Calling All Birds

Attracting birds to your yard & garden is easy with native plants, which are adapted to your local climate, and require little special care in order to flourish.

The National Audubon Society offer a “native plant database,” where you can find your native plants, and how to grow them, by putting in your zip code  

https://www.audubon.org/native-plants?ms=digital-eng-email-ea-plants-20180505_native-plants_medium&utm_source=ea&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180505_native-plants&utm_content=medium

Native plants will lure the birds you love to watch, help them to thrive, and support other beneficial pollinators in your area.

Numbness---Which Fingers?

   

     Numbness and tingling in the hand & fingers is often originating from impingement of nerves in the neck.

     The particular part of the hand or the finger(s) where the patient feels the numbness / tingling helps pinpoint the location of the impingement.

     Fortunately we have a "map" of the areas of skin (called "dermatomes") in different parts of the body that tells us which spinal nerve provides sensory innervation to each area. With minor individual variations, this dermatomal "map" is applicable to every patient.

     By comparing the patient's area of symptoms with the "map," the doctor can discern which nerve is being impinged. 

     As an Advanced Proficiency Rated Activator Chiropractor, I can make precise, gentle adjustments at the site of impingement, in this case in the neck, to relieve the symptoms.   

Glycemic Index

     The Glycemic Index (GI) is a relative ranking of carbohydrate foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels. The lower the relative value, the slower the metabolism of the food, and thus the slower the food causes an increase in blood glucose.

     Any rise in blood glucose, of course, affects insulin levels, a critical consideration for people who are diabetic or pre-diabetic.

     However, attention to the GI is a good idea for everyone, because spikes in blood sugar due to what we eat can lead, over time, to ever-increasing proximity to a diabetic state.

     So---it's not just about sugar! 

     Ultimately it's about how rapidly any food raises our level of blood sugar. 

     Find out more at   https://www.gisymbol.com/about-glycemic-index/ 

     

Arthrokinematics

     Combine "arthro" meaning "of a joint," and "kinematics," meaning "properties of motion of objects" and you get a cool new word, "arthrokinematics"---which is applicable in describing the motion of any joint in the body.

     For example, the "roll and slide" movement of the lower end of the thigh bone, the femur, moving against the top of the larger bone in the lower leg, the tibia, when bending the knee.

     Whether kicking a soccer ball (the femur is stable & the tibia is rolling & gliding)  or squatting (the tibia is stable & the femur will roll & glide), the arthrokinematics are crucial to maintaining stability of the knee throughout its range of motion.   

      

"The Straw That Broke the...

     .......Camel’s Back."  As the saying goes, when a seemingly insignificant action or event results in sudden, extreme pain. 

     What’s going on here?

     Patients often tell me, "All I did was bend over to pick up the newspaper," or "I just got up out of a chair." Simple actions that should not be expected to cause the pain that followed.

     In fact, 90% of the time, dysfunction has been building, often becoming more complex, but not yet symptomatic, or maybe the little twinges you felt were easy to ignore. 

     Then a simple movement, change of position, or event, suddenly pushes things over the edge into pain. What has been lurking becomes painfully impossible to ignore.

     When you feel those little twinges, or sense that maybe something in your underlying structure isn't right, come in and get your body balanced, and you're much less likely to get into that place of severe pain.