Our neighbor Joe developed a bulging disk in his spine that eventually made it hard for him to stand for longer than a few minutes at a time. Reluctantly, he visited a spine specialist and was told he needed back surgery. Fortunately for Joe, his family urged him to get a second opinion. In Joe's case he was able to recover without having the surgery. Many experts agree that surgery should be your last resort, but what other options are there?
We love dogs. And we love the dog park. Aside from an occasional canine kerfluffle, the dog park is most always a joyous place. We do know of one neighbor though who was bowled over by a couple rowdy dogs and suffered whiplash. Whiplash is usually associated with car crashes, but it can also occur in some other surprising ways.
At Parkside, we're always looking not only to relieve the immediate discomfort a condition may be causing, but also to treat the underlying cause of an issue. When it comes to joint pain, the cause is often inflamation. Let's look at how small changes in your lifestyle, along with visits to your friendly neighborhood massage therapist, can help fight the fire of inflammation.
The current state of our mental health is stark: In the U.S., 21% of adults — 50 million of us — are experiencing a
mental illness. And 55% currently receive no treatment. Knowing these surprising facts will hopefully help to dispel longstanding stigmas around mental health challenges. Let’s look at three recent studies to see how therapeutic massage can play an important role in relieving mental health symptoms.
Chiropractors are licensed doctors who treat about 35 million Americans each year. Much of their work involves restoring mobility to joints and relieving back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches. Chiropractic services cost less on average and are included in most health insurance plans.
A friend remembers his days as an eight-year-old paperboy fondly, except for the huge paper bag that hung off one of his slim shoulders, which was torture. Kids and adults are often carrying similar loads these days, through schoolyards and airports. Let's look at how we can be sensible about what we schlep around.
Oh noooo! For some reason, each of us has a head that weighs about 11 pounds. Apparently that's the trade-off we make for our big, beautiful brains. Luckily, the neck and spine are designed to support this weight, as long as it's well-balanced. The problems start when we tilt our heads forward, like when we're on our phones. Which is, on average, three hours a day. Yikes!
Our friend Tom’s laptop keeps shutting down on him while he’s working. It happens several times a week. The laptop isn’t broken — it actually warns Tom twice that it needs to be plugged in before it shuts down! Tom just needs to stop what he’s doing, acknowledge the alerts, and take action. Many of us hear the alerts our bodies are giving us in the form of aches and pains. They say, “Pay attention, do something about this!” But we ignore these messages, limp along, and make do as we slowly lose mobility.
Do you know how many joints are in your body? We don’t either! That’s because the answer varies from person to person, depending on factors like age and what is classified as a joint. Babies have more bones than adults, and therefore more joints, because some bones fuse together as they grow. Learn about these amazing connections that help you move!
