Top 10 Reasons to Visit Your Chiropractor This Holiday Season
The holiday season is the most exciting time of the year, but it can also be a very stressful time for some. While it inspires us to be grateful for our blessings, it is also easy to get overwhelmed with all the holiday frenzy and forget to look after our own health, which can eventually take its toll on our body. In this article, Advanced Chiropractic Relief enumerates the top ten reasons to visit your chiropractor this holiday season. It’s a great opportunity to visit your Houston Chiropractor, Dr. Gregory Johnson, to keep you healthy and pain-free throughout the holidays.
Stress
We all know that holidays bring both excitement and stress. Attending to visiting family members, buying gifts, travel expenses can cause a lot of stress. The same goes for traveling, delayed flights or missing it and being stuck in airports or being on the road for long hours. Another cause of stress is being on your own and alone because your friends or family live far away. When our mind and body are stressed, we tend to tense up and develop headaches, back pain, neck pain, and even indigestion. A lot of people end up spoiling their holidays because they end up being stressed and don’t do anything to help themselves and take care of their own health. It’s great to be generous and giving, but it’s good to put yourself first once in a while to focus on your health and find the time to see your chiropractor for chiropractic adjustments to treat and prevent injuries from happening repeatedly and provide relief from chronic pain, back pain, neck pain or shoulder pain. Chiropractic adjustments is powerful and is great to deal with the negative effects of stress on the body. Trust me, I have a psychology degree, and it sure comes in handy this time of year.
Travel (By Road or Air)
Whether you’re flying or driving, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year for traveling and it can negatively impact your body. Sitting in a car for long hours as a driver or passenger can cause your body to tense up, especially in bad weather or heavy traffic. Dragging your luggage and waiting in long lines at the airports, long hours of sitting in tight plane seats, pressure changes in the plane cabin, disrupted sleep patterns..all these can take their toll on your mind and body. Visiting your chiropractor for chiropractic care is great for keeping your spine in check and helping prevent injuries caused by the mental and physical challenges of traveling. Traveling can negatively impact our body and often suffer from pain due to a stiff neck from sleeping with poor posture in the car or plane, back pain or sore shoulder from lifting and moving heavy suitcases, and sciatica pain from a long car or plane ride. At Advanced Chiropractic Relief, we advise getting chiropractic adjustments before and after your trip. Your body will definitely thank you for it and ensures you enjoy the holidays pain-free!
Bad Weather
Bad weather during the holiday season is not new. People getting into accidents or injuring themselves this time of the year is common, such as falling or slipping on ice, tumbling from skiing and snowboarding. Shoveling and raking snow can put a lot of strain your back, shoulder and arms. When doing these activities, make sure to wear protective gears and use proper equipment and form. If you can, hire professionals to clear the snow off your driveway. If you get injured, it is important to seek immediate medical. You may not feel the pain immediately or for days after the injury happens. During that time you may have been causing more damage and may be too late. As an option, seeing a chiropractor for adjustments may help to prevent further damage. Don’t let pain get in the way of enjoying the festive season.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or Depression
During winter, the hours of sunlight are much shorter, which causes our vitamin D levels to drop around this time of year and cause depression. The stress of the holiday season can exacerbate the situation. Instead of taking anti-depressant pills, try fighting depression or the holiday blues by going out and visiting family and friends or doing activities you love. Surround yourself with people who can uplift you and cheer you up. You can also see your chiropractic for spinal adjustments that positively impact the nervous system, which can balance the spinal cord and cerebrospinal fluid and relieve back, neck, arm or shoulder pain. Being in balance and pain-free can boost your mood and prevent depression. Taking supplemental vitamin D3 is clinically proven to fight depression naturally.
Shopping Frenzy
Long hours on your feet when shopping and carrying bags of gifts can cause leg, back, shoulder and elbow pain. Standing and walking on concrete shop floors for extended hours can cause back pain and knee pain. Loading and unloading bags of gifts from the shop to the car trunk and to your home can hurt your back. Be careful when shopping to avoid injury, but know that your chiropractor can put you back together so you don’t have to miss all the great deals.
Bad Diet and Poor Digestion
During the holidays, we tend to overeat, indulge and change our eating habits. Holiday feasts are generally heavy, starchy, fatty and sweet. We consume less fresh food, fruits and vegetables,with not enough fiber. These disrupt and slow down our digestion and cause constipation, bloating, gas and heartburn. Chiropractic adjustments improves our digestion because it affects the nervous system that controls the nerves going to our intestines or stomach. Chiropractic adjustments can keep your bowel movement regular throughout the holiday season.
Headache
Headaches can be caused by numerous things, such as head trauma, muscle tension, stress, misalignments in the neck, stress, eyeglasses prescription, sinusitis, allergies, hangover and more. TO find out the exact cause of your headache, schedule an evaluation with a physician or a chiropractor. Some headaches can be caused by musculoskeletal pain, which can be addressed by chiropractic adjustments. Stress and muscle tension on the neck and shoulders can put pressure on the base of the skull and cause headache. Over-the-counter pain medication offer temporary relief, but don’t really address the underlying cause. Instead of popping a pain pill, visit your chiropractic for adjustments and relieve stress-related headaches.
Treat Yourself
Give yourself the gift of looking after your own well-being. Take some time off from your busy holiday schedule and treat yourself to a massage or a chiropractic adjustments to help you relax, de-stress and ease muscle tensions. Leave the kitchen, shopping, decorating and gift-wrapping for a bit and pamper yourself.
Cleansing and Detox
After the delightful season of indulging in sweets, alcohol or wine, our bodies need some good cleansing and detoxification. The ill-effects of sugar, processed foods, sodium, fat and alcohol can take a toll on our liver, kidneys, digestive system and overall health. Cleansing and detoxing can flush our system of all the toxins and help our body regain its balance. Combining chiropractic care with your cleansing will help regulate the digestive system and keep bowel movement regular. Detoxing is also a great way to begin a weight loss program, as it frees up toxins from fat cells. The average person gains 3-10 pounds throughout the holiday season, so this is usually when many people try to lose weight.
New Year’s Resolutions
Yes, it’s time to make that New Year’s resolution list again. This time though, let’s promise to stick to it and accomplish them. Top two New Year’s resolutions among Americans are to get on a healthy diet and start working out working. Eating healthy is a great way to help the body regain its balance and exercising is the best way to rid of extra weight, as well as lower your blood sugar, lower your cholesterol level and lower your blood pressure. Exercise helps strengthen your muscles and increases bone density. Moreover, endorphin released when exercising boosts our mood and make us feel good. If you have pain or injury that keeps you from working out, get evaluated by a chiropractor before you start exercising. Back pain, neck pain, knee pain or hip pain can easily discourage you from leading a more active life. An undiagnosed lower back injury can get worse and lead to more injuries when doing exercise routines, such as lifting weights. Make sure your body is completely balanced before starting an exercise routine.
Enjoy the holiday season and we wish you all the best for the rest of year and the coming 2017. Contact Advanced Chiropractic Relief, fill out our Contact Form more information on our chiropractic care services or to schedule a consultation for you, your family or friends. Have a pain-free and happy holidays with chiropractic!
