Posts for: December, 2020
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Synergy Chiropractic! We are wishing all of our patients and their loves ones a peaceful, joyful holiday and a prosperous and healthy new year. We will see you all back in the office on Monday, December 28th!
Colleague Dr. Jonathan Charlestin of Charlestin Chiropractic Group
What he says:
FUN FACT: Black Chiropractors make up 2.3% of the industry’s population.
Let me tell you why that is an issue. A majority of my patient demographic in my Stratford office live in Bridgeport. In about 70% of those patients I am their first chiropractic visit EVER. While I am happy to be their first point of contact in the profession, it raises the question “what have they been doing to alleviate their pain?.” The answer: Advil, Tylenol, or muscle relaxers. This is exactly why I joined this profession. I am looking forward to being a part of the change coming in our inner cities in Connecticut. My goal is to educate my patient base on the many options that they have for treatment of their chronic pain that does not involve them taking drugs.
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It's time for December's book of the month! This was a very interesting and different book that I am glad I picked up in the year 2020!
I stumbled upon ASMR, Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, this year after personally experiencing it, but at first not knowing what it was. I discovered videos on YouTube that involved pleasant scenes such as coffeeshops, cabins, beaches, and more along with the sounds that usually associate those scenes. Pretty soon, I was playing the videos every morning or night before bed. I noticed that the captions often contained ASMR in them.
So I delved into researching ASMR and discovered this book. I learned that ASMR is the sensation that we feel from seeing or hearing certain things, often due to positive effects on our brain and nervous system. The sensation is often described as body tingles, which are often felt on the head or limbs, mind-tingles, which are experienced more in the mind and emotions, or simply a total relaxation response. ASMR can greatly reduce anxiety, depression, insomnia, and even panic attacks.
ASMR is an alternative to meditation, yet often produces a similar response as meditation would.
ASMR "Triggers" as they are called, include:
*Listening to a soothing, whispering voice where words cannot made out
*Listening to sounds (rainstorms, fireplaces, and waves crashing are common but air conditioners, snoring dogs or cats, pouring coffee, writing on paper, and other unique sounds are used too)
*Seeing a pleasant scene (for me it's often a coffeeshop, cabin with crackling fire, or cozy room)
*Things that evoke happy childhood memories (I often put on videos of old games that I used to play as a kid)
*Physical sensations like brushing hair and light scratching or tickling on the skin
If you want to dabble in some ASMR, my absolute favorite resource are the videos on the YouTube channel Calmed by Nature. They just released a Home Alone themed video that is pretty cool. Especially for those of you who have difficulty simply sitting still and meditating, this may be a good alternative. Try it out!
In 1980, the first ever chiropractor served on the US Olympic Medical Committee, after chiropractors had been banned from doing so in all of the years previously. That chiropractor, Dr. George Goodheart, also happened to be THE founder of Applied Kinesiology, the system of manual muscle testing-based diagnosis and treatment that I use in the office every day.
The chairman of the committee, Dr. Irving Dardik, MD, had been outspoken about his belief that chiropractors should not serve on the committee, despite many olympic athletes using chiropractic themselves.
When Dr. Dardik himself suffered from a leg cramping issue, he reluctantly sought out Dr. Goodheart for a consult. The consult, consisting of a lot of muscle testing, quickly turned into a treatment. A couple days later, Dr. Dardik called Dr. Goodheart to let him know that he had run 10 miles two different times with zero leg cramping. The problem was fixed.
Because of this experienced, Dr. Dardik asked Dr. Goodheart to be on the 1980 US Winter Olympics medical team. Since then, chiropractors have had a place on the US Olympic medical team and in the world of professional sports.
The combo of Applied Kinesiology and Chiropractic has always been on the cutting edge. Why don't more chiropractors use AK? In my opinion, it takes more time, more studying, and a special kind of passion plus hard work to be a muscle tester. I I I I I find that the AK + Chiro combo is my absolute favorite way to treat, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Click on the link below to read the full article about this!
While we talk a lot about the 7 bones in the neck, the cervical vertebrae, there is another bone in the neck that holds a lot of importance, the hyoid bone. Thankfully, I have been trained in how to asses and treat hyoid bone dysfunction through my applied kinesiology training, and it's made a world of difference in my practice!
The hyoid bone is a small, horseshoe shaped bone in the front of the neck which mainly functions in swallowing and tongue movements. Over 15 muscles attach into this bone, which is significant in that if any one of them becomes either inhibited or tight, the delicate balance is thrown off. The hyoid bone is also intricately linked to the immune system as well as our emotional stressors.
The most common symptom I hear my patients tell me when there is dysfunction of this bone is that they feel a lump in their throat or feel difficulty swallowing. Believe it or not, this is a somewhat common symptom I've seen in my practice, and truly affects peoples quality of life. First of all, it can affect peoples ability to eat and talk. Also, I've had many patients who are singers, one of which was a professional singer, and was highly distressed that she had felt unable to sing properly due to a "lump in her throat". Treatment of her hyoid bone in her session greatly contributed to her ability to sing freely and to the best of her ability again. She was able to continue singing professionally for a living.
I usually muscle test for dysfunction of the hyoid bone by manually, gently shifting the bone in different directions to find restriction. The fix usually includes manual muscle treatment as well as cervical adjustments.
The hyoid bone check and fix is just another tool that I am so happy to have in my toolkit, and I would not know how to treat it without Applied Kinesiology!
