Health news and information from Chiropractic First
Published Fortnightly.
..: 12 JULY 2007 ISSUE | 5th Issue
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Health news and information from Chiropractic First |
..: 12 JULY 2007 ISSUE | 5th Issue | ||||
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Hypertension - The Silent Killer Otherwise known as high blood pressure, it is the force in the arteries when the heart beats and when the heart is at rest. Measured in millimeters of mercury (mm HG), high blood pressure is defined as a blood pressure at or above 140/90. High blood pressure directly increases the risk of coronary heart disease (which leads to heart attack) and stroke, especially when it is present with other risk factors such as late hours, poor eating habits, stress and strain. It does not usually present symptoms. Before you know it, kidneys would have failed or a stroke happens. If you have been experiencing recent spells of dizziness and hot flushes or have been abnormally nervous and irritable, you should get your blood pressure checked. |
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How High Blood Pressure Works: As each heartbeat sends a surge of blood through an artery, that artery expands. Then because of the muscles in its wall, the artery springs back to its original shape. If the inside of the arteries becomes smaller – either because of deposits, or their inability to expand normally, or the lack of proper nerve supply to dilate them when the need arises – then the blood pressure increases. High blood pressure places an additional load on your heart, making it pump harder for the blood circulation to sustain normal bodily processes. Hundreds of thousands of people take pills and medicine to keep the condition under control. However, high blood pressure is a symptom, not a disease. It is usually an indication of the failure of normal nerve function. The cause goes unchecked and the condition gets worse. High blood pressure is commonly associated with one of these: • Arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) • Certain abnormal conditions of the kidneys, or overindulgence in alcoholic drinks or a diet including too much meat |
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6 Simple Ways to Control Blood Pressure: • Check your blood pressure regularly • Keep your weight at or below the ideal level • Avoid food with high salt content • Control alcohol intake • Eat a diet low in saturated fat • Increase physical activities, such as walking 30 mins per day |
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The Effectiveness of Chiropractic: A one-time specialized chiropractic adjustment for the neck has been found to greatly decrease blood pressure. None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elasticity of the arteries, along with all other arterial functions, is controlled by the nervous system. A chiropractor is an expert in procedures which restores normal nerve function – normalizing blood pressure through locating and correcting the cause, which is often misaligned vertebrae in the spine, causing nerve irritation. |
References: • American Heart Association • Journal of Human Hypertension (2007) , 21, 341-342, Published Online 25 January 2007 I am presently 35 and have given birth to three beautiful children. I was diagnosed with early signs of scoliosis during my school days but no medical attention was given and the usual comment of 'wait and see' was always told to me every time I sought medical advice. In addition, I have always had a chronic problem with my hip joints which hinder my ability to participate in even the simplest activity like jogging. As usual, the medical doctors would pass it off as 'normal'. This condition was further aggravated by my pregnancies. Chronic signs and symptoms through the years are just tolerated as 'normal'. All these have taken a toll on my health, both physically and mentally. Today, I am going through the reconstruction of my spine with my chiropractor and with only two months into chiropractic adjustments, I can already experience tremendous improvement in my overall well being. I feel totally energized and more agile now and for the first time in my life, I could jog and run without feeling aches and pain in my hip. I am really happy that I have made the right choice of walking into Chiropractic First's clinic two months ago and my chiropractor, Dr. Andrew, could immediately understand all the chronic symptoms I felt through the years. Through his explanations, I learnt to appreciate that the slightest subluxation in our spines would exert tremendous pressure on the affected nerves which could in turn affect the related organs and associated parts of the body. With the benefits I have witnessed, I have also let my six-year-old son go through chiropractic care. As a parent, I believe the holistic approach of chiropractic care will definitely benefit children in the long run. Thank you chiropractic care! Yours sincerely, Mrs Lilie Lim , via e-mail 22 June 2007, Friday |
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Dear Doctor, I would like to enquire about the safety of chiropractic adjustments in kids. At what age can a child start chiropractic care? I have read some articles which have raised some concerns about some dangers of chiropractic adjustments especially the neck adjustments which may accidentally give rise to complications like stroke or intracranial hypotension. Are these true or are these insignificant concerns? Children can have spinal trauma or subluxation during birth process such as forceps, vacuum or improper c-section procedure. Hence parents are encouraged to bring their children for spinal evaluation. We have different chiropractic techniques for spinal adjustments including those for Infants and kids. Low force chiropractic techniques, such as activator or SOT, are usually used on infants and kids. There is no evidence or research so far to show that low force technique such as activator will cause complications like stroke or intracranial hypotension. The results of one study that covered a period of 28 years and another involved reviewing about 110 million chiropractic visits show conclusively that the risk of stroke from a chiropractic adjustment, more commonly known as spinal manual adjustment, is so small as to be statistically insignificant. In reality, even the 1-3 incidents per million adjustments figures may be too high, since it is erroneous to equate correlation with cause. That is, if a person suffers a stroke after receiving a chiropractic adjustment, it is not necessarily proof that the adjustment caused the stroke. In an article entitled "Adjustments, Strokes, and Errors in Medicine" (The Chiropractic Journal, July 2000), Christopher Kent, D.C., explained, "The fact that a temporal relationship exists between two events does not mean that one caused the other." 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, such as surgery.
Do you have a medical question? If so, please send them to askdoc@chiropractic-first.org Letters may be edited for brevity and readability before appearing in the next issue. |
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