings of the body. They receive special training in the musculoskeletal system, while medical doctors merely have a general background knowledge. Osteopaths therefore have a therapeutic as well as diagnostic advantage; they know how one system in the body affects the other in greater detail.

2. Osteopaths are uniquely capable of using Osteopathic Manipulative Training (OMT) to diagnose an illness within the body. In involves the manipulation of certain muscles with the hands to encourage the blood to flow to necessary regions of the body, which gives the body a much more natural opportunity of healing itself.

3. An Osteopath is trained to use their hands, rather than medication, to help treat an ailment. Instead of using anti-inflammatory treatments, for instance, as a medical doctor would, osteopaths adopt the more natural approach of manipulating the afflicted muscles with their hands, freeing the blood flow and thus motivating the body to engage in its own healthy process. This prevents the same problem from resurfacing in the future.

4. Where doctors deal with the present symptoms of a given problem, osteopaths will look at the persistent history of an illness. If a patient has injured his knee, for instance, a medical doctor would gather a patient’s medical history through a means of blood tests, psychical examinations, and perhaps certain laboratory procedures. An osteopath would acquire this same history by questioning the patient about whether he previously experienced stiffness in the knee joints, whether the knee is more painful in a specific position, or whether the pain increases in the patient’s most active moments. By getting a patient’s history through this approach, osteopaths work to find the cause of the problem, and attempt to cure it at the source.

Osteopathy is therefore highly beneficial in a multitude of ways, but are these advantages enough reason for you to see an osteopathic doctor instead of a medical one? That decision lies in your hands. Depending on the severity of your ailment, you might want to see both. The main question you want to ask yourself is whether you problem is persistent, and whether you are interested in treating its symptoms, or curing them.

The first few weeks of a new program of exercises to improve posture can be very frustrating. We tend to overestimate what we are physically capable of doing. We expect our bodies to be fixed instantly.

To help us cope with these feelings and get us through our various ruts, we can use virtues developed in the yoga and tai chi systems. These virtues lead us to reconnect with the realities of our bodies so that we reduce our risk of injury and increase the effectiveness of the exercises.

1. Patience

Starting a new exercise routine can be encouraging because the first gains are always relatively easy. Your muscles can adapt quickly to changing exercise conditions. But your gains usually slow down pretty drastically after the first couple of weeks. Then, you must perform consistent and correct exercises to see further gains. It might be frustrating, but don’t get discouraged. Even exercising a few minutes a day can see dramatic gains over weeks and months.

2. Modesty

Our bodies are precious. Often, we try too hard to push ourselves. We might stretch too hard, or lift a weight we shouldn’t. Often, our injuries are not serious. But sometimes, especially when dealing with the back and tendons, we can do serious damage. Our spine is so important to our lives. It is important to protect it and strengthen it.

Remember: you are not invincible, nor are you made of rubber. Your tendons and ligaments can’t stretch more that 4% of their length without injury. You want to gently stretch your tendons and ligaments, only to stimulate them. When your muscles begin to spasm (or twitch), do not stretch further. Your tendons are sending a distress signal to your muscles to protect them from overstretching.

3. Awareness

Often, we don’t pay attention when we exercise. We might watch TV when we are on the bike. Or listen to music while we run through the park. This might help you lose weight, but it doesn’t help you learn about your body habits. How you carry yourself throughout the day is vitally important not only to your posture, but to your health in general. If you can’t pay attention when you are using your body in as physical an activity as working out, how can you expect to know when you are sitting in an awkward and painful position?

4. Grace

A certain elegance helps any movement. Try to find the grace in whatever movement you are doing. Your exercises represent what you want to be. How you hold your posture symbolizes how you feel. Exercise with with your intention in mind. Let your purpose be present during each workout.

These virtues can help you in your practice and in your everyday life. They help deepen a connection with your body and with your environment. A good posture exercise program will touch on this kind of non-physical side to exercise and life. These principles are essential to making your posture practice lead you to great posture and vibrant health.