 As you've read in many of my blogs, chiropractic care is the key to helping with many common and dangerous ailments. Did you know that blood pressure is one of the many conditions that chiropractic care can help manage naturally?
Hey everybody! Dr. Bob here with Lowcountry Chiropractic. I hope you're staying healthy and well out there. In this week's blog, I am going to be talking about blood pressure. We are going to cover what high blood pressure is, how it's measured, and what you can do to help control it. Since I am a chiropractor, I am of course going to talk about the natural ways of going about doing that. I am also going to mention some of the medications that are available out there to help control blood pressure as well. We don't personally recommend these prescriptions, but we are going to mention them today. Your blood pressure is the pressure on the walls of your blood vessels. There are two numbers you'll get when you get your blood pressure taken. The systolic number is the top number and the diastolic number is the bottom number. Say your top number is 120 and your bottom number is 80, that's normal! What that systolic number measures is the pressure that is placed on your artery walls when the heart is contracting and pushing blood through the blood vessels. When the heart is at rest and not contracting that is the diastolic or lower number. If your systolic number is 120-129 you are considered pre-hypertensive; most medical doctors won't do much more than give suggestions to change your lifestyle, exercise more, and eat better. Stage one hypertension is when you're 130-139 systolic and 80-89 diastolic. Doctors will typically start to give you medication in this phase. If you're 140/90 or higher that is considered Stage 2 hypertension. You will usually be put on multiple medications at that point. Anything over 180/120 is considered a medical emergency. Medications that are available for high blood pressure do one of three things:
We as chiropractors are not big proponents, as you know, of medication. We think that things can be done naturally, with fewer side effects, and we work with the body and not against it. I did some research on some foods that can naturally help your blood pressure that I wanted to share with you today. These delicious foods include:
You might be asking yourself how chiropractic care fits into helping take care of high blood pressure. We all should know that the brain, spinal cord, and nerves control every function in your body. So, if there is pressure on the nerves in your body, your body is not going to work as it should. Nerve impulses help control the size of your blood vessels. When you have a subluxation (a bone that is out of place irritating a nerve) the blood vessel connected to that nerve can either dilate or constrict. If it constricts, there is less space for the blood to flow, which puts extra pressure on the vessel walls, thus increasing blood pressure. If the blood vessel dilates, the extra volume can create inflammation that can also increase blood pressure. Chiropractic care corrects the subluxation, allowing the nerves to communicate with the blood vessels, thus normalizing the diameter of the vessels and therefore regulating blood pressure. These are just some thoughts that I wanted to share with you on how you can realistically manage high blood pressure. Chiropractic care, good nutrition and exercise are excellent ways to naturally manage your blood pressure over your lifetime. Hopefully, this helps! Remember, I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered!
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 You might not get a prescription for a visit to the chiropractor after a fender bender or any car accident. In reality, visiting your chiropractor needs to be one of the first things you do after an accident. Seeking out chiropractic care immediately after a car accident can limit or eliminate future pain caused by your accident.
Hi everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here once again with another blog about the benefits of chiropractic care! I hope you all are staying safe and well out there! Today, we are going to be talking about car accidents. We have a lot of car accidents in this town, don't we? In light of that, I wanted to talk about what you should do in the aftermath of any car accident you have. Of course, the police will come to the accident site, and if you're injured badly you'll be transported to the hospital, but what about your back and your spine? You might receive an MRI or CT scan when you reach the hospital and possibly even x-rays. They will also always give you medications after you've received care, like muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories, and so on. Most times, if there is a whiplash injury, meaning you've been hit from behind (which is the most common type of injury in car accidents) you are diagnosed with a sprain or strain of the affected areas (like your neck and back). You'll simply be told to go home and rest. I am here to tell you that this may not be the best advice! A car accident can be a very traumatic injury to your spine. As we've mentioned before, the spine houses your spinal cord. You have 24 vertebrae that are separated by discs, and in between each vertebra, a spinal nerve emanates. You have a spinal nerve on both sides of your spine, and you have 31 levels in total. This means you have 62 nerves coming out of your spinal cord. When you experience trauma and your vertebrae shift or move, it's very easy to damage or pinch at least one of those 62 nerves. Invariably, with most accidents, even if it's just a small fender bender, your spine and your nerve system are going to be compromised. As a result of this, you might feel pain in that affected area or you might not feel it until some time later. If there is damage the pain could appear the next day or it could wait to show up a week or even a month later. By that point, you might be questioning why you're waking up with pain, and it's usually going to be related to that car accident. The best thing you can do after an accident, unless you are very seriously injured and you need to go to the hospital, is to go to your chiropractor. If you visit us right after a car accident we will give you a very thorough exam, we will take X-rays, and we will make sure that things in your spine are where they're supposed to be. If they're not, we will immediately get to fixing those misalignments called subluxations, take the pressure off your affected nerves, and help you start feeling better. We can align everything again so that later down the road you're not going to have chronic problems. I see a lot of patients who come into my office with pain connected to car accidents that happened years ago, and because they didn't get chiropractic care, their pain is now something they struggle with daily. It's important to understand that when you get in a car accident, you need to go get checked by a chiropractor. I hope this helps! If you have any questions, give us a call. We see a lot of patients with pain related to car accidents. If you have any issues with your spine or health, please reach out to us. We would love to meet you and help you out in a natural and kind way for your spine. Until next time, I am Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered! |
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