Healing Hands Chiropractic NH Blog

Posted by: Dr. Jessica Leavey

Think carrying a backpack is “no big deal”? Think again. The average child’s backpack weighs 12 pounds and gets lifted 10 times a day. That equals 120 pounds lifted each day. That works out to be about 21, 600 pounds lifted in a 180-day school year!!!

How exactly does carrying a backpack affect the spine? Common sense tells us that a heavy load distributed unevenly day after day causes stress to a growing spinal column. More than 50% of youths experience at least one low back pain episode by the end of their teen years. Repetitive activities such as hauling a heavy backpack over one shoulder each and every day can lead to serious postural misalignments and imbalances, creating subluxations of the spinal column. These subluxations may cause nerve interference, which can lead to a variety of symptoms and decrease a child’s immune response.

Carrying a heavy backpack in which weight is improperly distributed can result in poor posture; spinal column distortion; muscle strain; headaches; back, neck and arm pain; and nerve damage.

Proper lifting techniques are extremely important. The following is proper backpack lifting technique and should be demonstrated to your child:

• Face the backpack before you lift it

• Bend at the knees

• Using both hands, check the weight of the pack

• Lift with legs, NOT your back

• Carefully slip on one shoulder strap at a time

• NEVER sling the pack on one shoulder

Packing your child’s backpack properly can decrease strain on the spinal column.

• Pack the heaviest objects close to the body

• Place bumpy objects on the outside, away from the back

Having your child checked regularly by a chiropractor to remove subluxations and insure proper posture during the growing years is very important. Remember, “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.”

Posted by: Jenny Everett King

My two-year-old likes to fold in half, place the top of her head on the floor, and say, “Look, Mom, I’m doing yoga!” If she has an audience (other than her proud yoga teacher mama), her performance usually leads to a discussion of “Wouldn’t you love to have that kind of flexibility!” At that point, I usually point out that most of us could have something approaching that level of flexibility, if only we would work to develop it.

Granted, most of us will never be able to put our heads on the floor when practicing a forward bend. The abilities of small children have as much to do with their proportions as they do with flexibility. But our lack of flexibility as adults has more to do with a lifetime of bad, tension-inducing habits than it does with aging. 

Years of teaching have shown me that close relationship between daily activities and physical tension. Most runners have tight hamstrings and pain in the lower back, while many weight-lifters have tight chests and difficulty taking a deep, full breath. I usually see tight calves and toes (and the resulting lower back pain) among professional women who frequently wear high heels; I see wrist pain and tight hips among the computer set. Breastfeeding mothers often have tight upper backs and rounded shoulders. The list goes on. To make matters worse, most of compensate for our tight areas by over-using other muscles and joints, which in turn leads to more tension – a vicious cycle.

So, can we help our bodies out of this mess?

The first and obvious solution is to change our habits. No, I am not suggesting you change your exercise routine or quit your job, and I certainly would never tell a woman to stop breastfeeding her baby. But we can change the way we do certain things. Consider a change in footwear, for running or for work. At the computer and while nursing, be conscious of using good posture and changing position frequently.

The second part of maintaining and eventually increasing flexibility is simple: Use it or lose it. In yoga classes, we focus on undoing the damage from daily life as well as promoting general flexibility. I often have runners and avid hikers focus on their hamstrings, while a nursing mom may concentrate on opening her shoulders and chest in the same pose. Likewise, a high-heel-wearing executive might focus on her calves in Downward-Facing Dog, while someone on a computer all day might concentrate on opening his hands to take pressure off the wrists. That’s the beauty of yoga: Each pose works so many areas, that people with very different lifestyles can practice together and reap the benefits.

Posted by: Dr. Jessica Leavey

When I first graduated from chiropractic college, I moved to New Hampshire to take on an associate position. While working under this other doctor, I learned a lot about how to explain the power of chiropractic and the miracle of the human body to both patients and prospective patients alike.

One particular analogy always stuck with me when explaining the difference between health and sickness.  I would be in a room full of people with the door shut. I would tell the people that on the other side of the door all the lights were out in the hallway and the hallway was left in pitch darkness. I would then ask the group what would happen if I opened the door- would the light from the room we were in seep into the dark hallway and make the hallway brighter, or would the darkness from the hallway seep into the lit room and make it dimmer? Every time I would ask this question, the answer was always,   “Of course the hallway would become brighter.” So I would ask “Why?” I would get all kinds of answers about the speed of light and so forth. But never once did I get the answer I was looking for. I would wonder if never getting the right answer was due to our societal mindset of “healthcare.” I would then go on to explain that darkness does not exist but is merely the absence of light…just like sickness does not exist but is merely the absence of health. In order to make the hallway brighter we need to turn up the lights, not go into the dark room and pick out the “dark spots”! So why aren’t we turning up the light in our bodies? Turning up the health is the answer, not taking out the dark spots; taking out the gallbladder, tonsils, female reproductive organs, whatever the surgery du jour or surgery trend of the decade is.

Too many people are ignoring the signs their bodies are sending them! We are all born with an innate intelligence. Our bodies all have the ability to heal. However, we need to provide the environment for that to occur optimally. If someone breaks their arm, and decides not visit the ER to get the bone set and cast, their arm will heal. However, it will not heal optimally. This may be a drastic example. Most people cannot ignore the fact that their arm is broken, so why are we ignoring all the other signs. Headaches…not a deficiency of Excedrine like the commercials want you to believe. Getting a headache is your body’s way of telling you there is something wrong, something’s out of balance and in a state of dis-ease.  If your oil light in the car came on and you decided to take the fuse out so the light turned off, does that mean the problem is fixed? Or does it make more sense to check the oil?!! We need to start treating our bodies at least as well as we treat our vehicles.

Chiropractic, yoga, reiki, massage and a regular meditation practice are all ways of enhancing the ability to listen to your body and make the appropriate adjustments your body needs. Stop turning off the lights and start turning up the health.

Posted by: Jenny Everett King

There is a commercial for a popular children’s product that ends with the line, “Motherhood means always giving one hundred percent.”

If that’s the case, then most of us are in trouble.

If motherhood meant always giving 100%, my child would never watch TV. She would never go to bed without a story. I would never forget to give her a vitamin supplement – no, even better, she wouldn’t need a vitamin supplement because her meals would be perfectly balanced to include the appropriate RDA of each and every vitamin, mineral, and herb for optimum two-year-old health. And it all would be totally organic, of course.

Well, in a perfect world, maybe.

Many of us take the sentiment of that commercial – that doing something at all means doing it perfectly – and apply it to other aspects of our lives, like diet and exercise. When it comes to our health, it’s easy to have an “all or nothing” mentality. Have you ever given up on buying some organic produce, since you can’t afford to buy all organic, all the time? Have you ever thought there’s no point in eating well for the rest of the day, just because you ate pancakes with loads of butter and maple syrup for breakfast? Or skipped exercise for the rest of the week, since you didn’t make it to the gym on Monday and Tuesday?

I have to confess that I have been guilty of all those examples at one point or another in my life.

But fortunately, health does not work that way. Wellness is not an “all or nothing” concept; in fact, it’s just the opposite: Every little bit counts. A chiropractic adjustment only once every two or three weeks is better than no chiropractic care at all. One yoga class a week is still good, even if you don’t have space to practice at home every day. Five minutes of meditation is beneficial, if your day won’t allow for a full half-hour. (Chances are, if your day is too busy to squeeze in a half-hour session, you’re really going to need those five precious minutes to yourself!)

In perfect world, I believe we should all practice yoga daily and have consistent adjustments according to our chiropractor’s recommendations. We should eat very little sugar and very many organic vegetables and whole grains. These are the sorts of recommendations patients and students often hear from us in the office, because we want to present you with an ideal. Sometimes, that ideal is daunting.

Make no mistake: You don’t have to be perfect in order to be healthy. Wellness, like motherhood, does not have to mean always giving 100%. Give your health the best that you are able to give it in this moment, and let that be enough. 

Posted by: Dr. Jessica Leavey

Many people know that chiropractic care is beneficial for adults, but so many do not know how crucial it is for children.  Most people are SO surprised when I tell them that my youngest patient to date was 18 hours old when she received her first chiropractic adjustment. Chiropractic care is for all ages, and absolutely safe for children.  Chiropractors use very gentle and specific techniques for children. This is what is so awesome about chiropractic…it can be tailored for the individual patient!

Children are very susceptible to trauma in their spines. Childhood is such a physical time of life- learning to walk, riding a bike, climbing trees, playing sports, and so much more.  Spines grow at a rapid rate during the first five years of life. Checking for abnormalities during this time especially is critical for proper structural and nervous system development.

Many parents understand the importance of regular dental check-ups, but a spinal check-up can be one of the most important check-ups a parent can bring their child to.

The spine protects billions of nerve fibers, where signals travel from the brain to the body and back again.  If there is any interference along these nerve pathways from misalignments in the spine, also known as SUBLUXATIONS, then a state of dis-ease can develop. If this state of dis-ease is ignored, then pain, sickness and disease can occur over time.

Subluxations can occur as early as in utero from abnormal positions in the womb.  Injuries can occur to a baby’s spine at birth due to delivery in these abnormal presentations. Also, C-section, vacuum or forceps extraction, and even induction can all create subluxations.  This is why it is so important to have your children’s spines checked sooner rather than later.

Health problems in childhood or even adulthood have been traced back to spinal damage at birth.  Many parents bring their children in to a chiropractor for such things as frequent colds, asthma, colic, reflux, ADHD, and ear infections. However, they quickly discover that chiropractic care for their children is so much more than symptomatic care, but rather quite vital to their overall wellness and proper growth and development.

We all know that if one person in the household is sick, everyone is affected.  This is why at Healing Hands Chiropractic we encourage everyone in the family to get their spine checked. We believe that Happy Families Are Healthy Families!

Posted by: Jenny Everett King

There is a common, if obvious, theme among the many modalities we offer at Healing Hands: All are meant to promote health and overall well-being. But the commonalities run deeper than that. All the modalities we offer, as well as other practices that we often recommend, have a very specific goal in common: All are meant to improve your health from within your own body.

Much of conventional medicine teaches us to work against our bodies’ natural responses to stimuli. Numb the pain. Lower the fever. Kill the disease. Above all else, be in control.

But we cannot “control” our health entirely. Recent news on MRSA and antibiotics, childhood vaccination questions, and the side effects of prescription medications has indicated that our cultural control mindset can have disastrous results as well as miraculous ones.

The distinction between alternative and conventional medicine is about more than methodology; it’s about mentality. Alternative healing views the body as a friend to work with, rather than an enemy to fight against.

Easier said than done.

It runs counter to our culture to view the body as an ally. Women, in part, tend to have a difficult time even tolerating their bodies, let alone befriending or loving them! In my yoga classes I encourage my students (both men and women) to appreciate their bodies as they are in that moment, rather than focusing on trying to change them. Yes, positive physical changes will happen with time and effort. But we must first accept ourselves – mind and body – in order to help those changes happen in the healthiest way possible.

Similarly, women planning unmedicated childbirth often find that in order to have a fulfilling experience, they must first surrender to their bodies’ innate knowledge. The underlying concept here is even more foreign than befriending the body: In these instances, one has to actually surrender the mind and let the body take control. That’s a pretty daunting task for most of us. (Especially we Type “A” personalities. . .)

The commitment to natural health requires strength in areas where we as modern Americans are often lacking: Self-discipline. Patience. Perhaps most importantly, trust in ourselves. We tend to perceive the absence of control as an indication of weakness. But the ability to align our minds with our bodies, to approach our health, in fact, “holistically,” demands strength on a much deeper level.

Posted By: Dr. Jessica L. Leavey

Recently I have had a lot of patients coming into our office with complaints of runny nose, sinus pressure, scratchy throat, cough and body aches. Many people associate these symptoms with the cold weather, not the summer months. However, we are susceptible all the time to the germs and bacteria that may cause these types of symptoms. When our immune systems are strong they can ward off these germs.

I’ve asked each of my patients during their visits if they could think of any reason why their immune systems are lowered and not working at their best potential.  Most answers I get are related to stress, changes in routine, poor sleep, eating poorly (like at all those BBQs), busy with kids out of school, travel — just plain feeling overextended. I remind patients of the 3T’s of subluxation: Trauma (this includes poor posture), Toxins, and Thoughts. For those of you who do not know: SUBLUXATIONS are misalignments in the spine that cause nerve interference, not allowing the body to function optimally, thus, not allowing the body to achieve optimal health.

Most of the answers I received from my patients could fit into at least one of the 3T’s categories. Since chiropractic adjustments remove subluxations, it makes perfect sense to get adjusted when you feel “run down” or like “you’re fighting something off”. Subluxations interfere with your nervous system’s ability to work at 100%. Your nervous system tells everything else in your body how to perform, including your immune system. So, a healthy nervous system equals a healthy immune system. We all have an innate ability to heal. We just need to provide an environment conducive to healing optimally. This means getting good sleep, watching your posture, eating well, taking your vitamins (I take, as well as highly recommend to my patients, Doctor Greens’ vitamins and supplements because they are 100% organic), good stress management practices such as yoga and meditation, listening to the signs your body is sending you, and GETTING ADJUSTED.

Research performed at New York Medical Institute by Dr. Pero (a medical doctor) showed that people under regular chiropractic care had immune systems 200% stronger than those not under chiropractic care. Pretty amazing research about the power of chiropractic!