I had a headache every day for 2 years! I felt like I could not function. Medical doctors would not take me seriously. My neck has had problems for who-knows-how-long. It would just ache. I

I trudged through the day-to-day things I had to do but forgot about being happy and doing the fun things in life and enjoying life. I had just about given up.

I had seen several other chiropractors. They tried to help. I saw medical doctors – Ya right! No help there! I saw homeopathic doctors and an acupuncturist. These helped a bit. Dr. Steve has been the best!!

Within day Dr. Steve gave me a few hours to a couple days of relief from my headaches. It wasn’t long before I felt good enough to tackle life again. I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was smiling and happy once again for the first time in a very long time.

The first office visit when Dr. Steve genuinely believed in me and what I was telling him along with the X-rays he took and how he explained it really helped the most. I felt he really gave his all the helping me live a better life.

I really feel that Dr. Steve truly pulled me out from that rock I was stuck under. He truly is a great chiropractor who cares and really knows the entire body.

– Allyne J. Canton, GA

Mable Brown

I have had a burning sensation in my feet that was excruciating. I had been this way about five years getting progressively worse each year. Anything touching the top of my feet was sheer agony. I was hobbling around the house staying off my feet as much as possible. I couldn’t stand to wear shoes. If I went somewhere I wore house shoes.

Most nights I didn’t sleep well.

I was basically told the only help was drugs. I had been on Lyrica for three years with the doctors constantly increasing the dosage, but it got to where the medicine wasn’t helping one little bit. I had reached the point in my life that if my feet were going to hurt as bad as they were (and were continually getting worse) my life wasn’t going to be very good.

I noticed improvement after my first treatment and have continued to improve. I have gone from two times a week to once a week and now to one time every 2 weeks. I have much more movement. I can do all my housework as well as outside work (gardening, flowers, helping get up hay). I can even wear shoes again.

I am thankful that my feet are continuing to improve every week and that my quality of life has improved.

– Mable B. Jasper, GA

Click here to read other testimonials.

Rule 1

Warm up.

This seems like a really easy idea but most people don’t warm up before they exercise strenuously, let alone before they stretch. If you think about it, a dry sponge can be ripped in half but a wet sponge is much more able to bend and twist. In the same way, a muscle engorged with blood will respond much more effectively during stretching than a “dry” muscle.  A good warm-up would be 10 minutes of moderate walking on the treadmill, a hot shower/bath, or even doing some light housework. Just doing something to get the blood out into the muscles will do. Your warm-up exercise should not be anything too strenuous.

Rule 2

Go slowly.

Time moves so fast….except for when you’re stretching.  And then, it slows to a crawl. I think that’s why most people don’t have the patience to stretch.

Even people who do take the time to stretch only give themselves about 10 to 15 seconds per stretch….sometimes not even that!! But whenever you go to stretch – especially a muscle group that’s very tight – you should keep in mind that muscles will initially “guard” against the stretch, meaning that the muscle will contract slightly in order to protect itself. In order to achieve a good stretch and eventually gain more flexibility a stretch has to be held long enough for this “stretch reflex” to go away, so you should hold a stretch somewhere between 45 to 90 seconds. And if you stretch the muscle a second time within the next 5 to 10 minutes, the time it takes for the stretch reflex to go away will be more in the neighborhood of 30 to 45 seconds.

So get a watch or position yourself near a clock where you can count the seconds while you’re stretching, or you will likely think you’ve held the stretch longer than you actually have.

Rule 3

Breathe deeply.

It may not seem like stretching is that big a deal, but for those people who don’t stretch that often and are wound super tight, asking their muscles to stretch places a huge metabolic demand on the muscle. That muscle seeks out fuel to meet that metabolic demand, and the most readily available, plentiful and immediate fuel you can give it is oxygen. Breathing deeply will help pump oxygen to the muscle, making the stretch more effective and promoting relaxation.

That’s it. 3 simple strategies for stretching, no matter the muscle or area you are stretching.

1)      Warm up

2)      Go slow

3)      Breathe deep

Watching your back,

Dr. Steve

Researchers use MRI’s to detect the effects of heavy backpacks on children’s spines —

Brought to you from Integrity Chiropractic in Canton, GA

Well…for our kids, the summer is almost over. Cherokee County schools are back in session Monday, August 2nd, 2010. Forsyth County schools are back in session Monday August 9, 2010. Fulton County schools are back in session Monday August 16, 2010. That means it’s time to talk about BACKPACK SAFETY once again. In other words, your child may be wearing a backpack that is too heavy.

Why is this important?

A new article in the esteemed journal Spine from January of this year once again reveals that heavy backpacks have an adverse impact on the spines of young children. I know, I know…Shocker, right?!?

According to the study’s authors “this is the first upright MRI study to document reduced disc height and greater lumbar asymmetry for common backpack loads in children.”

In plain English, this means that as backpacks got heavier, the intervertebral discs that cushion your spine got more and more compressed and spines got crooked.

Dr. Timothy Neuschwander of University of California, San Diego, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to study the spines of eight children who were an average of 11 years old. They scanned the children first with an empty backpack, then with increasing weights of 9, 18, and 26 pounds. These weights represented approximately 10%, 20%, and 30% of the children’s body weight.

Heavier weights caused intervertebral discs compression and decreased disc height. Heavier loads were also associated with increased sideways curvature (scoliosis) of the lumbar spine, either to the right or the left. Half of the children had a significant spinal curve of at least ten degrees. Most of the children had to adjust their posture to bear the 26-lb backpack load.

I’ve mentioned this before to numerous patients throughout the years, but here it is again. Chiropractors consider a scoliosis of 16 degrees or more to be the point at which the nervous system becomes affected. And because the pelvis and lower back form the foundation for the rest of the spine, a scoliosis in the lower back can lead to structural problems in the mid back and neck that can cause pain and dysfunction in those areas too.

Not surprisingly, the study also found that as backpack weight increased, so did the amount of pain reported by the children.

Although the children were wearing the backpack straps over both shoulders when the MRI scans were performed, the researchers note that spinal curvature could be even greater than ten degrees if the backpack was carried over one shoulder. So parents please, force your kids to look uncool by making them wear their backpacks correctly over BOTH shoulders.

Dr. Neuschwander and his colleagues sum up, “Low back pain in children may be worsened by discogenic or postural changes,” and goes on to add “This could have long-term implications, as children with back pain are at increased risk of having back pain as adults.”

Again, I’ve said this before, but the cause of someone’s symptoms usually begin long before the actual symptoms begin to appear. And as kids’ backpacks get heavier and heavier, more and more of our children will begin to experience lower back pain sooner and sooner in life.

A good rule of thumb is to limit the weight of a backpack to 20 percent of your child’s body weight, so if your child weighs 50 pounds, then his/her backpack should be no more than 10 pounds.

Watching your back,

Dr. Steve Goninan
Integrity Chiropractic
11582 Cumming Highway
Canton, GA 30115
678-400-0202
www.IntegrityChiropractor.net

References:

Spine – January 1, 2010;35:83-88.

P.S. The $37 new patient special will be ending soon on August 9th, 2010. So if you want to refer someone in for the new patient special, which includes an initial examination and X-rays (with no obligation for future care), then get them in by August 9th, 2010.

P.S.S. If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, look us up.

Is chiropractic safe for kids? Click here to find out.

So…with apologies to David Letterman,

Here are the top ten things you may not have not known about It’s A Wonderful Life.

1. Unlike poor George Bailey, whose deaf ear made him 4F, Jimmy Stewart served honorably in World War II, enlisting in the Army in 1941 and training in the United States Army Air Corps. By this time he had already appeared in 28 films and had won an Oscar for his performance in The Philadelphia Story. Before the war ended, Mr. Stewart had risen from the rank of private to colonel in only four years and he twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in combat. He was also awarded the Croix de Guerre and received the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters. After the war, he continued to be active in the United States Air Force Reserve, eventually achieving the rank of Brigadier General in 1959, and finally retired after 27 years of service in 1968.

2. It’s A Wonderful Life was Stewart’s first movie upon his return from the war, and he had his doubts. He actually had to be convinced by Lionel Barrymore, the actor who played Mr. Potter. In an interview with Jimmy Hawkins (who played Tommy Bailey, the one who tugs on George’s jacket saying “S’cuse me!”) he says:

“I wasn’t sure if doing movies and acting were important enough, coming out of the war and all. Maybe Barrymore sensed something. He really helped lift my spirits…. I asked him if acting was decent. Barrymore brought me to reality when he said, ‘Is it more decent to drop a bomb on people or bring a ray of sunshine to them through your acting?’ He was right!”

3. Speaking of Lionel Barrymore, he was a veteran actor who appeared in more than 250 films and even had a Best Actor Oscar to his credit for 1930’s A Free Soul. His severe arthritis made acting possible only if he were on crutches or sitting down. Thus Mr. Potter’s character used a wheelchair. Mr. Barrymore was the uncle to John Drew Barrymore and the great uncle to actress Drew Barrymore.

4. The actor Henry Travers, who played Clarence Oddbody, AS2 (Angel second class) was also considered by director Frank Capra for other roles in It’s A Wonderful Life, including Peter Bailey (George’s father), Uncle Billy, and Old Man Gower, the pharmacist. The movie that appears on the Bedford Falls marquee, The Bells of St. Mary’s, was in reality a film released in December 1945 that won many Academy Awards and is also considered a classic Christmas movie. Henry Travers – old Clarence himself – starred in that movie too.

5. Freddie Othello, the young man talking to Mary Hatch at the high school dance when George spots her, later gets his revenge on George by opening the gymnasium floor underneath George and Mary. This small part in the movie was played by actor Carl Switzer, best known as Alfalfa from The Little Rascals.

6. That gym floor was pretty high-tech for 1946, the year Wonderful Life was released, but it was real. Called a “swim gym” it was located at Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles and is still in use today.

7. Beulah Bondi, who played Ma Bailey, portrayed Jimmy Stewart’s mother five times in her career. Besides Wonderful Life, the others are Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts, Vivacious Lady and once on his television series, “The Jimmy Stewart Show.”

8. This was the first and last movie that Frank Capra produced, directed, co-wrote and financed. Costing $3.7 million dollars to make, it was considered a box-office failure, earning only $3.3 million dollars. In 1947 Capra sold Liberty Films, the production company behind Wonderful Life, to Paramount Pictures for nearly one million dollars. In signing this contract, Capra gave up any financial stake in the movie forever. The film was re-released to theaters in the 1950’s and eventually acquired by another distribution company, but television made this movie a classic. In the 1970’s its copyright protection slipped and it fell into the public domain. All of a sudden, TV stations could air it for free, thus reintroducing the movie to a whole new generation with nearly constant rotation during the Christmas season. Republic Pictures restored its copyright claim to the movie in 1993, with Paramount Pictures acquiring the distribution rights. Thus, when it airs on TV nowadays, it can only be shown on the NBC network.

9. For Donna Reed, who played Mary Hatch, this was her first starring role. Although only 25 at the time, in the movie she has to age from 18 to 40. In the scene where Mary throws a rock at the window of the old Granville House, a marksman was hired to shoot out the window for Reed on cue. However, it is rumored that Reed, an Iowa farm girl, broke the window without assistance. You be the judge next time you watch it. One story that is definitely true is that during filming, Lionel Barrymore bet her $50 that she couldn’t milk a cow. Capra ordered a cow onto the soundstage and sure enough, Reed milked it, saying it was “the easiest 50 bucks I ever made.”

10. The picture earned five major Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jimmy Stewart), Best Director (Capra), Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing, but came up short in each category. (It was eclipsed by William Wyler’s award-winning The Best Years of our Lives). However, it did earn one Oscar… for it’s pioneering breakthroughs in artificial snow.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

-Dr. Steve

It’s beginning to look a lot like…well…cold and flu season. And with the onslaught of germs that come hand in hand with the Yuletide, I wanted to give you some tips on how to stay well this winter.

Now this isn’t another boring informational piece that will tell you something pretty obvious like, I don’t know, you should wash your hands a lot. Duh!! Because here’s a dirty little secret…you can’t avoid germs.

Use all the antibacterial soap and Purell Hand Sanitizer you want; the bottom line is that there’s more of the germs than there is of you and….

(However, a note to the clerk at the store the other night: when you sneeze into your hand, do NOT then try to complete the transaction without first wiping, washing, or somehow disinfecting your hands. Common courtesy. Big thanks.)

Now I’ll tell you something you may not know. Germs, all by themselves, DON’T MAKE YOU SICK!! They don’t. The germ theory revolutionized modern medicine and is directly responsible for things like antibiotics and hygienic practices utilized by most doctors today, but its basic concept – that little microorganisms are the cause of sickness – isn’t entirely accurate.

You see, the germ theory asserts that the number of microorganisms you’re exposed to, multiplied by how strong they are, is a big part of whether you’ll get sick. But, just as important to the germ theory equation is another little variable: the resistance of the host.

That’s what I’ll be addressing from here on:

HOW TO KEEP YOUR RESISTANCE STRONG ENOUGH SO THAT YOU DON’T GET SICK.

In this multi-part series, I will be writing about some of the easiest, most cost effective (CHEAP) things you can do to stay healthy this cold and flu season.

The first part of this series talks about THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP.

JUST GO TO BED!!

This incredibly simple concept gets overlooked by most Americans today. For years experts and studies have been showing that the lack of sleep has become a health epidemic in America that is costing millions if not billions of healthcare dollars. And for some reason, Americans aren’t getting the message.

The Centers for Disease Control has stated that almost half of all Americans “don’t get enough sleep for more than a week every month.” There are probably at least “10 percent of people (who) don’t get enough sleep any night.”

I’ll concede that there are more pressures of work in this day and age – staffs are smaller and work levels stay the same – and Blackberrys and iPhones buzz all night as people get emails they are expected to answer immediately. People have to work longer hours and sleep less to get more work done. The inevitable result is that people do not get the seven to nine hours of sleep needed to remain fresh.

But many people aren’t sleeping due to feelings of anxiety or financial stress. People are simply worried about finances, whether it’s keeping a job or making enough to cover the bills. That stress can be multiplied during the Holiday season.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP

The one-third of our lives that we should spend sleeping plays a direct role in how full, energetic, successful and yes – HEALTHY – the other two-thirds of our lives will be. After all, a good night’s sleep will improve breathing, strengthen your immune system, repair your cells, and sharpen your mental functions. The American Sleep Research Institue (ASRI) states that those who get between 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night live the longest, healthiest lives.

Maybe if more people knew that sleep can help us regulate our weight they might want to sleep more. A good night’s sleep can balance our appetites by helping to regulate levels of the hormones ghrelin and leptin, which play a role in our feelings of hunger and fullness. So when we’re sleep deprived, we may feel the need to eat more, which can lead to weight gain.

In the deepest phases of sleep, blood pressure drops, breathing becomes slower, muscles become relaxed, blood supply to muscles increases, and energy is restored. However, maybe the most important thing that happens is Growth Hormone is released.

HOW GROWTH HORMONE WORKS

The best way to describe the effects of human growth hormone on the tissues of the body is to say that it builds up the tissues. Think about it. Every day our bodies break down a little, and at night our bodies have to build themselves back up. Growth hormone helps us accomplish this, and since it is released primarily at night, you could say that sleep deprivation causes our bodies to break down quicker.

More specifically, Growth Hormone acts to stimulate increased height during childhood by stimulating cartilage-producing cells called chondrocytes and by strengthening bone. During our adult years, growth hormone helps keep our bones strong and repairs the cartilage in our joints.

Growth Hormone also increases muscle mass and repair muscle tissue, promote the breakdown of fats, increases the production of proteins, stimulates the internal organs (especially the liver and pancreas) and promotes a more stable blood sugar level.

And would you believe… it STIMULATES THE IMMUNE SYSTEM.

FINAL WORD ON SLEEP

To get the most out of our sleep, both quantity and quality are important. Teens need at least 8½ hours—and on average 9¼ hours—each night of deep, uninterrupted sleep. Adults need at least 7 hours.

Remember, sleep will heal your body and mind. If sleep is cut short, or if you have problems sleeping, the body doesn’t have time to complete all of the phases needed for muscle repair, memory consolidation and release of hormones regulating growth and appetite.

Then we wake up less prepared to concentrate, make decisions, or engage fully in our daily activities, like work or school.

“Hello Dr. Steve

How are you? Well I think our current mattress may be at the end. Can you recommend any brands / types? I saw the following this weekend but I am not sure it would be recommended for my back (body) situation.

It was a Sealy Posturepedic Stelingshire firm (Costco).

Can you provide any advice/direction on this matter?

Thanks in advance.

Marcos V.”

Hey Marcos!!

I’ll do my best to advise you and if I can, point you to a couple of websites so that you’ll be armed with more information.

Here’s what you want to look for in a mattress. As you probably already know, I’m a posture Nazi. Good posture means being able to look at someone and see that the ear, shoulder, hip and ankle are in a straight line to each other. Good sleeping posture is exactly the same thing. Your goal is to find a mattress that can put those four points in a straight line when you’re laying on it.

POSTUREPEDIC

Posturepedic mattresses are usually good, and they’re affordable. They’re one of the more popular ones out there. But I would also advise you to try out the sleep number beds with the air mattresses.

I like the sleep numbers but as one patient recently told me, he can’t find his number. He spends all night letting air out and putting air back in. I also like the idea of side by side support, because chances are, you and your spouse don’t have the exact same spines, and trying to work both of you onto one mattress would not be beneficial to either one of you. So if you have a bed where she can adjust her side and you can adjust your side to the desired comfort levels, then that’s a great thing. That’s the advantage of the sleep number beds.

TEMPURPEDIC

I would also advise you to try out the tempurpedic beds as well. I like the tempurpedic beds because rather than be on a boxspring, the mattress is on a firm base, and that memory foam reduces pressure points drastically. I personally don’t believe they live up to the manufacturer’s claim that they last for 20 years. In all honesty, I think the most you’ll get out of any mattress is about 10 years, and quite frankly, if you get that many you’re doing really well.

In fact, most mattresses will only last between 6 and 8 years!!

Now, keep in mind (and this is strictly my opinion) that when it comes to a mattress, there is just no universal gold standard. In other words, what’s good for the goose isn’t always good for the gander.

If your neighbor, family member, friend, or co-worker has found a mattress that they like and that gives them a good night’s sleep, that’s great, but that same style mattress might not be as good for you. After all, people come in all shapes, sizes, and builds and therefore have different needs from a mattress. By the way, here’s an excellent article from Consumer Search Reports that describes exactly what I’m talking about.

But, if you were to honestly ask me what the mattress that I would use if money weren’t an option, I would tell you the one mattress that I have seen that incorporates the best of the inner coil mattresses, the sleep number beds and the tempurpedic mattresses is the Sleep Adjustment Bed by Isleep.

Now this mattress, quite frankly, is expensive. But, keep in mind that our beds are where we spend 1/3 to 1/4 of our entire lives, so don’t get too tight-fisted when you’re buying one. You know the old saying: Pennywise, Poundfoolish.

Ask yourself, how much is a good night’s sleep worth?

Considering that good sleep can boost immune function, increase overall health and wellness, help burn fat, help boost memory and mental function, help repair worn out tissues and increase your life span, it seems that a good night’s sleep is virtually priceless, so consider this an investment!!!

I’ll also tell you another dirty little secret that most chiropractors don’t want you to know: if most of you were sleeping on good quality mattresses, you would barely need us!!

And no matter what you do, make sure that if you’re going to make a significant investment of your money, your time, and your spine (hey, you got to sleep on the thing, right?), that you get a 30 or 60 day money back guarantee.

You absolutely cannot tell how a mattress is going to do if you sleep on it for just 5 minutes in a store. You have to give it a few nights to a few weeks to really know how it’s going to treat your body. If it’s not right for you then with a money-back guarantee you can give it back if you feel it’s not right for you.

How can you tell how it’s doing? You’ll know if you:

• toss and turn a whole bunch at night,
• feel extra sleepy or fatigued in the morning,
• wake up extra stiff or sore in the morning.

These are all good signs that your mattress just isn’t working well for you. Take it back and try again. Personally, the best night’s sleep I have ever had in my life was on a limited-motion waterbed that had a heater to make the bed warm when you climbed in at night. Years later, I found out from the American Sleep Research Institute (www.ASRI.net ) that one of things that helps put you in a deep sleep and then keep you there is when your extremities have a higher temperature than the core of your body. Then, to stay in a deep sleep, there should not be a lot of temperature changes when you shift in your sleep.

Have you ever gotten out of that nice warm spot and been amazed to find out how cold other spots on the mattress are? Just that small temperature change can rouse you from deep sleep even if it doesn’t necessarily wake you up. So I think one thing a mattress should have is a constant surface temperature of around 85 degrees. The Sleep Adjustment bed has this feature.

For those of you not rushing right out to buy a new mattress, keep your hands and feet warm when going to bed to induce a deeper sleep more quickly. Light mittens and socks may help improve the quality of your sleep.

Finally, it’s not just the mattress that will help with the support of your back at night. It’s your pillow, too. You may or may not know that we sell orthopedic pillows and now custom fitted pillows as well. We take four measurements and have you answer a few questions to make a pillow that’s uniquely suited to you and the way you sleep.

But this pillow won’t be as good unless you’re sleeping on the right mattress, and vice versa, sleeping on a good mattress with a bad pillow will make the mattress seem not quite as comfortable. So get the pillow situation right!! To read more about our custom fitted pillows as well as a few other types of orthopedic pillows, check out this link:

FootLevelers Custom Fitted Pillow.

Here’s a couple of more links to read some articles comparing mattresses:

MyFoamMattress.net

MattressHotline.com

bettersleep.org

Remember, a good mattress may seem expensive, but you’re investing in your long-term health. And your health is your best investment, so invest wisely.

Happy Hunting for your new mattress!!

Yours In Health,

Dr. Steve

Visit Dr. Steve’s website, Integrity Chiropractic to get more information about his clinic in Canton, GA.

In recent years the high-impact nature of modern competitive cheerleading has prompted a rise in cheerleading-related injuries. Though we don’t often think of it as a “sport,” cheerleading is actually a very physically demanding activity that calls for a high degree of athleticism, mixing dance, gymnastics and partner stunts. In addition, cheerleading nowadays tends to be a year-round sport, which does not allow appropriate time for recovery.

Most injuries that occur in cheerleading are NOT catastrophic. They occur mostly from chronic repetitive motion (in English, OVERUSE). In particular, the dance component of cheerleading is associated with overuse injuries of the legs and feet such as plantar fascitis, patellar tendonitis, ankle sprains, stress fractures, hip strains, and inflammation around the hips.

But the gymnastics maneuvers cause the number one cheerleading overuse injury. Low-back injuries occur because of repeated hyperextension of the lower back that you see in back bends, back-hand-springs, back flips and having to stand for long periods of time. Add in the fact that most cheerleaders are wearing shoes that are extremely light-weight. These types of shoes do not offer much in the way of either support for the feet or shock absorption. Given the long periods of standing that cheerleaders have at practices and games – along with the aforementioned reasons — it becomes clear to see how lower back pain tends to be a very common complaint amongst cheerleaders. Because of the lack of support from the shoes, ankle and knee injuries can occur in the landings of tumbling maneuvers and partner stunt dismounts.

However, it’s not just the lower half of the body that takes all the abuse. Overuse injuries of the shoulders, wrists, and elbows are common. The athletes at the base of the partner stunts frequently have more of these injuries. In addition they can experience neck injuries and neck pain from having to support the weight of their partner on their shoulders, which forces their necks forward and strains the cervical muscles.

Partner stunts are the leading cause of catastrophic injury in cheerleading. When a stunt goes haywire, the athletes at the top of the stunts or pyramids suffer the most. Falls onto hard gym floors, tracks, or even the grass at football fields can lead to head traumas, fractured wrists and dislocations. Some worse-case scenarios even include broken vertebra in the neck that have led to paralysis.

So how does a parent look out for their child? With prevention and hard work, that’s how.

As in other sports, cheerleaders should take the time to properly warm up and stretch before practice. After practice, properly cooling down can be just as important. Also, in the off-season, a conditioning program should be maintained that includes both aerobic exercise and weight lifting. Cheerleaders should also be allowed access to sports training facilities that the school provides for treatment of ankle and wrist sprains, sore muscles, or even just to tape up their wrists for added support.

The key is to identify overuse injuries early and properly manage them before they progress to something more serious. Chiropractic care is well suited to both of these tasks.

Chiropractic is a natural approach to healthcare that seeks to optimize the natural inborn healing potential within the human body. It is a clinical science that is based upon the principle that the nervous system (consisting of the brain, spinal cord, 31 pairs of spinal nerves and other sensory organs) controls and coordinates the functions of all other bodily systems. Injury to one of the key structures that surrounds and protects the nervous system – the spine – can impede the nervous system’s ability to govern the body and maintain a balance necessary for health.

As this pertains to the athlete, all body movement requires input to the brain from a type of nerve called a proprioceptor. There are literally millions – if not billions – of proprioceptors in every joint, muscle, tendon and ligament in your body. If this proprioceptive input to the brain is altered due to misalignment of the spine or by injury to the muscle or ligament, balance can be adversely affected. More missteps will begin to occur. When proprioceptive input is altered, a new sensation will take its place: pain.

Doctors of chiropractic are the only health care professionals who specialize in the process of correcting spinal misalignments with a procedure called a chiropractic adjustment. These adjustments reenergize the nervous system, reduce biomechanical stress, and optimize the athlete’s agility without the athlete having to overcome the side effects of drugs or irreversible surgeries. Some chiropractors are also specialists in adjusting or realigning the extremities as well. Extremity adjustments can greatly improve function and speed healing after a sprain or strain.

Adjustments to the spine or extremity do more than provide pain relief. They also restore proprioceptive input which helps athletes maintain better balance and body control.

Successful treatment starts with an examination of the injured athlete that identifies areas of muscle imbalance and muscle weakness. X-rays should be taken to evaluate spinal alignment. In addition to chiropractic adjustments of the spine and extremities, your doctor of chiropractic should be well-suited to provide the proper rehabilitative treatment for the injuries to fully heal.

Athletes at the high school, college and professional levels utilize chiropractic to maintain optimal physical condition as part of their regimens for keeping their athletes on the field. Many of today’s top athletes and performers have incorporated consistent Chiropractic care as a means of staying healthy and enhancing their performance. The list is long but includes Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith, U.S Olympic Teams, NFL Teams and the NYC Ballet dancers.

As a chiropractor and former college sports medicine trainer, I have seen how overuse injuries occur as well as the consequences for being left untreated. I have seen athletes fail to complete a rehabilitation regimen that led to reinjury down the road that was as bad, if not worse, than the original injury. I have learned how valuable chiropractic is for an athlete, both as a means of treating an injury and preventing future injuries.

If your child has been injured in sports and is experiencing neck pain, shoulder pain, lower back pain, or pain in any of the extremities, you should call a chiropractor so that you can get back in the game.

(To view the recent news report on cheerleading please click HERE.)

Here are a few videos of basic cheerleading stunts that went wrong and could lead to some very painful injuries.

The Injury in the first video happens in the first 17 seconds of this clip.

In this video, the main injury happens to the person on the ground and not the person to get thrown in the air.

Visit Dr. Steve’s website, Integrity Chiropractic to get more information about his clinic in Canton, GA.

A while back, there was a segment on Good Morning America about the increased risk of stroke associated with chiropractic care.

It’s funny, but IN THE SAME WEEK I saw Robin Roberts on Good Morning America interviewing – of all people!! – a medical doctor about a study that linked chiropractic adjustments to lower blood pressure (1 adjustment caused lower blood pressure that lasted 8 weeks). Watch the YouTube video here. If your computer will not pull up this link you can find the YouTube clip below.

I tell you this because the perception that many people have of chiropractic care is that it’s going to hurt. “Traditional” adjustments, as I’ve heard many patients call them, scare a number of people who might otherwise give chiropractic care a chance.

Many people will ask their medical doctor whether or not they should seek out chiropractic care. To be told by their medical doctor, who has no training in chiropractic adjusting techniques, that it’s dangerous is at best IRRESPONSIBLE and at worst could be considered MEDICAL MALPRACTICE to be dispensing advice about a branch of healthcare they know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about!

When chiropractic was first developed in 1895, many of the original adjusting techniques were based on osteopathic manipulation maneuvers. Over the last 109 years, many other chiropractic adjusting techniques have been developed, many of which involve NO TWISTING of the neck at all!! But the fundamental difference between an osteopathic manipulation and a chiropractic adjustment is the specificity involved.

“The FEAR-MONGERING opponents of chiropractic who claim that chiropractic is unsafe is akin to Attila the Hun calling Gandhi a terrorist.”

Doctors of chiropractic are highly trained in the detection and correction of spinal misalignments, called subluxations, and use a corrective procedure called an adjustment to remove these misalignments. An adjustment is the specific application of force to facilitate the body’s correction of spinal misalignments that can cause interference to the proper function of the nervous system.

Manipulation, on the other hand, is the forceful passive movement of a joint beyond its active limit of motion. It does not imply the use of precision, specificity or the correction of nerve interference. Therefore, it should not be considered the same as a chiropractic adjustment.

That’s an important concept because many medical doctors, insurance companies, and researchers still don’t understand or differentiate between “manipulation” and “adjustment.”

But onto the subject at hand…

There are many websites full of people who are apparently either trying to discredit chiropractic or scare the general public into thinking it’s dangerous. Most of these sites, articles and sensationalistic media reports are about neck adjustments (in the various sites you’ll see it termed “cervical manipulation” which, as I’ve just explained, is not the same thing). These various chiropractic-bashing sites claim that there is a severe risk for stroke associated with chiropractic adjustments to the neck.

A stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel or artery, or when a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the brain. The lack of blood causes brain cells to die.

When they mention chiropractic adjustments that cause strokes, they are always talking about the vertebral arteries, not the more commonly known carotid arteries. The brain gets its blood supply from two sources, the two carotid arteries in the front of your neck (where you would check your pulse) and the two vertebral arteries. After entering the cranium, the two vertebral arteries join to form the basilar artery, which passes upward along the ventral surface of the brain stem. The carotid and basilar arterial systems come together at the base of the brain to form the circle of Willis. This creates a redundant system that provides a measure of backup protection, should one of the other routes fail.

To get to the brain the vertebral arteries actually travel through tiny little channels in the bones of the neck called foramina on their way up to the brain. These arteries are somewhat susceptible to injury at the top of the neck, where they make a sharp turn right above the first cervical vertebra (the atlas or C1 in the neck) and go up through the hole at the base of the skull called the foramen magnum.

The cause of stroke in these cases is called “dissection” of the arteries. You see, the artery has three layers of muscle. The middle layer can develop a weakness, or a tear, causing it to “peel” and roll up. This could block the artery, or narrow the blood flow through that area of the artery; it could also become a place where clots form that may later break off and embolize in the brain. Dissection of an artery may occur spontaneously, or may be related to injury, such as motor vehicle crashes.

The other thing to keep in mind as well is that there is usually an underlying weakness that helped the tear in the artery to occur. Lifestyle factors such as long-term smoking and high blood pressure weakens artery walls. Long-term steroid use could also be a culprit. Even minor neck injuries sustained in yoga, swimming or extending the neck over the edge of a hairdressser’s wash basinhave led to these types of vertebral artery dissections.

Although strokes due to cervical manipulations are few and far between they are seldom missed. However strokes that happen after car accidents are almost always missed.

Most of these various reports feature individual case studies with medical doctors who make it seem like your odds for having a stroke after a neck adjustment are astronomically high. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have the statistics to back it up.

“…this means that PROPERLY PRESCRIBED MEDICATIONS that led to adverse drug reactions would have been somewhere between the 4th and 6th leading cause of death. Only cancer, heart disease and strokes killed more people that year.”

In 1997, there were approximately 158,000 people in the United States that died from stroke, making it around the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer.

Overall, there are about 750,000 strokes per year in the United States. How many of those 158,000 deaths from stroke were caused by chiropractic care?

Well, let’s see…

The National Chiropractic Mutual Insurance Company (NCMIC), which provides malpractice insurance to over 50 percent of chiropractors in the United States, estimates that its 24,000 insured doctors of chiropractic deliver around 43,000,000 cervical adjustments/manipulations per year.

According to a member of the NCMIC Board of Directors (personal communication with Louis Sportelli, DC, Dec. 21, 1994) in the three years of 1991-92-93, NCMIC closed a total of 96 claims for stroke victims; of this total 61 were closed with payment, and 35 were closed without payment. If one concludes that there was little or no merit to the 35 claims which were closed without payment, this would represent an average of 20 claims per year for incidences where stroke occurred.

So let’s see, that’s 20 strokes per 43,000,000 adjustments to the neck. Well my math puts that at a rate of less than one stroke per 2 million cervical manipulations. It should also be noted that these strokes in most cases, WERE NOT FATAL, meaning they weren’t counted towards the statistics of death from a stroke.

Furthermore, in 1995 a medical researcher named Terrett published a report in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, finding that many of the cases cited by medical researchers as being “chiropractic treatments” that led to instances of stroke were actually spinal manipulations rendered by non-chiropractic practitioners. The article states that some of these “manipulations” were administered by – among others – a Kung Fu practitioner, General Practitioners, osteopaths, physiotherapists, a wife, a blind masseur, and an Indian barber. Worse yet, these instances had been incorrectly attributed to chiropractors.

But even WORSE THAN THAT, the report explained that, “The words chiropractic and chiropractor have been incorrectly used in numerous publications dealing with Spinal Manipulative Therapy injury by medical authors, respected medical journals and medical organizations. In many cases, this is not accidental; the authors had access to original reports that identified the practitioner involved as a non-chiropractor (emphasis added by the author). The true incidence of such reporting cannot be determined. Such reporting adversely affects the reader’s opinion of chiropractic and chiropractors.” (Terrett AGJ: Misuse of the literature by medical authors in discussing spinal manipulative therapy injury. JMPT 1995;18:203.)

“…as much as a 25 times greater risk of dying from an ulcer due to taking a prescription Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug like Motrin.”

To sum it up … 750,000 strokes per year; 43,000,000 cervical adjustments per year by chiropractors (remember this is only about HALF of all the practicing chiropractors in the U.S.; the number of cervical adjustments could be as much as 86,000,000) with only 20 incidences of stroke, almost none of them fatal. You still want to tell me how dangerous these adjustments are?

By contrast, there may be as much as a 25 times greater risk of dying from an ulcer due to taking a prescription Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug like Motrin. The number of injuries from vaccines each year was so great that Congress eventually had to enact a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund. Just last year, a record settlement was made in which federal health officials conceded that vaccines played a role in contributing to the symptoms of autism in a 9-year old girl. Yet, state funded schools STILL require our children to be vaccinated before they can begin attending.

In 1998 an extensive study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that during the year 1994, in American hospitals over 2,216,000 patients had serious adverse drug reactions and 106,000 people had fatal adverse drug reactions. For that year, this means that PROPERLY PRESCRIBED MEDICATIONS (the authors excluded errors in drug administration, noncompliance, overdose, and drug abuse) that led to adverse drug reactions would have been somewhere between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death. Only cancer, heart disease and strokes killed more people that year.

Where is the outrage?! Where is the reports on local news channels and on nationally televised programs like Good Morning America?

Look at it a different way: 106,000 deaths a year averages out to nearly 300 deaths per day, every day. Deaths from all major airline crashes in the U.S. average less than 300 annually, but one airplane crash gets more media attention and governmental scrutiny than the 300 medication-related deaths which occurred not only on the same day as the airline crash, but also every day before and after for decades!!

Now ask yourself one more time about the risk of stroke from a chiropractic adjustment! It’s ONE IN TWO MILLION!

The FEAR-MONGERING opponents of chiropractic, MOST of whom are medical doctors, who would claim that chiropractic is unsafe is akin to Attila the Hun calling Gandhi a terrorist.

One might argue that these people were sick before they went in the hospital and therefore more likely to have an adverse drug reaction. You could say the EXACT SAME THING about someone who is predisposed to having vertebral artery weakness going to a chiropractor!!

So why does the media sensationalize it so much? I have no idea other than that these news shows need stories. But a closer look at the numbers reveals the truth. You are about 50,000 times more likely to suffer an adverse reaction from medication than you are from a chiropractic adjustment.

A medical doctor named Phillip Lee, a co-investigator of a research survey presented at the American Heart Association’s 19th International Joint Conference on Stroke and Cerebral Circulation concluded that “Indeed, most interventions by allopathic physicians have a higher complication rate than chiropractic interventions.”

If someone has a predispositioned bias against chiropractic, they’re going to find fault with it no matter what. Most medical doctors I meet are not actually against chiropractic, but are often very confused and slightly afraid of it. Some of them actually embrace it.

The ones that sound off most loudly against the chiropractic profession typically have no research or data that is statistically significant. Most of their “findings” are individual case studies of one person, which would never hold up to critical analysis. Or instead, they are surveys of (mostly) neurologists asking them to “estimate” the number of strokes they’ve seen that were related to chiropractic adjustments. All of the figures and studies I could find concerning stroke following “manipulation” involve estimates, not hard data.

Based on the scientific evidence readily available today, it is clear that chiropractic adjustments pose no significant risk of strokes and are far safer in this regard than most medical treatments. The chiropractic profession has a well established record of safety and efficacy, and chiropractors’ malpractice insurance rates remain among the lowest in the health professions.

The profession is leading the way in research to learn more about complications from treatments, and working to reduce them still further. Despite an occasional sensationalistic report in the media, the facts show that chiropractic treatments rank among the safest and most effective form of health care EVER offered.

Visit Dr. Steve’s website, Integrity Chiropractic to get more information about his clinic in Canton, GA.

Though this may not be considered a “serious” condition this bad posture can cause serious muscular imbalances that can result in chronic pain and disability.

Now, before you go thinking that this is a major condition like Fibromyalgia or Degenerative Joint Disease you should know that Upper Crossed Syndrome merely describes what happens when someone has forward head posture. In laymen’s terms it merely describes the consequences of what happens when your head is not in line with your shoulders; rather, you carry your head in front of your shoulders – what’s called a stooping posture – which creates a tremendous amount of muscular tension on top of the shoulders and between the shoulder blades.

Over the course of a day, this muscular tension from poor posture builds and builds and those overstretched, overstressed, and overstrained muscles create pain that you feel in the neck, at the base of the skull and in the shoulders. This muscular tension could be the cause of your headaches, neck pain and shoulder pain.

People with this forward head carriage typically work at the computer for long periods of time. It could also be someone who sews or does a lot of needlepoint work. Musicians could also be included in the list (I have to throw that in there; I was a drummer who spent years slouching in a drum chair) or even kids who spend their days in uncomfortable desks at school.

So, technically speaking, Upper Crossed Syndrome (UCS) is defined as shortening or weakness of the muscles on the front of the neck, shoulders and chest along with overstretching and tension of the muscles on top of and in-between the shoulder blades.

If you really want to get technical, the muscles that get weak and shortened are the upper trapezius (big shoulder) muscles, pectoralis major (chest) muscles, and the levator scapulae (right at the top of the shoulder blades) muscles. (Interestingly enough, those are muscles that I palpate on most people at every visit to assess shoulder/neck problems).

UCS also involves weakness of the rhomboids (the muscles in between your shoulder blades and your spine); serratus anterior (a muscle under the arm that attaches the ribs to the shoulder blade); middle and lower trapezius, and the deep neck flexors (muscles that allow you to bend your head forward), especially the scalene muscles.

The DREADED UPPER CROSSED SYNDROME (really, I just love saying that; it sounds so much better than “Hey!! You’re slouching!!”)

This syndrome was named “Upper Crossed” because when the weakened and shortened muscles are connected in the upper body, they form a cross.

There’s a neat website here where you can see the muscles.

People with the dreaded UPPER CROSSED SYNDROME (really, I just love saying that; it sounds so much better than “Hey!! You’re slouching!!) will typically have no weight-bearing curve in their neck.

But, wait a second, let me explain. When viewed from the side, the spine should have a gentle forward curve in both the neck and lower back called a “lordosis.” These curves exist to give the spine strength and flexibility.

The lower back needs strength because it’s the center of gravity. Every single movement that you perform will require stability from the lower back, so a good weight-bearing curve in your lower back is absolutely necessary.

The neck needs strength because these 7 two-ounce bones have to support the weight of the head, which is around 15 pounds on average. A good weight-bearing curve allows the weight of the head to stay where it’s supposed to stay, which is on the spinal joints. Loss of that curve means that the job of “stability” now becomes more of the responsibility of the aforementioned muscles on top of the shoulders and between the shoulder blades.

Look at the example of a normal cervical spine – well, “normal” is a relative term, so let’s say “ideal” instead -when viewed from the side.

The seven cervical vertebra form a gentle, forward curve. The backs of each vertebra are in line with the one above and the one below. The spaces in-between the vertebrae (where the intervertebral discs are positioned) all appear to be equally spaced.

Please note: intervertebral discs cannot be seen on X-rays. Instead, we can only see the disc spaces. But, the state of these disc spaces, along with correlation to a person’s symptoms and a thorough examination, can help us to make certain assumptions about the health of the disc. To absolutely confirm a disc bulge or disc herniations, one would need an MRI to visualize the disc in question.

Now, look at the two examples below.

The neck on the left has a reversed curve in it. It is the exact opposite of normal. The base of the neck, a vertebra that we number as C7, should be positioned directly under the top of the spine, the vertebrae known as C1-C2. Clearly, it’s not, meaning the job of supporting the weight of the head is now going to be transferred to the muscles.

The next picture of a neck also has a “reversed” curve. This type of curve will be incredibly weak and, without intervention, will develop arthritis more rapidly in the lower cervical vertebrae. And just like the first view, weight of the head will be supported more by the muscles instead of by the vertebrae of the cervical spine.

People with Upper Crossed Syndrome will have shoulders that are up around their ears and rounded forward. Their head will be carried in front of the shoulders. This type of posture produces overstress at the joints where the occiput (the base of the skull) meets the first cervical vertebra; at the C4-C5 area of the spine (mid-neck); the upper thoracic spine segments; and the shoulder where the arm sits in the shoulder socket. This person will also have reduced motion in the neck.

Upper Crossed Syndrome also causes changes in the shoulder blades; specifically the bottoms of the shoulder blades rotate out and the tops of the shoulder blades angle in toward the second and third ribs. This leads to even MORE stress on the levator scapulae and upper trapezius muscles; they now have to be even more active to provide stability to the humerus as it sits in the shoulder socket. This will be accompanied by increased and constant activity of the supraspinatus muscle – one of the rotator cuff muscles — causing early degeneration of the muscle.

In an ideal posture, the ear, the shoulder, the hip and the middle of the foot will all be in a straight line. However, from the side people with Upper Crossed Syndrome will appear as if the hips are forward of the shoulders creating too much curve at the bottom of the lumbar spine, a condition called “sway back”. Meanwhile, the neck is forward of the shoulders.

If you have this posture, don’t feel bad!! Even celebrities are not immune to bad posture (Think Sandra Bullock on the cover of Bazaar magazine or Mary Kate Olsen in the image below).

This type of posture over time creates muscular imbalances that will also cause stress to the discs, joints and ligaments that support and stabilize the spine. And this in turn, can cause arthritis to accelerate, showing up much earlier in life than it should.

So, what can be done about Upper Crossed Syndrome?

First, you should have your spine X-rayed and analyzed by a chiropractor. Chiropractors are the only type of healthcare professional trained to detect and correct misalignments of the spine. These misalignments represent weak points in the spine where the structure breaks down to such an extent that it affects the nervous system and the musculoskeletal system as well as possibly affecting other systems of the body.

Corrections to these misaligned areas of your spine – called subluxations – will improve the imbalance of the musculoskeletal systems and improve the weight-bearing curves of the spine.

However, spinal corrections alone may not be enough to correct Upper Crossed Syndrome. To combat the muscle memory from years of bad posture, you need to go through a series of strengthening and stretching exercises designed to improve the muscular imbalance component associated with UCS.

Specifically, you will want to stretch the chest muscles – pectoralis major and minor – that are likely contributing to pulling the shoulders forward. The neck flexors – the sternocleidomastoid (SCM’s) and scalene muscles – which are helping to pull the head forward, need to be stretched also. The muscles on the outer, lower edge of the shoulder blades – the subscapularis, serratus anterior, and latissimus dorsi – should be stretched as well.

In combination with these stretches, certain muscles need to be strengthened. The muscles between the shoulder blades – the rhomboids – need to be strengthened as do the muscles on top of the shoulder blades – the upper trapezius and the levator scapulae. One of the rotator cuff muscles, the supraspinatus, also needs to be strengthened. Finally, the muscles in the back of the neck, the neck extensors, need to be strengthened.

Correcting these muscle imbalances, along with specific chiropractic corrections to the spine, is the KEY to regaining proper spinal alignment and STAYING that way.

Or, I could just call your mother and make her tell you to sit up straight.

Dr. Steve Goninan
Integrity Chiropractic
11582 Cumming Highway
Canton, GA 30115
678-400-0202
www.IntegrityChiropractor.net

Visit Dr. Steve’s website, Integrity Chiropractic to get more information about his clinic in Canton, GA.

How bad was the flooding in Atlanta? There were seven consecutive days of measureable rain, with some areas getting up to 20 inches over a 24-hour period.

Three of the major interstates around Atlanta closed due to flooding: I-20 in the west metro areas; I-285 in the west metro area; and I-575 to the northwest. Hundreds more roads around metro Atlanta were closed in Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Fulton and Paulding counties. More than 1,500 people were evacuated from the northwest Georgia town of Trion, where the Chattooga River breached a levee there. Most metro Atlanta school districts, including Fulton, Forsyth, Gwinnett, DeKalb and Cobb counties closed their schools for at least one or two days because of the flooding.

Six Flags Over Georgia was under water.

People were being evacuated from their homes by boat. This is not the sort of thing we usually get here in “Hotlanta”. I’ve seen news broadcasts of this thing in Mississippi and Missouri before but never right here in my own backyard.

But besides the work and school stoppages and the traffic disasters and the estimated 250 million dollars worth of damage and states of emergency that have been declared by the governor, there’s another problem: water treatment.

Last summer we were in one of the worst droughts ever in Georgia, and Lake Lanier was twelve feet below pool. There was some major concern about the water quality. In particular the main hazards were increased cloudiness of the water, more bacteria and viruses in the water, and the taste and odor of the water were adversely affected. The answer was to encourage Atlantans to conserve water use and pray for rain.

But in a flood, a different problem arises. When the streams, creeks, and rivers are overflowing, and all the rainwater is going into the sewers, the wastewater treatment plants can’t keep up with the pace. Their reservoirs are overflowing and the water doesn’t have enough time to undergo treatment before being released back into the general water supply, or in some cases, the overflowing water just bypasses treatment.

To understand how waste water is treated, check out this simplified diagram and description. First the sewage water has to go through a series of screens. The first one is a large bar screen that removes large particles. Next comes a much smaller screen, or a sand filter, that removes smaller particulate matter. The waste water then moves into a holding tank for several hours allowing the last bit of particles to settle to the bottom, and greasy liquids to float to the top.

The water then flows into another tank, where microorganisms (being fed oxygen through an aerator) consume the remaining organic waste as their food supply. Finally, the water is treated to get rid of any remaining microbial organisms through chlorination. After this lengthy process the water is ready to be released back into the water supply.

The point I’m trying to make is that this process takes a while. Under normal circumstances it takes 1-2 days for waste water to be treated and released back into the general water supply. Oh and by the way, for the most part, many major cities have wastewater treatment facilities that were built before World War I. This outdated technology, while neutralizing organic wastes, fails to remove synthetic chemicals, arsenic, and over 140 other different contaminants.

In Clayton County, just south of Atlanta, the water treatment plant was damaged due to the floods; repairs will cost tens of million dollars. Millions of gallons of sewage water were being released into the Chattahoochee River.

My main question is, do you really trust that the water treatment plant is doing its job in the first place? I mean, the whole process of how it works sounds nice and great, but is that really how it works? Recently, in Dallas, North Carolina the operator for the wastewater treatment plant was put in jail for violating the federal Clean Water Act.

Admittedly, the United States has better, cleaner water than most countries. The chlorination process, which has made the U.S. water supply safe from most illness-producing bacteria, viruses and parasites – almost completely eliminating from our lives the risks of waterborne diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, and dysentery – has introduced other risks from the byproducts of the disinfection process called trihalomethanes, which may be cancer-causing.

More than that, the water treatment plants, with their WWI technology, generally fail to remove other 21st century contaminants such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other chemicals that pollute our water supplies. Now even “second-hand drugs” have become a concern. Antibiotics, birth control pills, beta blockers, chemotherapy drugs for cancer, and contrast agents for diagnostic X-rays, etc, have also been discovered in sewage and treated water.

And there is evidence that up to 90 percent of excreted drugs found in treated waste water can remain biologically active, meaning that they can still go to work…in YOUR body. Imagine that you are someone who doesn’t take medications. Well, chances are good that you’re getting them in your body anyway… and so is your family.

The Mayo Clinic website listed antibiotics in food and water as one of the major causes for the emergence of the virulent MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) long before the news broke on the pharmaceuticals in the water. They note that, “Prescription drugs aren’t the only source of antibiotics. In the United States; antibiotics can be found in cattle, pigs and chickens. The same antibiotics then find their way into municipal water systems when the runoff from feedlots contaminates streams and groundwater.”

So the wastewater treatment process doesn’t get rid of over 140 contaminants and they’re over chlorinating the water. Maybe your solution is to not drink tap water. The bad news is that you still get it through your ice maker, your dishwasher, drinks at restaurants (they use tap water to make coffee, ice tea and ice don’t they?) and your shower or bath; and you still use tap water to wash your fruits and vegetables.

So maybe you feel like this doesn’t matter because you’re drinking bottled water? Well, I have some bad news on that point as well….

You see, unlike tap water –which is at least regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency – bottled water is regulated by the much more lenient Food and Drug Administration. This means that bottled water is directly governed or overseen by an entity that has neither the time nor manpower to do so. Moreover, the whole “truth in advertising” adage, already severely bending in the labeling of foods, gets even more bent with bottled water.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, which carried out a four-year review of the bottled water industry, concluded “there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle, it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap.”

They further added that an estimated 25 percent of bottled water is “really just tap water in a bottle—sometimes further treated, sometimes not.”
Americans drank more than 9 billion gallons of bottled water in 2007, and fewer than half of 228 brands of bottled water reveal their source. When you consider that the typical cost of bottled water is $1.67 per gallon, or 900 times the cost of public tap water, you have to wonder if getting that bottled water is really worth the money.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order in June 2007 barring use of city funds to purchase bottled water. “The primary reason is that it can cost a thousand times more, and you’re not even getting better quality water,” said Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission.

There have been hundreds of millions of dollars spent to market the myth that bottled water is purer and safer than the tap water. The truth is…the safety of bottled water is a myth.

The bottom line is this: the tap water in a lot of cities could pose health risks to everyone, but especially to those with weakened immune systems or chronic illnesses, infants and the elderly. And our nation must make a major commitment to upgrading and modernizing water systems to protect our drinking water sources.

Bottled water, while convenient because it’s portable, isn’t any better, just more expensive.

Virtually all tap and bottled water contain traces of unhealthy synthetic chemicals, volatile organic compounds, arsenic and a ton of other unhealthy substances.

Now then, we have a choice to make. We can either filter out these contaminants prior to consumption, or we can force our body to be the filter.

Letting your body do the work over the course of your lifetime can lead to toxic buildup in your body, causing sensitivities to certain chemicals. Long-term exposure to lead and arsenic (to name just a few) can lead to decreased immunity. These are just a few of the side effects.

While you sit around and wait for the speed and efficiency of the federal government agencies, especially in matters relating to the environment, to fix the problems of our water sources, I am going to be relying on my eSpring water filter.

Clean, healthy, chemical-free water is the very foundation to health and wellness, and it’s easy to have with an in-home water filter like the eSpring.

Most common water filters, usually found in pitcher and faucet-mounted systems, feature a single pressed-carbon filter that merely treats water as it passes through it and this can help dechlorinate your water and remove lead. It’s better than nothing I guess.

The eSpring Water Purifier was the first in-home system to feature a dual-technology cartridge that combines ultraviolet light with a carbon-block filter to reduce more than 140 contaminants like lead, trihalomethanes, arsenic, mercury, VOCs, pesticides, and more. The UV light kills microorganisms present in the water.

The eSpring Water Purifier is designed for countertop use or below countertop use. It doesn’t take up much space and is easy to install. There are no special tools required. Unlike reverse osmosis filters, which can take up to 5 hours to produce one distilled gallon of water, the eSpring Water Purifier can produce clearer, cleaner water flowing at nearly a gallon per minute, almost instantly. You can also easily provide your refrigerator’s water dispenser and icemaker with eSpring purified water so that you always have fresh, clean ice water at hand.

The eSpring digital monitor tells you when it’s time to replace the dual carbon cartridge. The cartridge is designed to serve the average cooking and drinking water needs for a family of six for one year or 1,320 gallons, whichever comes first. And it’s cost effective: the cost per gallon in the second year is less than 13 cents.

The eSpring is probably one of the best reviewed water purifiers around. Don’t just take my word for it. Check it out here, here and here.

Plus, if you buy one and aren’t satisfied with it for any reason in the first four months after purchase, you can return it, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!! How many products do you get to buy, try them out for four months, and if you’re not happy with the product, you get to return it? There’s also a two-year warranty, so if you’ve been using it the way you’re supposed to and something breaks down in the first two years, you can get it replaced…..FREE!!

You should think about getting one. Your health is your best investment, and investing in cleaner, safer water should be a no-brainer. If you’re a patient of mine and you want to see the eSpring in action, let me know. I’ll show you how it works and you can see it in action for yourself.

Visit Dr. Steve’s website, Integrity Chiropractic to get more information about his clinic in Canton, GA.