Australian researchers gave 1,650 back-pain sufferers a daily dose of acetaminophen (the generic drug Tylenol is made of) or a placebo for four weeks. The acetaminophen worked no better than the fake pills to reduce pain.  The drug is a first-line treatment for back pain, but there’s no evidence it provides more relief than the natural recovery process, explains study author Chris Williams, noting that drugs such as ibuprofen have not been studied.  “That can be reassuring for patients, though.  If they don’t rest in bed, and try to maintain normal activity, they’re very likely to recover quickly.”  Men’s Journal Oct. 2014

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Check out this chart to quickly identify how possible nerve damage to your spinal chord could be interfering with your body’s natural function!

The post Spinal Nerve Function appeared first on Thompson Family Chiropractic.

SALT LAKE CITY — A new kind of “mommy medicine” is raising eyebrows.

From essential oils to infant massage, more moms are giving alternative medicine a try. Here’s another option we’re hearing a lot about: women taking their babies to the chiropractor.

Baby Milo had his first chiropractic visit when he was 5 months old.

“He had breast-feeding issues and I also noticed that one side of his head was balding,” Milo’s mother said.

Infant chiropractic isn’t new, but now that the “mommy pipeline” has gone viral, more moms are turning to this alternative method to deal with common childhood illnesses, and they are touting the benefits on blogs and Facebook posts for other moms to see.

They have heard from other moms that it’s helped their children in breast-feeding issues, colic, digestive problems, ear infections, allergies and asthma.

Salt Lake City chiropractic physician Shannon Parisi said many infant and childhood issues can clear up when the body is functioning better, but she stops short of saying there is a direct correlation.

“We don’t claim to treat any of those issues. We just want to clear out their nervous system, so that they’re going to function properly,” she said.

And Parisi points out that infant adjustments aren’t like adult adjustments.

“Adjusting an infant’s neck is literally like gently pushing on a peach and not putting a dent,” she said.

Critics say there is no scientific evidence infant chiropractic works but Milo’s mother said personal experience is all the proof she needs.

“Within weeks we started noticing his hair was growing back and as far as breast-feeding equally on both sides, he had full range of motion,” she said.

Several local pediatricians declined to comment on the chiropractic practice.

Information provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics says further studies are needed to determine the costs, benefits and safety.

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How Much Do You Know About Chiropractic Care?

There are a lot of myths and legends out there about Chiropractic Care. Test your knowledge with this quiz, and we will be happy to answer any questions you have about your answers! Fill out the quiz below and you may receive a fun prize! Winners will be notified via email.

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In the U.S., there are a minimum of 300,000 sport-related concussions per year. If your child is in contact sports, there’s a risk of the contact ending up in a concussion.  In fact research suggests that the number of documented cases of concussions among children is on the rise, and is source of growing concern among soccer and football players.

Chiropractors may not be the first medical professional you imagine when it comes to concussion management, but many chiropractors are trained to spot the signs of a mild traumatic brain injury, and support the patient in a successful recovery. Two recent literature reviews outlined how chiropractors can effectively manage athletes with concussions.

Is Chiropractic Treatment Valid for Concussion?

Chiropractors are often the first health care provider to care for patients who are suffering from a head injury, such as those incurred in sports or car accidents. Chiropractors, especially ones who are certified additionally by the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians, regularly manage athletes who suffer from concussions.

They understand that if certain symptoms are indicators that the neurological symptoms are worsening:

• Vomiting
• Blurred vision
• Stumbling
• Increased confusion
• Unconsciousness
• Dilated pupils
• Weakness in on arm/leg
• Worsening headache

If you or a loved one has suffered from a sports related concussion, please schedule an appointment today to consult with Dr. Thompson. With an x-ray, and thorough exam he can help determine what steps are necessary for treatment and healing from a head injury.

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If your golf instructor claims, “It’s all in the hips”, he may be overlooking something.  According to scientists in Portugal, your abs play a big role in powering your golf swing.

They found that three key areas of your core, including abs and obliques, frie during your backswing and downswing.

Power up your tee shot by skipping static moves, like planks, in favor of explosive, rotational ones, like the medicine ball side toss. Long drives are about developing as much force as possible in the shortest amount of time.
FYI
Your average heart rate after just 12 minutes of pairing 30- second kettlebell swings with 30-second rests is 170!

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By Dr. Thompson

The spine is an integral, key structure in the body.  In fact, it is one of the first recognizable structures in the developing embryo, and the nerves that branch out from it help the embryo to develop properly.  This core structure also controls and coordinates all the body functions in the adult, including digestion, breathing, heart rate, even hormone balance.

Once again, the two health care styles, medical and wellness, take such different views because of the differences in the way we look at health and disease.  To a medical provider, there is no way working on a spine would have any effect on a disease in the stomach.  If you have an ulcer, you have an ulcer, and the condition will probably not resolve until the ulcer is treated.

But from a wellness point of view, it makes perfect sense that correcting problems in one part of the body will help improve the health in other parts. This is especially true of the spine, since spinal nerves go to every major organ in the body.  If there is an alignment problem in the area of the spine that supplies nerve flow to the stomach, the nerves can become irritated, and will not send proper messages to the organ.  This is sometimes called “spillover”.  If the stomach is not getting its proper nerve supply, it could interfere with its function lower its resistance, and make it more susceptible to problems such as ulcers.   If a chiropractor realigns the spine, it stands to reason that the nerve flow would be normalized.  Better nerve flow to the stomach could then improve its healing, helping it to recover from disease.

Chiropractors often make the point that treatments are not specific for any disease, but many conditions resolve when the spine is treated.

An example of this type of healing can be seen with migraine headaches.  Many patients are told by their medical providers that there is no way chiropractic care can help migraines, that this type of headache occurs entirely within the walls of the skull, and the spine is not involved. This however, is an oversimplified view of the condition.  Migraines are due to overexpansion of the blood vessels in the brain, but those blood vessels have a nerve supply that controls their size, some of which comes from the neck.  Correcting problems in the joints and muscles of the neck can normalize nerve flow to the blood vessels.

Consequently chiropractic is for the spine but can affect so many other parts of your body in positive and corrective ways.

The post Chiropractic Can Solve Spinal Issues and More appeared first on Thompson Family Chiropractic.

By Dr. Wade Thompson

The Head Turn Test

Try turning your head as far as you can to the left and to the right.  The first thing  that  you want to look for is whether either one of these motions are painful.  The second thing is if one side or the other (either right or left) can turn further than the other side.  Normal range of motion (being able to turn your head to the left or right ) is being able to turn your nose parallel with your shoulder.  Is there pain in the movements? Then there is possibly something wrong with the bones in your neck.

From the time we are born our necks go through a lot of abuse.  From the actual birthing process, falling while learning to walk, to the many injuries that we get through life, the neck is very vulnerable to being injured. A chiropractor would be able to diagnose exactly what the cause of the pain is or what is causing the reduced range of motion in your neck. Many times when you experience pain or reduced range of motion in your neck means that either the joints that connect the bones are stuck in place, or that the bones are out of alignment.  These problems may lead to headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, arm or hand pain and many other more severe problems.

The Shoulder Pinch Test

Have you ever had someone give you a back rub and felt that your shoulders were very sore?  The soreness can come be from dysfuntion in the bones that those muscles are connected into.  Try this……take your pointer finger and your thumb and gently pinch your shoulder muscle.  Is it sore?  If so, this may be do to referred pain (pain that comes from a problem somewhere else, or trigger points in the muscle.  There are many times that the muscle pain and soreness are due to areas of the spine that are out of place.  Because the muscles hook into the bones, when the bones pull out of place they pull on the muscles and create dysfunction.

Have You Ever Been In An Auto Accident?

If you have in an auto accident of any kind, you need to be seeing a chiropractor.  Car accidents can, and usually do cause injury to the neck and even lower back that, if left untreated, can lead to worse problems in the future and even degeneration of the spine.   Recent research suggests that even low impact (fender benders of even 5 mph) can cause damage to the spine, and especially the bones of the neck.

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According to the World Health Organization, low back pain is the number-one cause of disability worldwide and neck pain is the number-four cause.

Bad posture, stress, accidents, happening more cause people are living longer.

Overall, musculoskeletal conditions represents the second leading cause of global disability affecting more than 1.7 billion people worldwide.
Findings emphasize the shift in global health as compared to 20-30 years ago. Chronic disability caused from back pain is making an increasingly large footprint in our healthcare system.  In addition, while more people are living longer, they do so with an increasing risk of having to endure pain and disability compared to generations past.

Findings indicate that on average a person lives 21.3% of all their years with a disability caused from a musculoskeletal disorders. This statistic is only second only to mental and behavioral disorders.
Musculoskeletal conditions represent the sixth leading cause of death and disability.

Low back pain is the sixth most important contributor to the global disease burden and has a greater impact on global health than malaria, preterm birth complications, COPD, tuberculosis, diabetes or lung cancer.
Current estimates suggest that 632,045 million people worldwide suffer from low back pain, and 332,049 people worldwide suffer from neck pain.
The Global Burden of Disease Study provides indisputable evidence that musculoskeletal conditions are an enormous and emerging problem in all parts of the world and need to be given the same priority for policy and resources as other major conditions like cancer, mental health and cardiovascular disease.

What can you do for back pain? The normal answer is to take Ibuprofen which really only conceals the true issue.  Chiropractic has proven to be 40-60% more likely to help and eliminate pain than drugs and surgery.  Always try conservative methods first.

Follow up question – what is causing all this lower back pain and neck pain?

What can people to do to prevent that from happening and what can they do to heal after it happens?

The post #1 CAUSE OF DISABILITY WORLDWIDE IS Back Pain!!! appeared first on Thompson Family Chiropractic.

By Dr. Wade Thompson

Have you heard the phrase “________  for Dummies”?  Many books, from computers to golf have been written with this label.  That may work for those topics, but it doesn’t work for Chiropractic. Chiropractic isn’t for dummies, it is a proven science of true wellness. If everyone understood the healing effect of an adjustment, your chiropractor would be booked out for years!!!

Somewhere along the road in this great nation, our thought process was changed.  We have been told for years through media, TV, radio and especially commercials that health comes from a bottle.  Now, there is a time and place for everything, but we in America consume the lions share of drugs in the world.  We make up 3% of the world’s population and we consume close to 50% of all drugs made.  Would you consider us healthy in America?

What if I told you there is a way to rejuvenate your health and live a more productive, energetic life, drug and surgery free?  We often only associate chiropractic visits with pain.  That is just the tip of the iceberg.  In my 14 years as a chiropractor, I have seen small miracles and big miracles (without drugs or surgery).  I love chiropractic!

Did you know that chiropractic isn’t really for back pain or neck pain?  It really is about function.  Nerve function, joint function, and muscle function.  Let me give you an analogy that will help you understand why.  Let’s say you are out watering the lawn with your hose. Your spouse pulls up and parks the car on the hose.  What happens?  The water stops coming out of the hose.  Now here is the real question: Is the problem coming from the end of the hose you are holding, or from the car sitting on it?  So, we could either give you a pill to help the water come back on or we could move the car.  That is Chiropractic, removing pressure off of the nerve and allowing your body’s innate ability to heal and live a vibrant life.

I think that we have an epidemic of treating the symptom and not the cause.  Chiropractic is a natural and safe way of allowing you to function the way your body was meant to.  So now I hope you can see that chiropractic isn’t for dummies.

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