 Cholesterol is something we should all take very seriously, but there is still a lot of misinformation out there about it that we need to understand. Today Dr. Bob will be debunking some of the most common myths about cholesterol with the help of Dr. Joseph Mercola. Hey everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic. I hope everyone out there is doing well and staying healthy. Today, we are going to be talking about cholesterol. I first want to say that this information that I am sharing with you comes from Dr. Joseph Mercola, and he is awesome. He has some great information about all kinds of health issues. I encourage you to visit his website, www.mercola.com. He is an osteopathic doctor and has a very natural and holistic medical approach to his work. This information comes from an article he wrote in April of 2016, and I want to give total credit and props to him for this information and inspiration of this blog. I have taken some notes and wanted to share them with you. The topic of the article is cholesterol myths that you shouldn't believe. Myth #1 Cholesterol Is Bad! We always hear about how high cholesterol will cause heart disease. That is not exactly the case. Get this fact! The liver makes three-quarters of the cholesterol that exists in your body. Now if your liver is making cholesterol, would your liver make something that is bad for you? I wouldn't think so! That's really the case. The body actually needs cholesterol, and it is very important for several reasons.
Myth #2 High cholesterol is caused by a bad diet. The reality of it is that only about 20% of your cholesterol is related to the food that you eat, making 80% of the cholesterol found in your body genetic. It has to do more with the liver's inability to get rid of excess cholesterol in people who are genetically inclined to produce more cholesterol. So, it's not really what we eat; a lot of it is genetic! We need to look at someone's genetics, study them, and pay attention to their family's medical history before placing blame on anything else. What is a healthy cholesterol level? The bottom line is that a healthy level varies by person. Your medical doctor will usually say that you have to have cholesterol under 200 and your LDL levels (the bad cholesterol) need to be under 100. In all honestly, these levels vary by person. There are some ratios and measurements that are much more accurate than total cholesterol. Total cholesterol is really not a good indicator of heart health. What is a good measure is the ratio of HDL (the good cholesterol) in your body divided by the total cholesterol. That number should be greater than 24% and is a great measure of whether you're in the right range of heart health. The second measurement is to look at your triglyceride levels, or the levels of fat circulating in your bloodstream. The triglycerides divided by the total cholesterol should be under 2 for a healthy heart. Another good way to measure heart health is to look at the fasting insulin levels in your body. If you're eating a lot of refined sugars, your body produces more insulin, which is there to take the sugar out of your bloodstream. Elevated insulin levels are bad because they promote fat accumulation in your body. An indicator of heart disease is the accumulation of fat in your body, especially belly fat. More Things To Consider For Measuring Heart Health
Myth #3 Margarine is better for you than butter. This is a myth because it has been proven that vegetable-based oils are bad for you; they increase the bad levels of LDLs in your body, and can cause heart problems. What you want to be doing instead is to eat more animal-based fats (eggs and butter) rather than plant-based fats. Omega 3 fats are also a great example of fats to eat and are found in fish. Considering Medications The last thing we are going to talk about is statin drugs. These are the drugs that are used to control cholesterol levels in your body. In general, they're not very effective. In fact, studies have shown that they only benefit about 1% of the population that takes them. They also deplete your coenzyme Q10 levels in your body. This material is responsible for energy production throughout your body, helping it work and function properly. If you don't have enough coenzyme Q10, you won't have enough energy production for your body to work as it needs to. Your heart needs an extreme amount of energy to function, so lower levels of coenzyme q10 can lead to heart disease. What are the healthy non-prescription ways to treat your cholesterol and heart disease?
I hope all of this information helps! Again, special thanks to Dr. Mercola for this incredible information. I hope you've learned something new today that you didn't know beforehand, and I hope you can apply it to your everyday health. If you're having trouble with any aspect of your health, please contact us! We would love to give you some advice and possibly get you started with chiropractic care! Until next time, I am Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered. To read the full article I based this whole blog off of, please follow the link below! https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/20/cholesterol-myths.aspx
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 Chiropractic care is safe and effective for everyone at every stage in their lives. Today, we will be discussing chiropractic care for the elderly; benefits, safety, and common myths!
Hello everyone, it's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic! Welcome back to the blog. I hope you are continuing to stay healthy and well out there, and I hope you've started to take the advice I discussed in my last blog to heart. Making those healthy additions in your life can make all the difference, keep you healthy, make you feel good, and so much more! Always know that I'm here to answer your questions or to schedule you for a consultation; just give us a call or shoot us an email! Today, I wanted to turn the tables and talk about chiropractic care for a certain age group. I've mentioned before that the myths and misinformation about chiropractic care can get in the way of individuals receiving life-changing treatment that can improve their overall quality of life. I hear these excuses and reasonings why individuals shouldn't get care all the time; I'm too young it's not safe, I'm too old it's not safe, I'm pregnant so it's not safe, I'm not in pain so I don't need chiropractic care. All of these reasons are incorrect. Today, I want to discuss and talk about chiropractic care for the elderly.
I hope all of this helps! Please know we are here for you at any stage of your life and can help you at any stage of your life. If you have any questions or concerns or would like to come in for a consultation give us a call! Stay healthy and safe, readers! Until next time, I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered!  A brand new year is here! I want to share some of the best tips you can do for your body to keep healthy and happy in 2021!
Hello everyone! It's Dr. Bob Salamon with Lowcountry Chiropractic. Welcome back to the blog and a very Happy New Year to you! I hope you're staying safe and well out there, and I hope you're taking care of yourselves! Welcome to 2021! I think we are all very happy to see it here, and we are all happy to get out of last year and all of its craziness. With a new year comes resolutions to work out, eat better, and be healthier overall, right? Sadly, these resolutions usually only last for a short time. In honor of that and in honor of 2021, I want to help you achieve your goals. So, I wanted to share a list of things with you that you'll be able to stick with and make part of your everyday life, to make sure this year and beyond are the healthiest they can be. If you do everything on this list that you're about to read, you will get healthier without question. It's a simple list, but I won't lie to you; it won't be easy. Each of the listed items takes effort on your part to incorporate them into your lifestyle. I personally have nothing to do with this list, outside of providing it for you, except for the last point we will talk about today. Let's kick off this new year and jump into this list to start on a healthier and happier you! #1 Go Green! I'm not talking about saving the earth, I'm not talking about saving trees from getting cut down, and I'm not talking about global warming. I am talking about eating healthy and eating green things. Some of the best ways to eat green are by eating things like salads, fruits, and vegetables. It's not only about eating green things but also about eating multicolored things. They call this kind of diet "eating the rainbow" because those are the things that have a lot of phytonutrients and antioxidants in them like berries, nuts, peppers, romaine lettuce, and much more. I eat a lot of my green food raw. I eat salads a lot, but at night I'll have a piece of fish with green beans and the green beans will be raw, because when you cook food it tends to remove the nutrients from it. When I say "go green" I really mean that you need to get away from eating food that's white or brown, and you need to eat colorful things that come out of the ground or grow on trees. Eating this way will help you become much healthier! Another reason to eat green is that they are alkaline in nature and not acidic. You'll find acidic elements in starches, bread, pasta, candy, and sweets. Fruits and veggies will make your body more alkaline. This is so important because diseases like cancer thrive in an acidic environment, and you don't want that! #2 Refine Your Life! What do I mean by this? I'm talking about refined sugars. You want to try to eliminate eating foods that have unnaturally occurring sugars in them and replace them with foods that only have natural sugars. Unfortunately, almost all the products you see on the shelves of a grocery store have a ton of refined sugars in them. Why do we want to avoid refined sugars? There are a lot of reasons, but the two most important are as follows:
#3 Get a Supplemental Plan! I'm not talking about a medicare supplement for insurance. I'm talking about health supplements to the foods that you eat. We are not going to get 100% of everything we need from the food that we eat every day. To help with this, you want to try and supplement your intake with various items. I take Juice Plus+, which is whole foods in capsules. If I'm not getting 100% of all my fruits, vegetables, and berries every day this supplement helps to bridge the gap between what I am eating and what I should be eating for a healthy body. In terms of supplementation, I take fish oil and coconut oil which are huge anti-inflammatories. You might want to consider adding one or more into your diet. Another supplement you should look into adding that I always talk about is vitamin D3. It is an extremely great and inexpensive supplement to boost your immune system. Boosting your immune system is so important when we are already dealing with COVID, the flu season, and more. You want your immune system to be working at 100% so it can defend itself against some of these dangerous things that are out there. I recommend most people take between 3000 to 5000 IUs of D3. I'm taking 10,000 right now during the pandemic. I will say that I haven't felt anything in terms of a sniffle or a sore throat since this pandemic has started, so I know it's doing something good for me! #4 Don't Be a Couch Potato! We've had a lot of couch potatoes in 2020 and so far into 2021 because a lot more people are working from home and they're not as active as they should be! You need to incorporate exercise into your routine. You need to add not only cardiovascular exercises like running, walking, swimming, or biking, but you also need to add in cross-training with weights, high-intensity interval training, and more to trick your body (in a good way!) to keep improving. If you do the same workout every time, your body gets lazy. You have to mix it up, which is why I do Crossfit. Every class is different, incorporating different body parts every session. Don't be a couch potato! You have to get up and start a habit. It takes three weeks to make or break a habit, so let's do this! #5 Rest and Relax! This means getting enough sleep every night, and that means at least 7-8 hours, which is recommended by the experts. The primary reason to get enough sleep is that during your REM stage of sleeping, your body is taking the time to repair itself from all the work you've done throughout the day. The neurons, synapses, the coverings and linings of your organs, your blood vessels, and your whole body heals and repairs itself when you're sleeping. #6 Don't Worry - Be Happy! What does this mean? Experts say about 95% of what we worry about is either really not important or is never going to happen, so we really shouldn't be worrying about them. We spend too much time worrying about things that aren't going to occur or even impact us. What I would challenge you to do this year is to take a more positive approach to life if you're not already. Try to look at the glass as being half full instead of half empty, and look at the blessings you have in your life instead of the negative things. Put a list together if you have to, but we all have many things we can be grateful for in life. This can give you a little joy and optimism as you go through this year. #7 Get Connected This is the one thing on the list that you need me for! I'm not talking about getting connected on social media (shoutout to Creative Consulting for doing an amazing job!). No, this is getting your brain and body to talk to one another. This is the only way your body is going to stay optimally healthy. There is a little thing called the spinal cord that connects the brain to all of your body parts, along with the nerves that go out from your spinal cord. If you don't take care of your spinal cord and the spinal nerves, your brain (which makes all of your body's decisions and sends out all the messages out to your body) will be sending those messages out, but they will reach their destinations improperly. So, the body is not going to be effectively doing the work that the brain wants it to. Also, if those nerves aren't working properly, the body can't communicate back to the brain. The brain will then not know what decisions it should really be making. How do you keep this connection working properly between your brain and your body? Go to a chiropractor! I am trained to remove subluxations of the spine, which are conditions where the vertebrae are irritating a spinal nerve and interfering up the conduction of mental, electrical and chemical impulses from the brain to the body. I and my fellow chiropractors are trained to remove those subluxations from your body and allow your brain and body to communicate as they should! It's amazing what benefits you'll see when your body is free from subluxations. By removing subluxations, your body can experience:
I don't want you to stress out and think that you have to do this list perfectly. You just need to follow it fairly well, because if you're not doing any of them and you implement even some of them into your life, you'll see a huge improvement in your health this year. You'll lose the weight that you want to lose, you'll build muscle mass, you'll sleep better, you'll have more energy, you'll have better focus, and you won't get sick as often. The real important thing on this list, outside of the essential chiropractic care, is nutrition. Nutrition is the most important thing you can do for yourself in 2021, but of course, I want you to do this whole list! I hope this helps and gives you a little encouragement for the new year. This is going to be a better year for you but you have to want to make it better! ! If you need any help with the items on this list, we do offer consultation on each of these topics. Come see me, call me, or email me to get started. Remember, I am Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered. See you next time, readers. Stay safe out there and Happy New Year!  As we are all preparing for a happy holiday, I wanted to share with you a few tips and ideas on how to stay healthy and safe through all of your holiday events and plans!
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic! I hope you all are doing well out there, and hope that you're staying healthy and well. I know it doesn't really feel like winter yet here in Charleston, but during these last few weeks of 2020 make sure to prepare yourself for cold and flu season, for the seasons to drastically change at the drop of a hat, and make plans to keep yourself healthy! Remember that your health is in your hands; why not improve your health journey now as we embark on a new year? Make time for chiropractic care, make time for exercising, getting plenty of sleep, eat well, and drink plenty of water. The holidays can make it easy to forget all about these important things, but give yourself the gift of your best health yet. You deserve it after 2020 and all of its challenges, so go ahead and give yourself this gift! I am here to help you along the way, so please don't hesitate to reach out and give us a call. I am always excited to be a part of your health journey and to help you feel your best. I do want to take the time to thank everyone who was a part of this year's holiday promotion! From all of us at Lowcountry Chiropractic, thank you so much for participating and helping us give back to our community. Thank you for donating all of your nonperishable food items to the Lowcountry Food Bank, and ensuring that Christmas and the holidays for so many of our neighbors will be happy. You helped so many families have plenty of food this time of year, and you helped them stay healthy and safe. That is truly an incredible gift. It was also wonderful to see so many returning patients, meet new patients, and to experience the holiday season with our holiday promotion with you! Congratulations to all of the winners of our contest, I hope you enjoy your prizes! Thank you again for joining us in giving back this year. Every little bit always helps! As a little gift from me to all of you, I wanted to give you a little checklist of things to help keep you healthy, safe and feeling your best during the holiday season. You might not even realize it, but the holidays can do more damage to your body than you think possible. It can be the most wonderful time of the year to spend with your loved ones and celebrate, but it can leave your body tired, sore, and with new painful, difficult subluxations. Remember too that this holiday season will be different than the rest. Please make safe decisions when gathering, celebrating, and having holiday parties. Be safe, be happy, and be merry! Also, make sure to take this checklist to heart. You are giving so much to others this holiday season, so make sure to take these few extra steps to give back to your body. Your back will really appreciate not going into 2021 with new subluxations! ● Eat well during the holidays! Don't forget the rainbow this time of year! While all of our favorite salty and sugary treats will be constantly around us, (safe) gatherings with your loved ones will mean all kinds of fun dishes, and the draw of eating out or getting takeout will be plentiful. Try and remember to eat the rainbow and maintain your healthy diet as much as possible. Eat your green leafy veggies, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Remember to keep up with eating all the foods I've talked about in the past that help prevent and eliminate inflammation. ● Make sure to stay active this holiday season, and include the whole family in your activities. Chilly weather can cause muscles and tendons to get cold when you're working out, so please make sure to properly warm-up and cool down, stretch, and drink plenty of water. Make sure to keep up with getting plenty of rest. Take advantage of any time off and get caught up on your rest and relaxation. Remember, even though rest is important, moderation is still key. Make sure you keep up with your chiropractic visits too. If you haven't added chiropractic care into your healthy lifestyle, make sure to do so! Right now is the perfect time to get started with us to kick off a bright and healthy new year. ● Be very cautious when decorating! While we all want to be the Griswold's, heavy lifting and time spent in awkward angles on a ladder can do some serious damage to your back! Make sure to lift your Christmas trees, boxes of decorations, and lights properly. When lifting these items, make sure to lift with your legs and knees and not your back. If you feel a little bentout of shape after you decorate, come see me to make sure everything is properly aligned and that there are no new subluxations that have appeared! ● Even before the 2020 pandemic, I would stress to my patients to continue to wash their hands frequently. Now I encourage it more than ever. I know you've been asked to wash your hands a lot this year, but please keep it up! Don't forget to add vitamin D3 to your healthy regimen too. This important supplement can help strengthen your immune system and help fight off any sickness trying to get into your body! ● Remember to enjoy all of your favorite holiday drinks, dishes, snacks, and goodies in moderation. This includes long movie days, Netflix binges, long afternoons spent reading, and long days shopping out at the malls or on your couch online. Make sure to take a moment to rest, moments to get up and stretch and moments to stay active with each of these activities. ● Give yourself breaks from long drives if you are planning on traveling, and plan ways to avoid eating tons of fast food while out and about. ● Just like you prepare for guests, try and stay ahead with everything in your life during the holidays! Prepare healthy meals to enjoy ahead of time so you aren't tempted to eat out. ● Plan activities with your loved ones that don't center around food. Planning a walk with your guests is a great way to get started with this! ● If you are traveling this year and you have a long drive ahead of you, take a lower lumbar pillow with you to relieve some of the stress and pressure that can build up on your lower back. ● Don't drive straight through to your holiday destination. Make plans to stop and stretch and walk around a little bit every couple of hours. ● While it might be tempting to lounge during these long drives, make sure to maintain the best posture that you can while you're driving. ● If you're a passenger during these long holiday trips, make sure to give yourself a break from scrolling through your phone and reading. Looking down for long periods can put a lot of pressure on your neck, leading to headaches or shoulder aches. Make sure to give yourself some device-free time! I want your holidays to be as wonderful as you are planning them to be. What will help this become a reality is considering this list and taking control of your health. Let this holiday be the reason for the season, a time to give back to others, a time spent with your loved ones, and the time you take control of your health. Thank you, again for being a part of our holiday promotion everyone! I also want to take a moment and thank all of you for helping all of us at Lowcountry Chiropractic have a great year. Thank you for working with us when our schedules changed, as we navigated through the pandemic together, and for supporting what we love to do and love to offer our patients. This couldn't have been possible without you, and we are forever thankful for your support and love. From all of us at Lowcountry Chiropractic, we hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful holiday and a fantastic new year. Until next time and next year, I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered!  There are so many exciting things happening in our office, and I can't wait to share them with you!
Hey everybody, it's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic. I hope you're all doing well out there. Today on the blog we are going to be talking about a wonderful new addition to my Social Media world! As many of you know who support me on Facebook, Instagram, and beyond, you've seen that I try to stay as connected and be as up to date in the social media world as possible. It's also another way that I can teach about chiropractic, and it is something that I get very excited about! I am passionate about connecting with my patients and supporters as frequently as possible and in as many ways as possible. This is why I have decided to add something very special to my normal rotation of postings! As many of you know and have seen through my social media posts, I am very passionate about what we do in the office and the many ways I try to help as many people as possible. Chiropractic is such an amazing thing, and it's just not being utilized as much as I believe it should be or could be. The amount of misinformation, not knowing about its benefits, and the anticipated cost for treatments has gotten in the way of so many people seeking out treatment. This is one of the many reasons why I use social media, so I can break down these myths and misinformation and share what the heart of chiropractic is, and the fact that it can help anyone and everyone at any point of their life journey. One of my favorite ways of doing this is coming right to you on your computer or smartphone screens in the form of exciting vlogs! Or, in other words, a video blog! I have this bi-weekly blog that goes out twice a month, and I also have a bi-weekly vlog that goes out on Facebook twice a month, along with other weekly posts. If you haven't been watching my vlogs, I encourage you to do so to continue learning more about the benefits of chiropractic care, what's happening in our offices, and to get to know me a little bit better too! As some of you might know, we are a bilingual office. Our front desk receptionist and I are fluent in Spanish and we are huge supporters of the very large and wonderful Hispanic community right here in Charleston. About two weeks ago I published my first, of what will hopefully be many, vlog that was in all Spanish! I discussed what chiropractic is and the benefits of it, and how it can help with pain reduction. When you do go and give it a watch I hope you enjoy it, and please remember there will be many more to come. It is an honor and a passion of mine to help and support the Latino community here in Charleston. I truly enjoy taking care of this vibrant community, they are great people and hard-working people. Since we speak Spanish here in the office, we do have the ability to really help those who might not be able to speak English very well or at all, and it is something we help with regularly. If you have a family member who has been avoiding getting the treatment they need because they've been concerned with a language barrier, that will no longer be an issue. Come and see us! I hope these news updates are just as exciting for you as they are for us! I am so excited to see all of you this holiday season, to see you participate in our holiday promotion, to see how many food items we can collect, and to meet all of your referrals. If you have any questions or would like to come in for an appointment, don't hesitate to reach out. We are looking forward to hearing from you! I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered!  Many people only search out their chiropractors when they're in pain. Today we are going to be talking about why you should give continued care a second thought.
Hi everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic. I hope that wherever you are that you are continuing to stay safe and healthy. Flu and cold season has arrived, and it's time to stay on top of your health as best you can. In many of my recent blogs, I have talked about that more often than not, your health is in your hands. Make sure that you're getting plenty of rest, drinking plenty of water, eating well, staying active, and adding vitamin D3 to your diet. Each of these steps can help you feel better, fight off sickness faster, and prevent you from getting sick. What would also be even more beneficial to staying healthy during this time of year and promote a strong immune system, is to come and see me or to visit your chiropractor consistently. While many people think the only time to go to the chiropractor is when they're in pain, I am here to implore you to think otherwise. I often hear from my patients that they have put off coming to see me because they just weren't in pain and they didn't see a reason to come until they were. Why wait to be in pain or when your body isn't working as it should to come see me? Instead of waiting for the pain, how about coming to see me to avoid any pain or discomfort at all? With this idea in mind, I wanted to talk about some of the top reasons why you should consistently be going to your chiropractor even when you're not in pain!
Many of my patients have spent the last 8 months hunched over their desks employing very bad posture. This also hasn't been great for their hips or lower backs either. This pandemic posture and lack of movement can lead to increased pressure in your neck, shoulders, upper back, hips, and more. It can also cause some pretty serious pain or even lead to a slipped or herniated disc. Coming to see me consistently or visiting your chiropractor on a regular basis can help strengthen your back and fight against your pandemic posture and pandemic lifestyle. I can keep you aligned and make sure that while you have to sit still much longer throughout the day, the messages in your brain are still firing without interruption and without causing you any pain.
If you're still unsure about the benefits of consistent chiropractic care, come and see me. Give us a call or shoot us an email, and we will be more than happy to get you in for an appointment. We will chat about your medical history, give you a thorough examination, and I will get right to work on helping you feel and function at your best at all times. Stay safe out there, everyone! Until next time, I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered!  In this week's blog, we are going to be discussing the different cause knee pain. Is it actually the knee itself or could it be something completely different?
Hey everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon back at it with another blog! I hope wherever you are while you're reading this that you're staying healthy and safe out there. Today we are going to be talking about knee pain. I get a lot of patients in my office who come in with knee pain from playing soccer, from falls, and car accidents. However, it is also very common for my patients to come in with unexplained knee pain. For some mysterious reason, they woke up one day and their knee hurt, but they didn't experience any direct trauma to cause this pain. They come to me looking for answers, and that is what we are going to be talking about and focusing on today. In any situation when a patient comes into my office with knee pain, it is my job to figure out whether the pain is coming from a knee issue or somewhere else in the body, and then work at resolving the issue. Remember, we work on every extremity. Chiropractic care isn't just about the spine. We will work on everything from the bones in your skull all the way down to the tips of your toes. If an extremity is causing you pain, we will figure out why and how we can fix it! Knee pain is very unique and interesting because the pain can be caused by damage directly to the knee, but often times the pain is caused by an issue in another area that is seemingly unrelated. For example, say you are playing a sport and you twist the wrong way while playing. Potentially, the pain you're feeling in your knee could be coming from a tear of a ligament or meniscus in your knee. When I examine someone in this situation, I do testing to check the stability of the knee ligaments and other soft tissues. After I go through this testing and I feel like I can help you without sending you out to get an MRI (which is truly the only way to determine if there is a tear of a ligament) then I start getting to work fixing the problem. If I believe something has been torn or seriously damaged that needs surgery or other medical attention, I will send these patients to someone who specializes in those injuries. With any patient that comes to me in this situation, I start working directly in the affected joint to make sure that all the attachments to that knee are working properly. Like I hinted above, knee pain can come from areas that are not related or presumably related directly to the knee. What do I mean by this? If you have a pelvis that is out of alignment, you are by definition not walking symmetrically. This will cause you to put pressure on one leg more than the other, and on one knee more than the other. Putting this extra pressure and strain on the side of your body that is not affected can cause extra wear and inflammation, which can cause pain. I've recently had this situation happen with one of my patients. This gentleman had gone away on vacation and was running on the beach. The beach he was running on wasn't flat, so he was running at an angle. He came back to see me after vacation and said that he was having unexplained knee pain. He had no idea where it had come from, he hadn't had an accident nor did he experience any trauma while he was gone, but had been left with this mysterious pain. So, I took a look at his knee, and it turns out that his pelvis was extremely out of alignment. All we had to do during his appointment was simply adjust the pelvis. The next time he returned after his adjustment, he shared with me that this mysterious knee pain had gone away. In this situation, it wasn't the knee that was the problem, it was the pelvis that was causing the issue. Sometimes the subluxations of the pelvis or even sometimes the lumbar vertebrae can cause knee pain because the nerves that come out of the low back go to supply the legs, knees, and feet (among other things). This means if you've irritated those nerves, you could be feeling unexplained pain in any of these extremities but not where the actual damage has occurred. In these cases, I correct these subluxations and let the body heal itself. If you've had trauma directly to your knee, then the problem causing the pain could be those torn ligaments or soft tissues that I mentioned above. I will, however, not rule out the possibility of other causes until I conduct a full exam to determine if something is potentially torn or damaged and needs to be referred out to an orthopedic specialist. The other area that could be involved with your knee pain are the muscles found in your buttocks area and the front of your hips. Problems with the gluteus maximus/medius, the piriformis, and the psoas (hip flexor) can cause knee pain. If those muscles are not working symmetrically because one side is weaker than the other, the strong side will pick up the slack, thus creating more physical stress on those joints, often the knee. When you come to see me with this kind of pain, one of the first steps I take in figuring out what is causing this knee pain is to do some muscle testing. These tests will show if a muscle is weak. If you do have a weakness, there are some simple exercises that will facilitate and strengthen the weakened muscle to help your body work properly and eliminate that pain. I hope this helps give you another avenue to explore when addressing knee pain. I hope that you remember if you are having knee pain, it doesn't necessarily mean that there is something wrong with your knee. If you are suffering from knee pain and you don't know where to turn, you've found the right place. Please reach out to us. We would love to check you out, and if I think I can help you, we will get started getting you taken care of right away. If I think that the problem is outside of my scope,, I will refer you to someone who can address your issue. Remember that many times knee pain can be effectively addressed with muscle work and chiropractic care. I hope this helps! Be well, stay well, and remember that I've got your back covered!  When it comes to the world of chiropractic care, just like any medical profession, you will hear some pretty crazy myths and rumors that can spread like wildfire. These can cause some hesitation and even fear for people who've never sought out care before. Today, we are going to be debunking some chiropractic myths to get rid of any fear or hesitation that you might have!
Hi everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic. I hope all of you out there are saying healthy and safe. I also really hope that while we inch closer to flu season that you take the time to read my last blog on the importance of keeping your immune system strong. If you've already read it, I hope that you've started to implement everything I talked about into your everyday life. I know some of it might be a huge lifestyle change, but each of those tips and suggestions will guarantee that you're not worn down all the time, you're not getting sick all the time, and that you are consistently feeling better more often than not. If you have any questions about this or would like to come in and chat more about getting the care you need and starting your chiropractic journey, please don't hesitate to do so. We are here for you! Since we are reaching the end of October and are getting very close to Halloween, I thought it might be interesting and fun to switch things up a little bit with the blog. I hear all kinds of strange myths, rumors, and incorrect facts that my patients heard and believed before they started to come see me. Sometimes the things they've heard have prevented them or made them skeptic about coming and seeing me sooner. So, in the spirit of All Hallows Eve, I wanted to debunk a few of these crazy myths and take the scare out of the care in your chiropractic journey. Myth #1 Chiropractic Care is Expensive! Fact: I can't tell you how many times I've tried to debunk this either in my blogs, in the videos I post, in my social media, or when someone comes into my office. This is one of the very first things I will share with my patients and potential patients: I will never allow the cost of care to get in the way of the care you need to feel better. I am willing to work with all of my patients to create a payment plan or a financial plan based on their financial standing. Also, keeping up with your chiropractic care and working towards being aligned and allowing your body to be working at 100% capacity is much more affordable than the alternative. It is also an all-natural alternative to expensive drugs both over the counter and prescribed. It can also be much more affordable and effective than injections or invasive surgeries. It can also prevent you from missing days off from work or even the potential of losing or having to leave your job because you're in so much pain or recovering from surgery. That can be a huge money saver and a good professional decision too. Chiropractic care is also much less expensive than your regular checkups! Myth #2 Spinal Adjustments Hurt! Fact: When you come to get adjusted for the first time, you might be nervous about the fact that an adjustment is going to hurt. An adjustment involves the subtle and conservative movement of joints and the spine that are restricted and causing you pain. These actions will not hurt you! We are expertly trained to make sure you don't feel pain during an adjustment. Most patients will feel some kind of instant relief or release during or after their appointment, making it something they look forward to. If you are nervous I will walk you through exactly what I am doing during your adjustment, I will prep you for each step, and I will not rush through the adjustment. We can take the whole experience at your speed. Myth #3 Chiropractors Only Treat Back Pain Fact: If you've just started reading my blogs or following us on social media, you know that this is not true! Chiropractic care is a whole-body treatment, working to help your whole body work at optimum health. Chiropractors are working with your back and spine to make sure that you don't have a pinched nerve or vertebrae out of place that will cause a subluxation. These subluxations can cause pain anywhere in your body, can weaken any system of your body, and can affect your sleep, digestive system, how often you get headaches, and much more. Since we are helping alleviate pain and issues in your whole body, we work on all parts of your body, not just your back! Chiropractic care can also be used to help assist with pregnancy-related issues and help promote a safer and more comfortable delivery. According to the National University of Health Sciences, chiropractors help resolve and manage a wide range of health conditions for over 30 million Americans of all ages every year. Myth #4 Chiropractic Adjustments Are Not Safe Fact: This is also very false. Chiropractic care is one of the safest and all-natural treatments you can give your body. According to the Health Journal, this rumor is so popular that many studies have been done to prove that chiropractic care is very safe. Recent studies prove that any risks or negative effects are extremely rare. It is safer than surgery and any medical side effects that can come from medications and surgery. Studies have even gone on to prove that chiropractic care is safe for patients of all ages. Myth #5 Chiropractors Aren't as Educated as Medical Doctors Fact: This is one of the hardest myths that I and others in the chiropractic world have to fight against every day. Every chiropractor goes through an incredibly demanding educational process and program that is very similar to medical doctors. Most chiropractic programs require a four-year undergraduate degree before you are accepted into a four-year doctoral program to become a chiropractor. As many of you know from reading my recent blogs, I graduated and worked professionally in another field before going back for my doctoral degree. The educational journey and curriculum you take during these four years are very similar to that of a medical doctor. Instead of focusing on surgery and pharmacology, a chiropractor spends their time focusing on joint mobilization, the muscular system, the nervous system, and radiographic imaging. Many schools require their students to do at least one year of clinic residency before they can practice on their own. You also must complete a very difficult, challenging, and rigorous set of board examinations before you are given your license to practice! I hope these five debunked myths have shifted your opinion of chiropractic care and cleared up any hesitation or fears you might have had. Many myths are floating around out there so if there is something I didn't touch on, please don't hesitate to reach out or call us. We are always here for you to talk about how chiropractic care can help improve your life and quality of living! Until next time, I'm Dr. Bob Salamon and I've got your back covered!  Dr. Bob is here to talk about a very common situation people find themselves in at some point in their lives - car accidents! Have you been in a car accident recently? Continue reading to learn why you may want to stop by and see us!
Hey everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon with Lowcountry Chiropractic! I hope you're all well out there and staying safe! Today we are going to talk about something pretty common on the roads here in South Carolina; car accidents! Since so many of us deal with car accidents, it is very important to talk about their effects on your body and what you can do to help yourself. Today we are going to be talking about the injuries that affect your spine after a car accident. The most common type of injury you'll find from a car accident is a whiplash injury. This injury can happen when you're stopped at a red light and someone comes plowing into the back of your car. Your head will flex back and forward very quickly, causing a shock to your neck and spine. What commonly happens is that this will create tension and stress on the muscles around the base of your neck, the top of your shoulders, and your upper back. When you are in a car accident, the damage done to the car does not necessarily correlate to the damage done to your body. Many insurance companies will try and reason that since your car wasn't damaged very badly you must not have been either. In these situations, medical bills might not be covered or taken care of, which can be very frustrating. The bottom line is that you were inside the damaged vehicle and subjected to rapid damaging motion from the impact of another car. This was not your fault, and you are now left with the pain in your back to show for someone else's mistake. When an accident occurs, what typically happens is that police will be called, papers and information are traded, and you may or may not take a trip to the hospital to get a CT Scan, some x-rays, and other procedures to see if you have any serious damage. A lot of patients come and pay us a visit after their trip to the emergency room. This comforts me to see them after an ER visit because I know they have already been checked out and they don't have a brain injury, fracture or other serious issues. Of course, we are still going to take our own set of x-rays when you come to get checked out at our offices after an accident. We do this because what we are looking for is not what your ER doctor was looking for. We are looking at whether the accident negatively affected the spine to cause the pain you could be feeling. We are looking to see if the accident caused your spine to get misaligned thus affecting spinal nerves. It is my job as a chiropractor to restore alignment to your misaligned vertebrae and to take the pressure off of the nerves coming out of those vertebrae. Irritated nerves from misaligned vertebrae can cause back pain, headaches, radiating pain down your arms and into your hands, sciatica and many other issues. Inflammation is going to be a big problem when you get into a car accident, and as we know, inflation causes pain. My job is to get you realigned (adjusted) and out of pain as quickly as possible. My advice is to visit your chiropractor as quickly as possible, to avoid being in pain for long periods. For those dealing with the effects of car accidents, therapeutic massage therapy is a wonderful service. The massage therapist will relax your affected muscles and remove toxins.. I will almost always have my personal injury patients see a massage therapist before an adjustment. This will allow me to do a more effective job adjusting your spine. I did want to make it very clear that even if you feel fine after an accident and have no symptoms, you should get checked by a chiropractor anyway. Symptoms can occur days, weeks, or even months after an accident, and you don’t want a car accident to leave you with chronic issues. I hope this has helped all of my readers out there. If you have unfortunately been in a car accident, please give us a call or send us an email. We would love to help you. We've helped lots of people with these issues and have a lot of experience in the area of personal injury. Until next time, I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered!  Something is lurking in the joints of millions of Americans every year: the very real pain of arthritis.
Hi everyone! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic. I hope everyone is doing well. Today we are going to be discussing a topic that is very prevalent in our country, and that is arthritis. A lot of people have it and suffer from its pain every day. In this blog, I want to put arthritis into perspective. I want to explain what arthritis is and some of the many ways you can treat it. There are many different types of arthritis; there is rheumatoid arthritis, which is an autoimmune problem, psoriatic arthritis, enteropathic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gout and many more. In this blog though, we are going to be discussing the most common type of arthritis, and that is osteoarthritis. It is also called DJD or DDD, which stands for degenerative joint disease or degenerative disc disease. Why is it important to get a grip on your arthritis? The main reason is that it is a degenerative condition. If you don't take care of it, it will more than likely get worse as you get older. Why is that important? Osteoarthritis will and can destroy or at a minimum cause a lot of pain in your joints. It can appear in your hands, your spine, your knees, hips, shoulders, and almost everywhere else in your body. This type of arthritis causes pain because of the inflammation surrounding the joint it is affecting. Let's talk about osteoarthritis. Our bodies get out of symmetry as we go through our daily lives. Typically, this type of arthritis is caused by asymmetry, and your joints start to work improperly because they are not working symmetrically. This can happen in your spine as well. You'll find that if you have a vertebra or two that is locked or misaligned, it's going to put a lot of stress on that joint. What the body does in reaction to this misalignment is it takes calcium out of the bloodstream, and sends it to that affected area to strengthen it. In theory, that sounds like it would make total sense, but what happens is that calcium deposits can form which leads to spurring. In addition, asymmetry causes the discs in your spine or cartilage in your peripheral joints to wear thin. You don't want spurs in a joint that aren't supposed to be there; they're going to get in the way of your ligaments, tendons, and the space the joint uses to properly move. These spurs are going to cause you a lot of pain because of the inflammation they cause. As we know, inflammation leads to serious pain. This is what is happening to your body when you have osteoarthritis. The next question then becomes, how do you manage this condition? As I mentioned before, if you don't do something about your osteoarthritis, it is going to get worse. The medical approach is usually some kind of steroidal anti-inflammatory product or injection to the affected joint. These products are created to take out some of the inflammation so you feel better. These remedies don't do much for correcting the cause of your arthritis, and steroids carry their own set of pretty nasty symptoms that might not appear until much later. How can chiropractic help? Chiropractic looks at a particular joint (in your spine, shoulder, hands, etc.) and figures out whether or not the bones in that joint are moving properly. What chiropractors do is adjust or treat that bone or bones to restore the proper motion to that joint. Once this happens, your body can work symmetrically and the degenerative process can be stopped. If the degenerative process is slowed down or stopped the inflammation will decrease, and the pain will get better. If you have arthritis, chiropractic care is something that you need to seriously think about incorporating into your health protocol. I also recommend a few supplements to my patients that help with inflammation connected to osteoarthritis that help with the pain in a natural way. 1. Fish oil! If you're going to use this, please use high-quality fish oil. 2. Coconut Oil! Most people don't know much about the benefits of this oil, but just like fish oil, it can do wonders for inflammation. If you want to add this oil to your diet, take a couple tablespoons preferably after a meal. Always make sure you use high-quality coconut oil. I recommend virgin, organic cold-pressed brands. 3. Turmeric is a great spice that you can put in your food or take in pill form that also helps with inflammation and the effects of osteoarthritis. Exercise can also help, but if the joint is damaged you want to be careful about doing too much repetitive exercise to the affected joint. Also, be very careful when doing too much weight-bearing or load-bearing exercises with that joint. Getting in a pool and swimming and some lightweight workouts are good to keep your affected joints moving. I hope this helps! If you're suffering from osteoarthritis or think you might be, please make an appointment to come to the office. We will do a very thorough exam (including x-rays), show you exactly what's going on and what is causing your problems. We will then get to work on fixing those problems so you can get healthy, out of pain and prevent that degenerative process from getting worse. I am Dr. Bob Salamon, and I have your back covered! Stay well! |
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