New Year, New You?

It’s January and by now we’ve made our New Year’s resolutions. If you are on track with yours, congratulations! Unfortunately most New Year’s resolutions don’t make it much further than a fleeting remark made on December 31st. Still, we “resolve” that this year will be different and that we will achieve our goals once and for all!

So what’s holding you back from making 2010 your year? What do you want for yourself? Energy? Success? How about optimal health?

Optimal health is always at the top of my new year’s list. Health and wellness is one of those things you take for granted and don’t really think about...unless you don’t have it.

Throughout college I found myself suffering from more and more frequent headaches and migraines; I was at a point where I had a headache almost every single day, and a migraine about once per month. Needless to say, my almost constant pain was interfering with my work and my life. I know my work performance suffered because I wasn’t at my best. Thankfully, I was in the market for a new career, and a job in a chiropractic office landed in my lap.

One of the perks of working in a chiropractic office was chiropractic care, so taking that job was one of the best decisions I ever made. was led through a process of recovery and was once again able to live pain free! It was this experience that actually led me to be a chiropractor.

I know first-hand that optimal health does not come easy. You see, health is a Journey! It doesn’t happen over night – but if you start now, you can change your health for a lifetime.

So if everyone wants to be healthy, why aren’t we a healthier nation? The problem is that most people think that they are HEALTHY because they FEEL no symptoms or that they are WELL because they take some potion, lotion or pill day-to-day that covers up or masks the problem. But being truly WELL is about living life to its fullest and creating peak performance in all areas of your life! It doesn’t come in a pill or lotion...it comes from inside.

Since becoming a chiropractor 10 years ago I have seen many miraculous things. I’ve seen people’s lives change in a matter of weeks. People without hope for feeling good or even close to normal begin to regain hope again. They realize their bodies can express their full health potential again.

So what are your health goals? What do you want for yourself? How about for your family? It’s not a hard question to answer, however to get these things you will have to make some changes, and those changes could start right now with our help!

Our office is Motion Chiropractic Center, located in Easthampton on route 10, just a block away from the rotary. We look forward to partnering with you towards Optimal Health!

Blessings,
Dr. Mindi Palmer Fried

PS - If you are not already a client at Motion Chiropractic Center, you are welcome to take advantage of our New Year, New You special promotion to begin your journey to health today!

Reply before January 31, 2010 and receive:
>One-on-one Consultation with the doctor
>State-of-the-Art Computerized Health Analysis
>A Complete Report of the Findings
>Health and Wellness Gift Bag
>BONUS: Your own Goal Planning Winners Journal

Only $45.00 (normally $90)

Just mention "New Year, New You" when scheduling your appointment.

Call us at 413-527-0207

Chiropractic can Improve your Health!

Find out how at our next Health Care Workshop:

at

Motion Chiropractic Center
54-R Northampton Street, Suite 1
Easthampton, MA 01027

January 11th, 5:30 pm -

Please call 413-527-0207 to reserve your seat (space is limited), and feel free to bring a friend or loved one - it is an interactive workshop!

Chiropractic in a Nutshell

)I'm often asked what chiropractic is, and for a recent presentation to my BNI group, I came up with the following summary - Enjoy!) I'd also like to give a special shout-out to Dr. Reggie Gold, who's writings and lectures helped me clarify some of these points.

Our bodies are -
*Self Healing - "The Power that made the body Heals the body, it happens no other way" - BJ Palmer
*Self Regulating - trillions of cells are working in harmony every second of our lives.

This happens best when -
*There is no interference to the master system of our bodies

The Nervous System -
*is the master system of the body
*controls and coordinates every tissue cell and organ in your body
*has limited regenerative capability, and so it is protected by the bones of the skull and the spine
*is the most protected system of our bodies.

The Bones of the spine -
*are mobile, which makes them vulnerable to not functioning properly

Improper Spinal Function -
*can create the Vertebral Subluxation Complex - the VSC

The VSC -
* is caused by Stress - physical, chemical and/or emotional.

When the VSC exists -
*it ALWAYS interferes with the body's ability to live up to its full potential.

The VSC causes -
*limitations on health, healing and performance
*cumulative damage that can become permanent if it is there long enough.

Chiropractic is -
*the ONLY profession that recognizes, detects and corrects the VSC

The purpose of Chiropractic -
*keeping the body as free as possible from the VSC throughout life.

The Chiropractic Evaluation -
*locates the levels of nerve system interference.
*uses state of the art, space certified technology to demonstrate the results of the interference on different parts of your nervous system.

The Chiropractor -
*puts the information from the evaluation and history together with the person to determine a care plan and adjustment protocols.

The Adjustment -
*is a specific force, given at a specific location, in a specific direction, at a specific time.
*is used to remove the VSC, and help to restore the body's ability to self heal and self regulate.

CHIROPRACTIC IS NOT:
*just about making you feel good (although it usually does)
*just about backaches (or headaches, or neck pain...)
*a cure for ANY disease.

CHIROPRACTIC IS:
*the detection and removal of the VSC
*about keeping the body free from the VSC and its potentially devastating effects throughout life.
*empowering your body to function at its best.

If you have a spine and a nervous system - chiropractic is for you.
If you experience stress - chiropractic is for you.
If you want better function and performance from your body - chiropractic is for you.

365DOH

I'm launching a new project, you can check it out on http://365doh.blogspot.com/. This blog will still be active, and I have a few new posts coming soon. Sorry it's been so sporadic lately.

:)

I did a guest blog post at Motherwear

... on breastfeeding and chiropractic. In the future, I'm sure I'll do another post on the topic, but for now, here's the link - check it out. Also, if breastfeeding topics interest you, bookmark the blog - Tanya does a fabulous job at sharing up to date information and keeping readers interested and informed. Hopefully this post maintains her standards!

Here's the blog - enjoy!

9 months....

Ask anyone who's been pregnant - pregnancy is a time of constant flux - a time that your body needs all the extra support that you can give it. Your body is adjusting daily to changing hormones and size from conception to delivery. Pre-existing unnoticed imbalances in your spine and pelvis become overtaxed during pregnancy. Pains from ligaments and joints you didn’t know existed are common complaints, along with fatigue, headaches, difficulty with activities, nausea, and emotional ups and downs.

Chiropractic adjustments can relieve and even prevent the discomforts experienced throughout pregnancy. Chiropractic care offers not only natural pain control, it helps to balance the muscles, ligaments and joints under stress, it helps with pelvic alignment, and allows the nervous system to function better. Chiropractic care is safe and effective, even with higher risk pregnancies. There are many different ways for a chiropractor to adjust you, and most chiropractors know at least one extra gentle technique appropriate for you when you are feeling at your most vulnerable and delicate.

If you are planning a natural childbirth, care prior to deliver can play a crucial role. Regular care can reduce the need for interventions at delivery, making birth a more comfortable experience for both the mother and baby (or babies). Proper balance in the joints and ligaments supporting the uterus can allow the baby to assume the best possible position for birth.

Chiropractic care can work in conjunction with traditional obstetric care to manage your pregnancy. It is not a replacement for regular prenatal checkups from your OB or Midwife; it is an additional support that can be an essential ingredient to your prenatal care choices.

Oh My Aching Head... (aka 2 Kings 4:19**) ... (aka Migraines, Headaches and Chiropractic)

Kelly asked me recently about headaches and chiropractic care, and if chiropractic care could help with headaches.

I'll start with my "chiropractic testimonial", this was honestly the biggest reason I got into chiropractic in the first place. At one point in my life, I had headaches just about every single day. I got migraines frequently, on average about once per month. I lived with both, mostly because I had no idea it could be different. I rarely took drugs because they really didn't help much, and I really didn't like the listed side effects if I wasn't getting any benefit. That just didn't make much sense to me.

At the peak of these events, I started to work for a Chiropractor. One of the benefits of working there was free care, which was fabulous. (As a side note, I had been curious about chiropractic care for awhile - when I was in High School, I had horrible lower back pain periodically, and I wondered if Chiropractic care could help with that. I never brought it up with my parents, however, and I never went. In College, one of my roommates senior year graduated early and went to chiropractic school. So when I was offered a job in a Chiropractic office, it kind of felt like fate or providence that I should start working there.)

So these adjustments that I started getting - wow, they felt great! My daily headaches dropped down to every other day, and then weekly... and I got migraines less and less as well.

So the short answer to your question, Kelly, is that yes, chiropractic care may* help with headaches.

The longer answer is the part that belongs at the bottom of the page - the "*" part of the above sentence.

* In a way, "Can chiropractic care help with headaches?" is the wrong question. As my testimonial above indicates, it is certainly possible that chiropractic care can help reduce and remove headaches. But chiropractic care can help with headaches mostly because it allows your body to correct itself. When I work on someone in the office, my title is "Doctor", but really, I'm more of a cheerleader and a catalyst, so that their body can kick in and do the healing. I remove the interference, they do the healing.

I know it sounds like I'm being picky, and that it's all semantics, but it's important to realize that the body does the healing. My job as a chiropractor is to remove the interference caused by subluxation, and then the body does the rest of the work. It's not always easy to predict what path the body will take as it heals - sometimes symptoms get worse before they get better, sometimes it feels like nothing is being done for awhile.

The thing is, as a doctor, I don't always know WHY you're getting headaches in the first place. It could be physical, chemical or emotional. Headaches, to me, are a sign that something, somewhere is out of balance in your body. I can adjust you, and help you to heal better with care, but if you keep putting the same crap into your body, you are going to keep getting the same result. Did chiropractic care help you? We might have different answers to that - if I did my job and removed subluxations, then I believe, yes, absolutely chiropractic care helped you. But if you were only coming for relief of headaches, then you're going to say no to that question.


**the first AKA on this title is in honor of Heidi Long, should she ever find this blog. If you don't get it, look it up - yes, it is a bible verse.