Newsletter: December 2005

• Christmas Holidays can be Hard on You!

A special "greeting" from Nancy and I during this Yule season. We appreciate the confidence and trust you have placed in us by choosing us for your chiropractic care and for referring friends and family to us. We feel truly blessed. Many thanks to you all and we wish you a healthy and happy holiday.

Please Note: The office will be OPEN during the two weeks of the holiday except on December 25th, 26th and New Year's Day.

Christmas Holidays can be Hard on You!

If you feel worse rather than better after Christmas Holidays, you're not alone. A change of routine will often tell a person if they have a hidden health problem. You might feel in perfect health when you start out, but long bouts of driving and visiting coupled with sleeping on an inadequate sleeping surface may ring the alarm bells of your body.

At the beginning of every year, there seems to be a trememdous influx of patients coming back from Christmas Holidays with a problem that they hadn't experienced before.

Usually a holiday is a complete change from the normal routine, whether sedentary or active. An unaccustomed activity, or lack of it, can irritate a previously undiagnosed condition.

A change in beds is a surefire test in precipitating a dormant back problem. Hammocks, old lumpy mattresses, cramped sofa beds and leaky air mattresses should definitely be avoided if at all possible.

Please check if your hosts do indeed have adequate sleeping arrangements for your family. A poor night's sleep is further compounded by frequent late night visiting and overindulgence of food and beverages. Patients may have had the problem before, but either ignored it, lived with it, or put off doing anything about it for other reasons.

A few nights in a different bed will irritate the condition to the point that they person is forced to seek help. And of course, it is usually very difficult to find an appropriate health care practitioner such as a Chiropractor during the Christmas season. Other factors such as excessive sitting and inactivity may also aggravate neck and/or low back problems. For anybody who does not exercise regularly, or is only marginally fit, this can create a significant stress on the spine.

One simple solution is to perform a regime of stretching exercises. An excellent source is Bob Anderson's "Stretching Manual".

Doctors of Chiropractic, apart from treating disorders of the neuromusculoskeletal (nerve-muscle-bone) system, also regularly prescribe exercises to help rehabilitate and prevent injuries to promote a greater sense of well-being. Each year, more than 400,000 patients are treated by Doctors of Chiropractic.

Why not make health your No. 1 priority for 2006? (Right after the Bowl games, of course!)

Cheers, and the best of health for 2006.

REMINDERS:

1) Come in a pick up a copy of the Chiropractic Consumer's Report: a report that tells us what we need to know before and about choosing a Doctor of Chiropractic.

2) Come in a check out the two new books in our lending library. The sports medicine book that Dr. Larry was invited to contribute a chapter for Inside The Minds: The Art and Science of Sports Medicine and Squandering Billions, a newly published book about the politico/economical disaster known as Health Canada.

3) Do you or someone you know suffer from soft-tissue injury? Tendonitis, carpal-tunnel, bursitis, plantar fasciitis? Many, many of our patients have had amazing results with the Graston Technique^® designed especially for soft-tissue damage and used by many sports teams including the Olympics. Check out the information about GT on our website by clicking here. Call today for a consultation.

4) We are looking for your Chiropractic succcess stories. If you have had success with chiropractic, please come in and give us your testimonial for us to use in our office. We appreciate each and every testimonial!

Larry Smith, D.C., B.P.E.