Healthy Living Chiropractic Newsletter


Dr. Eric LaMey, D.C.Onsted Family Chiropractic Center
Website: www.drlamey.com
Facebook: Onsted Family Chiropractic Center
257 S. Main St.
Onsted, MI
Ph: 517-467-4191
Patient Hrs: M, W, F: 9am-12pm / 3pm-6pm

10 Things Most People Don’t Know About Chiropractic




Pain is the last symptom of dysfunction



A patient’s back is often restricted or unstable for months or years before it presents as a problem and they show up in a chiropractor’s office. In addition, the absence of pain is not health. While medication may be needed, if you take a pill and the pain goes away, the dysfunction that caused it still persists. Muscle, ligament and joint injuries often occur as a result of long-term biomechanical dysfunction, sometimes from past injuries, making the area more susceptible to future injury.



Athletes use chiropractors to stay well and perform better, not just for the occasional injury.



Athletes choose chiropractors because we are movement specialists. Chiropractors were spotted all over the Olympic coverage last year, and top athletes such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Tom Brady, Evander Holyfield, and Arnold Schwarzenegger have all been proud patients of chiropractors. These days it’s far more common than not for major athletes and sports teams to keep chiropractors nearby to help prevent injuries, speed injury recovery, improve balance and coordination, and give them a greater competitive edge.




The body does not perform as a cluster of separate mechanisms, but rather a cascade of events that all start with proper control by the nervous system.



The nerves that travel through and control every function of your body originate at the spinal cord and their transmission may be disrupted if the joints of the surrounding spinal column are not moving properly. This disruption in biomechanical integrity combined with altered physiological function is what chiropractors call a subluxation. Below is a chart that illustrates the relationship of the spinal nerves exiting the vertebra branching off to the various organ systems. You can see why it is not uncommon for a chiropractor to treat a patient with mid-back pain who also suffers from irritable bowel system, a patient with a subluxated sacrum who has been unsuccessfully trying to become pregnant, or a patient with an upper back fixation and acid reflux.




Doctors don’t do the healing



Sorry to disappoint you, but a chiropractor will never fix your back. What we are able to do is restore proper motion in the joint, which relieves tension on the nerves and muscles and allows your body to do the healing that it is inherently made to do. As chiropractors, we believe that the body is a perfect organism in its natural state, and all disease comes from a disruption in the body’s proper transmission of signals by the nerves which affects its ability to heal and to defend against disease-causing agents. We never treat disease. We assess to find which spinal levels are causing the dysfunction, and we adjust it to restore proper nerve flow so the nervous system may work as efficiently and effectively as possible.



Chiropractic is for all ages.



Many seniors aren’t aware of the benefits of chiropractic care which can help them not only with pain relief, but also increase range of motion, balance and coordination, and decrease joint degeneration. There’s no patient too young for chiropractic either! Chiropractors check infants moments after birth for misalignments of the upper vertebrae that may occur as a result of the birth process. In addition to supporting overall health and well-being, parents also take their children to chiropractors to encourage age healthy brain and nervous system development, to assist with colic, asthma, allergies, bed-wetting and sleeping problems, and to assist with behavioral disorders.


You may want to go to your chiropractor forever once you’ve started because you didn’t realize how great getting adjusted is, but your doctor won’t expect you to come for continuous care without symptoms. Generally, if you come in with pain, once you’ve been treated for your initial complaint, you’ll be scheduled for a few more appointments to make sure proper motion is being maintained, then it will be recommended you return occasionally to be checked just like you would go to the dentist to get checked for tarter buildup and cavities. Of course, many people still choose to see their chiropractor weekly or monthly for wellness or maintenance care.



Adjustments don’t hurt



There is no bone snapping or warrior-style pulling heads off spinal columns! The neck adjustment some chiropractors use causes anticipation for many new patients, but is actually much more gentle than they imagined, and involves a quick, direct thrust to a specific spinal bone. The sound an adjustment makes is called a cavitation and is only space being created within the joint causing gasses to be released from the joint capsule, which creates the popping or cracking noise. Also, chiropractic adjustments will not wear out your joints, as some imagine because they have been warned not to “crack their knuckles” for this reason in the past. Adjustments, unlike “knuckle cracking” or having your friend stomp on you while you lay on the carpet, are applied specifically to improve the motion of your joints and limit the small dysfunctions that over time can lead to arthritis. Most people after an adjustment describe the feeling as being “lighter”, having greater ease in moving the body, and being able to stand up taller. ~Erin O’Maley, D.C.





PEMF Continues to Supercharge Our Patients



Life-changing results continue to be achieved with our Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy machine. Patients who want to reach optimal results choose to add PEMF to their care in our offices. PEMF is the #1 therapy for assisting your body in healing inflammation. Inflammation is the cause or precursor of most if not all symptoms and diseases humans are stricken with.

Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy runs a comfortable electromagnetic pulse into targeted areas of the body resulting in supercharging of cells and tissues functioning at a low voltage or low energy. This “supercharging” of the cellular mitochondria results in improved ATP or energy production, opening up of cell membranes resulting in better nutrient absorption, detoxification, increased pH(alkalization), improved oxygenation of tissues, improved bloodflow, adult stem cell production, stimulation of bone & cartilage growth, rebuilding of tendons & ligaments, and so much more.

Our PEMF patients have reported relief from or assistance with the following: achilles tendonitis, anxiety, ambulation difficulty, arthritis symptoms, balance & coordination issues, carpal tunnel syndrome, cerebral palsy, chronic pain, constipation, depression, disc herniations, edema, energy levels, foot pain, fractures, glaucoma, golfer’s elbow, gout, headaches, heel spurs, high blood pressure, hip pain, hyperglycemia, inflammation, insomnia, kidney stones, knee pain, low back pain, lymphedema, mental clarity, migraine headaches, muscle spasms, muscle weakness, neck pain, neuropathy, obesity, plantar fasciitis, rib pain/fractures, rotator cuff injuries, sciatica, shoulder pain, sinusitis, stress, sprains/strains, tailbone pain, tennis elbow, tinnitus, TMJ syndrome, toenail growth, toe pain/numbness, upper back pain, vertigo, vision improvement, and much more.

This is only a partial list of the vast amount of health challenges our patients have reported significant relief from. PEMF is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any particular condition but instead assists the body in boosting its own natural healing mechanisms on a cellular level by addressing the root cause of disease: inflammation. We have not seen a therapy or modality that achieves such great success with such a wide range of health conditions.


A simple massage could keep you from getting sick


(NaturalNews) Massages are a great way to release tension and stress and promote relaxation. But a new study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine has revealed for the first time that massages also provide a measurable, therapeutic benefit to the immune system as well.
Dr. Mark Rapaport, and his team of researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, evaluated 53 people, 29 of which received 45-minute Swedish massages—one of the most common forms of massage used in the U.S.—and 24 who received gentler, light touch massages. Researchers took blood samples at intervals before and after the massages and found that those who received even just one Swedish massage experienced significant, positive changes in blood composition.
“This research indicates that massage doesn’t only feel good, it also may be good for you,” explained Dr. Rapaport in a press release. “People often seek out massage as part of a healthy lifestyle but there hasn’t been much physiological proof of the body’s heightened immune response following massage until now.”
Besides experiencing a significant increase in lymphocytes, the white cells in the body that help fight and prevent disease, the Swedish massage group experienced lower cortisol levels as well. Cortisol is the hormone released by the adrenal gland in response to stress. The Swedish massage group also experienced a decrease in arginine vasopressin, a hormone linked with aggressive behavior.
“European-style massage is often used to treat back pain, sleep disorders, and other stress-related disorders,” explain Bradley J. Wilcox, D. Craig Wilcox and Makoto Suzuki in their book The Okinawa Program: how the World’s Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health.

~Jonathon Benson