I’m so glad you asked! Here are my top two reasons that kids need to get checked by a chiropractor:

1. To support their neurological development now.
   Most of us know that all the bones of the skeletal system are very soft when a baby is born. Those bones grow and develop for several years, and eventually harden into their “mature” shape and size. That includes the bones of the skull. If certain bones in the skull are out of place, they can put unusual pressure on the parts of the brain underneath those bones, which can lead to dysfunction. We have had a number of kids in our practice who came to us because their speech was severely delayed or their enunciation was very poor into the late toddler years. When we checked and gently adjusted the cranial bones that were out of place, their speech improved rapidly!
   Beyond that, subluxations in the spine interfere with communication between the body and the brain. We want kiddos to have normal and regular bowel movements, healthy sinuses, great balance, open airways, etc. All the amazing parts of their bodies that are developing in infancy and childhood need healthy a nerve system. Subluxations prevent the nerve system from communicating properly and effectively.
2. To prevent problems later.
   We see So. Many. Adults. who start having pain in their late teen years/early 20’s with no known cause. They tell us, “I don’t know, I guess it has hurt for as long as I can remember”.
   Kids are really good at ignoring and overcoming pain conditions. I have this theory - purely based on what I have seen over the years, not based on research, it’s just my own personal theory - that we don’t really start to recognize chronic pain signals until that time of life. Prior to the late teen years, we are just really good at ignoring chronic pain signals. Many of those adults who suddenly wake up one day and become aware of their chronic pain - the underlying pain that has been there for a long time - had injuries in childhood that never got corrected.
   Kids fall down. They fall out of trees. They fall off of beds. It’s good for kids to have those experiences and learn how to control their body, but we want to check them regularly so that we can correct subluxations that arise from all their many adventures. They will thank you later.

Research shows that kids who are under regular chiropractic care sleep better, digest better, breathe better, recover from illnesses more quickly, and have less colic than kids who are not under regular chiropractic care.

We use the gentlest techniques on our youngest patients. Their joints require a fraction of the adjusting force that adult joints require. Most kids love coming to see us, because we don’t have any shots in our office!

Please visit the Chiropractic Care for Kids page on our website to learn more, and to submit a request for an appointment for your child.

What we eat can have a negative effect on the spine in two ways:

1. if we’re not eating the essential nutrients to build healthy bones and cartilage, we will never have healthy bones and cartilage
2. if we are eating foods that cause systemic inflammation all day every day, it creates an environment that will break down the bone matrix

Your bones, joints, nerves, cartilage, ligaments, muscles, blood vessels, etc. all need specific and essential nutrients. Most of us know that our bones need calcium, but that’s just one of thousands of minerals and nutrients that your body needs to be healthy.

We get most of our nutrients from our food, but due to unhealthy farming practices, it is almost impossible to get everything we need from food. According to a report released by the American Medical Association (AMA) in 2002, Americans would need to consume 17-22 servings of fruits and vegetables per day to get the basic nutrients that we need. Most Americans aren’t getting the USDA-recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, much less 17!

If we’re not getting what we need from food sources, we have to add supplements into our diet to make up for the deficiency. Otherwise, your body is never going to be able to build healthy bones, cartilage, muscles, tendons, nerves, blood vessels, etc. We talk with our patients about the best supplements for their specific needs.

Not only are we not getting what we need from our food, we also tend to eat too much of the things that inhibit health.

When we eat foods that our systems don’t want, we start a process of inflammation. Inflammation is your body’s first response to a problem.

Chronic inflammation means that your body is fighting problems all day every day. Chronic inflammation has been shown to pull calcium out of bones, leading to arthritis in the spine and other joints. Chronic inflammation can also cause other health problems such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, fibromyalgia, auto-immune conditions, and others.

So, what kinds of foods are we eating that are causing chronic inflammation?

Every body is different, but here are the most common substances that are causing problems for us: high fructose corn syrup (sometimes it hides behind other names on labels… we will discuss that on a different post), corn oil, soybean oil, eggs, dairy, and wheat.

We can quickly spiral down a path of very strict elimination diets - and sometimes those are necessary to heal from overdosing on toxic foods for too long - but for the average person, just pay attention to how you feel after you eat something. If you feel gross after you eat something with a lot of dairy, then maybe cut down on the number of meals that include dairy to 2-3 meals per week. If you can’t sleep after you eat bread, then don’t eat bread for a while and see how you feel.

This topic has a lot of research and opinions, and we can dive into some of those, but a good first step is to start paying attention to what you eat.

To wrap up: food affects us in both positive and negative ways. Eating the right things gives us the building blocks to make healthy tissues, and eating challenging foods can inhibit your body’s function. Let’s pay attention to what we need and what we don’t need.

Yes, absolutely! When children fist start walking, their gait is driven by the strongest muscles in the hips and the legs, and the muscles that have the most communication between the brain and the muscle cells. After they gain a little strength and stability, they should have the most perfect gait of their lifetime.

Most children learn to walk barefoot, so they don’t have footwear putting abnormal mechanics on the structures of the ankles, knees, and hips (which we will talk about later - thank you, Nike…). They don’t have sport training to create imbalances in the strength of the legs or the hips, and they don’t have joint pain that prevents them from putting their full weight on their feet, knees, or hips.

They are just perfect bundles of muscles and nerves, and everything should function properly.

When children walk, they should bear weight on the entire foot, and all ten toes should point straight forward.

Have you ever seen someone who is “pigeon-toed”? That’s a non-diagnostic term for when people walk with the toes of both feet turned inward. It is an indication that the sacrum is out of its normal alignment. Sometimes people walk with just one foot turned in, which is an indication that the sacrum is out of place and rotated.

We have had several young children/toddlers come into our practice because their parents or grandparents saw that they were walking with one foot turned inward. Once we corrected the subluxations in the sacrum, they started walking perfectly.

We have also had adults come into our office who have been pigeon-toed since childhood, and it is a lot harder to correct those problems once the bones fuse. It’s not impossible, but it does take a lot longer.

Another problem that we see occasionally is toe-walking, where kids only walk on their toes or only occasionally walk with their heels on the ground.

Toe-walking is an indication that there is a lot of strain on the spinal cord somewhere in the spine. It can be in the sacrum and low back, or in the neck. Frequently, it is in multiple locations.

When kids, toddlers, and infants come into our practice, we check the full spine. Our goal is to correct subluxations as soon as possible, so that they can have the best opportunity to be healthy. Thankfully, most kids respond really quickly to chiropractic care, and then we get to do the fun part of keeping their spine healthy.

In the modern era, most people have a desk at work. Most people spend a large percentage of their day at their desk. If your desk set-up puts a lot of strain on the neck and low back, it can compound subluxation problems.

When we sit, we want to keep the spine aligned just like it is when we stand with good posture.

So, what is good posture? Well, stand up. Put all ten toes on the ground and all ten toes pointed straight forward. Don’t lock your knees. Pull your belly-button in toward your spine and your sacrum down toward the ground. Bring the shoulders directly over the hips and the ears back over your shoulders.

That is good, proper posture.

When we sit, we want the spine to remain in that alignment.

Most office chairs are designed for people who are 5’10”. If you are shorter than 5’10”, your knees will be below your hips. Ideally, we want the knees to be at the same level as your hips, so that your femur is parallel to the ground.

If your knees are below your hips, put something under your feet to bring your knees up. Some people use a small stool, but it doesn’t have to be anything expensive; I use a shoe box, personally. Some people have found that old textbooks make good foot rests (if the bookstore is only going to give you $.20 back for your freshman biology book, hold onto that bad boy and put it to use).

If you are taller than 5’10”, raise your seat so that your knees are also aligned with your hips.

Next, we want to bring the computer monitor in front of your eyes so that you don’t spend extended time looking up or down at the screen. This is how I have chosen to use my old textbooks - as a monitor stand. Again, it doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective, although there are products out there to purchase if you want.

Next, we need to talk about the mouse. If you have to use the mouse a lot, we want to find a way to bring the mouse under your hand without extending the shoulder and elbow for extended periods of time. If you only use the mouse sparingly, this is a less pressing issue.

Finally, get up and move around every 20-30 minutes. Set a timer on your phone and keep hitting “repeat” until this becomes a habit. Walk to the water cooler. Walk to the copy machine. Do a few squats. Bend over and reach toward your toes. Whatever movement you can do to get blood circulation in the lower half of your body will help.

Sometimes people ask about standing desks. If you have the funds available to invest in a good desk, I would recommend a desk that allows you to alternate between sitting and standing. There are some desks on the market that can be used in positions that allow for both, and I think that is the best option. If money is tight, try to make small changes to your current set-up.

There are a few ways emotional stress might increase our physical pain levels.

First, it can cause a head tilt. Most of us know that the right side of the brain tends to be more active than the left when we are doing creative things, such as painting a picture, making music, or dreaming up a new story to write. The left side of the brain tends to be more active than the right when we are working on math homework, thinking through our grocery list, or playing sudoku puzzles. Both sides of the brain are really important, not just for helping us do those tasks, but for keeping the other side in check.

Without the left side of the brain, the right side can spin off and imagine the worst case scenario in all things. Some mental health professionals would call that “anxiety”. On the other hand, without the right side of the brain, we would have low levels of “happy hormones” like oxytocin and progesterone.

When we are using one side of the brain, it tends to go upward. If we are “stuck” in emotionally stressful situations or thought processes, the right side of the brain goes upward, which means we have a left head tilt. The head will literally tilt to the left. In today’s stress-riddled world, it is unusual for someone to have a right head tilt, unless they have had a head trauma (like a concussion) in the past.

If we have a head tilt, it will put stress and strain on one side of the neck, eventually pulling one shoulder up higher, and causing compensation from the rest of the spine all the way down. There are some neurodevelopmental specialists who have suggested that childhood idiopathic scoliosis may be due to early-onset C1 subluxations.

**Note: Not all head tilts are due to emotional stress - subluxations in the upper cervical spine are commonly caused during the birth process, which can create a mechanical head tilt. Regardless of how a subluxation starts, it can lead to bigger problems down the road if left untreated.

Secondly, when we are in emotional pain, fear, or stress, we tend to adopt a forward flexed posture. What do we do when we are hurt and crying? We curl up into a ball, also known as a fetal position. On the other hand, what do we do when we laugh really hard? We throw our head back.

When we are constantly in a state of emotional stress, fear, or pain, we tend to curl up into a question mark shape, which puts a lot of abnormal mechanical strain on the spine.

Finally, emotional stress releases cortisol, sometimes called adrenaline. Elevated cortisol levels make our nerves more sensitive to pain sensations, including sharp pain, aching pain, burning pain, and numbness/tingling neuropathies.

Stress is part of life these days. We can’t do anything about reducing your emotional stress at home or at work, but we can help reduce the effects of stress on your physical body.

I love to travel, but sitting in an airplane seat for several hours is a challenge. As our practice members start their summer travel plans, we get this question frequently: “What can I do on the airplane so that my back isn’t killing me by the time I get to my destination?”

Here’s what we talk about:

1. Look into getting a small seat cushion that has a cut-out for the tailbone. A quick search on Amazon (I searched for “seat cushion for desk chair”) shows that there are several options less than $20, and some up to $80. Airplane seats have a hard ridge along the back of the seat that puts a lot of pressure on the coccyx and sacrum. A small, light seat cushion should help alleviate that pressure.
2. Find something to put under your feet to raise your knees up to hip level or above. When I’m sitting at my desk, I use a shoe box. Airplane seats are designed for people who are 5’10” - if you are shorter than 5’10”, your knees will be below your hips, and that pulls the belly-button and lumbar spine forward. Those who are taller than 5’10” have the opposite problem, and they have to sit on their ischial tuberosities more than the short people. If you don’t want to carry around a footrest that has no other purpose, get creative. If you’re a reader, put your extra books under your feet instead of in your backpack. Some people have hard cases for things like makeup or medicines. Choose something that won’t break under the weight of your legs, and remember that you will have to stow it away during take-off and landing.
3. Get up and move around every 30 minutes. Even if you don’t go to the bathroom, walk to the back of the plane and then back to your seat. It’s helpful to sit in the aisle seats for this purpose… your neighbors may not be too pleased if you ask them to get up with you every 30 minutes.
4. Mineral balance plays a big role in muscle tone. You have probably heard talk about magnesium recently, and yes, magnesium plays a really important role in muscle function. Most people are probably deficient in several minerals - magnesium, potassium, sodium, iodine, selenium, and calcium being at the top of the list. There are a few reasons that we are deficient these days (drinking perfectly purified filtered water, mineral depletion in our farm soils, low consumption of fish and nuts), but every single muscle movement in your body requires a significant amount of minerals to contract and relax. Nettle leaf infusions (most people call it nettle leaf tea, but technically it’s not a tea if it doesn’t involve the Camellia sinensis or Camellia taliensis plants) offer the highest amount of bio-available magnesium you can consume. Many magnesium supplements cause constipation or diarrhea, but nettles infusions don’t tend to do that to people. Try to drink 4-8 ounces of nettle leaf infusions per day for a few weeks prior to your travels, and it may help with restless leg symptoms. Note: do not start drinking nettle infusions if you are pregnant. While there are no studies that show harm to a pregnancy, some experts have theorized that nettle infusions may cause contraction of smooth muscles, which could also include contractions of the uterus.

Hopefully these tips will make your summer travels a little more comfortable!