One of the biggest tips to keep in mind is that you aren’t stuck behind the wheel. As you’re driving, be sure to listen to your body. Your back may well start to feel the strain after a while. If that happens, or if you feel that you have risk factors which would ensure back pain, take a minute to pull over and walk around for a bit. It’ll provide a welcome chance for your spine to flex, and significantly lower chance of back pain later on.

Another little thing which can have a big impact is the contents of your pocket while you’re behind the wheel. We often don’t consider it, but stuffed pockets impact how we sit. If you’re slumping to avoid sitting on what you’re carrying in your back pocket, you may well also be placing far too much stress on your lower back and pelvis. Just as bad, the item in your pocket has a high chance of pressing against the sciatic nerve which will aggravate things even further. Taking a moment to empty your pockets before a long drive is a habit anyone can benefit from.

Another big danger to your back comes from what happens at the end of the trip. A lengthy drive often means that you’re prepared to stay for a while. This also usually entails bringing some extra supplies. Most people first instinct is to unpack immediately on arrival. However, keep in mind why we typically stretch before workouts. The body can have trouble jumping from inactivity to more intense work. If you have anything very heavy to carry out with you, consider taking care of other matters first. Give your back a chance to get accustomed to moving around again, and then bring any heavy possessions to your final destination.

The spine is made up of 24 vertebrae, and another nine vertebrae are fused together at the bottom. In between each vertebrae is what is known as an inter-vertebral disc. These discs are joints made out of cartilage that allow the spine to bend and move. They also double as shock absorbers that must not only bear the weight of your body but also absorb the impact of whenever you walk or run. If you have a bad back, it’s probably because you have been placing too much pressure on your inter-vertebral discs.

Degenerative disc disease occurs when your inter-vertebral discs are worn down or swollen. It can be caused by a number of factors, including sitting at a desk for most of your day. While exercise can help those suffering from degenerative disc disease, you have to remember that as stated above, running places an impact on your body 7 to 10 times greater than while walking. This stresses the inter-vertebral discs and can potentially make your bad back even worse.

Even if you don’t have degenerative disc disease, running can still be hazardous to your health if you are not careful. It is important to stretch before and after you run, wear properly fitted shoes, and run on dirt or soft pavement whenever possible. For those with bad backs, start out by first walking every day while remembering to stretch and wear the right shoes. After a while, you will be able to gradually increase the pace of your walk to the point of a slow jog. However, as running can be hazardous to your health, those suffering from degenerative disc disease should always check with their chiropractor before undertaking any new exercise program.

As part of a new exercise program, you should also consider swimming. Swimming is a great low-impact alternative to running because it exercises all the muscles, and the water cushions any sore spots along the spinal cord. It’s the closest thing to weightlessness on Earth, and swimming has none of the injuries associated with exercises on land that heavily burden your vertebrae.

The quality of our sleep directly influences our spinal health. If you feel that your back is stiff or painful after a night’s rest and you feel tired in the morning, this is a good indicator that your mattress does not support your back properly. The role of a good mattress is to support the weight of our body and to distribute the pressure evenly acros the surface of the back. Unfortunately, usual mattresses frequently fail to accomplish this task. The spine is not aligned correctly, the back is not supported symmetrically and the mattress creates pockets of unevenly distributed pressure. Chiropractors frequently deal with complaints of chronic back pain that appear during the day and even in the morning after a night’s sleep.

It is important to realize that the health of your spine determines the health of the internal organs that are innervated by the spinal nerves. A bad mattress may cause chronic misalignment of the vertebrae which in turn can lead to nerve compressions, back pain and muscle soreness. The best way to prevent this is to purchase an orthopedic mattress. This type of mattress supports the weight of the body evenly and enables a correct pressure distribution on the spine. These can be made from pocket spring, memory foam or other materials, and are usually a bit more expensive, but they are worth every penny. It is a well known fact that preventing a disease is much easier that treating it, and this is the central idea that drives chiropractors and their treatment options.

Even after you get rid of your old mattress and purchased an orthopedic one, your back may not recover right away. Visiting a chiropractor’s office and receiving professional advice or treatment is the best way to cure chronic back pain and prevent future relapses.

Maintaining a healthy posture is not just a matter of sitting like a board or balancing books on your head, it involves the balanced function of the entire system of your back. Exhibiting a healthy posture  is an indication of being balanced and can help keep your spine and back healthy which lessens your chances of incurring back pain.

Your spine and the system of tendons, muscles, and ligaments that make up your back allow your body to move and support your body against forces such as gravity. Maintaining adequate posture involves carrying your body in a way to avoid injury by allowing all of the aforementioned aspects of your back, such as your bones and muscles, to work together.

When one aspect of your back is out of alignment the balance is thrown off. As other aspects attempt to make up for the misalignment by overcompensating or stretching, injury can occur. Practicing healthy posture  helps keep all of these elements in sync and can provide you with increased mobility, circulation, and breathing.

You can asses the health of your posture by observing your posture habits. It is incorrect to think that good posture necessitates a completely flat back. Your spine has natural curves to it that both balance and support your body. There should be a slight curve inward at the neck, a slight curve outward at the chest, and a slight curve inward at the lower back.

You can get a rough idea for the healthiness of your posture by doing the following test. Stand against a wall with you feet 6 inches from the baseboard. Make sure the back of your head and your bum are touching the wall and with your hand measure the space between the wall and your neck and the space between the wall and your lower back. Due to the natural curves in your spine a measurement of about 2 inches at the neck and about 1-2 inches at the small of your back indicates that your posture is in good condition.

Since improper posture can be a concern  (because it can be an indicator of problems with your spine), contact Barrows Chiropractic Clinic located at 1611 Commercial Ave. San Antonio, Texas 78221-1004 for an assessment.

Call us at: 210-922-0942.

Trauma to your back because of an accident, odd twisting and tweaking, poor posture, and weak muscles can cause back pain, too. These are examples of physical stress to your spine that may be alleviated by visiting a chiropractor and getting a spinal adjustment.

Poor nutrition, alcohol or drug abuse, and toxins ingested through the air or water in the San Antonio area are all examples of chemical stresses which may result in back pain and poorly aligned spines.

Emotional stress is the last of these interrelated stresses which may affect the alignment of your spine and cause back pain. When severe enough, emotional stress may weaken your immune system making your spine and back more susceptible to injury and disease and a visit to the Barrows Clinic could be beneficial to your health.

Any combination of these stresses, common in the San Antonio area, could cause your spine to go out of alignment. Spinal adjustments can decrease muscle tension, reduce your stress, and thus contribute to your overall health and wellness.

Dr. Barrows has 28 years of experience successfully treating all types of spine related conditions in San Antonio.

‘Backache’ is a term typically used to describe pain in the lower back. Pregnant women in San Antonio commonly feel pain in the lower back due to changes in their hormones, which help facilitate birth, and their posture due to the extra weight affecting their spine and back. These changes come naturally as a part of pregnancy.

The best way to avoid backaches or to alleviate backaches during pregnancy is to take preventative measures.

Exercise that strengthens your back and abdominal muscles, monitoring your posture, and avoiding high heels are all examples of preventative measures pregnant women can take to avoid or alleviate backaches. Another preventative option available to women suffering from backaches due to pregnancy is to visit us at the Barrows Clinic of Chiropractic.

Some women in the area look to over-the-counter pain killers to alleviate their backaches. During pregnancy it is a good idea to avoid many over-the-counter pain killers as they can increase the risk of problems. Your doctor can direct you to appropriate pain killers should you wish to use them to alleviate your backaches during pregnancy, however, an appealing alternative for pregnant women suffering from backaches related to pregnancy is to see their chiropractor. A chiropractor can possibly ease pregnancy backaches without the use of any over-the-counter pain killers.

Sadly, women in San Antonio who have a history of backaches are more likely to suffer from backaches during pregnancy, and backaches after pregnancy are likely to exist due to strain on a mother’s spine from lifting babies and nursing. Taking preventive measures before pregnancy and continuing preventative measures after pregnancy is just as important as preventing backaches during pregnancy.

In my all my years of practice, I have had great success with many cases of pain related to pregnancy.  In addition to backache, some more common conditions include sciatica, and even indigestion or heartburn.

When it comes to pregnancy, it just make sense to do as many things naturally as you possibly can without the use of drugs that might be harmful to mother or child.

Rick D. Barrows, D.C.

What I am really talking about here though is something that goes much deeper. Artificial sweeteners are simply that: artificial! It seems that they can play tricks on your body. The mechanism is not known for sure, but these artificial sweeteners seem to affect insulin levels, and can actually cause you to have more cravings or increase your desire to eat more.

A recent studied at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio showed that diet drinks contributed to weight gain, and might in fact be implicated in increasing the risk of Type II Diabetes in older adults. In a group of 474 older adults that were studied over a nine and a half year period, those who drank diet sodas saw a 70% greater increase in their waistlines over those who did not drink diet sodas.

Even more compelling is that when the intake was increased to 2 or more diet sodas a day, waistline growth was 500% greater than it was among the non-drinkers of diet sodas.

My advice? Stay away from artificial sweeteners. If you want something sweet, you are better off to go with sugar, but always in moderation. It should be a treat, not a daily routine.

I told her what I would tell anyone else in such a condition. Bring him in and let me evaluate him. If I can help, I will tell you, if not I will tell you that too. So she went to work on getting him to come in and see me. Several appointments were made and canceled, often at the last minute. Leonard would be so bad with the nausea and vomiting that he couldn’t make it in. Ultimately, he did make it in, and I sat down with him to talk about his case.

All during the consultation, Leonard kept a towel close to his mouth, and kept his bucket handy. He told me of all the medical tests that he had had. The diagnosis was gastric paresis. The doctors had given him medicine to take, but he couldn’t hold any of it down. He said if there was a button her could push to end it all, he would push it. He had lost all hope.

At the end of the consultation, I told him of how the digestive tract is all controlled by nerves, and that if I find anything in the examination that is interfering with the function of those nerves, then there is a possibility that I can help.

Examination and x-rays did reveal subluxation in the thoracic and upper cervical regions, but on appearance nothing that as a chiropractor I haven’t seen thousands of times. So, why did Leonard have this problem of nausea and vomiting? I will never know for sure.

What I do know is that we laid out a plan of care to correct the subluxations that were found and went to work on them. After the first two weeks of care, my staff and I noticed that Leonard wasn’t carrying his towel or his bucket. The next week, his hair was combed and his eyes were bright. He was animated and excited. The following week, he was telling me about his skills as a carpenter, and how he was ready to get back to work.

Can you explain it. I know I can’t. This man literally got his life back after almost 8 months of suffering. The healing power of the body was restored to the tissues and cells that needed that power, and Leonard healed.

If you know someone who has lost hope, bring them to me. If I believe that there is chance that I can help them, I will tell them. If not, I will tell them that too. They haven’t tried everything, unless they have tried chiropractic. God bless.

1. Prolonged sitting: there are actually more pounds per square inch exerted on the discs of your lower back in the sitting position than in the standing position. Why? When you are standing, your legs are baring some of the weight of your upper body, but when you are sitting, it’s all on your lower back.

2. Long car trips: same problem as with prolonged sitting except that now you are in a confined space and you add to it the bouncing up and down as the car runs down the road.

3. Bending over at the waist without bending the knees: if you bend over at the waist without bending your knees, then you are putting all the strain of holding up your upper body on to the lower back. This is why so many people will say things like, “I only bent over to pick up a piece of paper, and my back gave out.”

4. Running, jumping, or sudden jolt: a big aggravation to the injured spine is the impact of running or jumping. When you run, the impact on your spine is about 5 to 6 times your body weight. That is a tremendous amount of force! Now, you might say, “I don’t run, or jump.” Perhaps that is true, perhaps not. Let’s not forget the little jumps, down from the porch, off the back of the truck, down from the tractor, etc. What about sudden jolt? That would be things like stepping in a hole or off a curb that you didn’t see. These can be major! Watch where you are going!

5. Sneezing or coughing: position is key here! To be socially acceptable, we generally turn our heads or our bodies when we sneeze or cough. This puts the spine in a twisted position which can be devastating to an already injured vertebral column. Your best bet is to turn your entire body, rather than twisting. Whenever possible, bend your knees when you cough or sneeze.

There are my top 5, and as you can imagine, there are many more, but just being mindful of these can make a world of difference in your recovery, and once you have recovered from preventing injury in the future.

Here are my top 3 reasons:

1. I respect my immune system. It is my sincere belief that God endowed my body (and yours too) with natural recuperative powers. If you cut yourself, it heals. The cut does not require your intellectual intervention to assist it in the process. Likewise, if you are exposed to a cold or the flu, or anything else for that matter, you have an immune system that stands ready to defend you from it. If you are tired and rundown (which weakens the immune system) and you succumb to some disease, with proper rest and care, your body has the means to combat it and recover from it.

2. No one knows the long term effects to the body of getting a flu shot year after year for a number of years. It is a fact that there are many chemicals in a flu shot that are toxic to the human body. Most people are totally unaware of this. They assume that everything has been tested to be safe before it is placed in the hands of the doctor. This simply is not true. Here is a partial list of some of the ingredients in a flu shot:

Mercury
Formaldehyde
Antibiotics
Spermicide
MSG
Polysorbate 80
Sodium Phosphate

3. There is no proof that the flu shot is effective. If you pay close attention, you will find that every year that we have an outbreak of the flu, the media will be inundated with reports that we are dealing with a strain of the flu that was not included in this year’s vaccine. You see there are many different strains of the flu, and you are not inoculated with all of them. So the best they can do each year is “guess” which strains will be active or prevalent that year.

So those are my top 3 reasons, and I could go on with more, but I think you get the picture. When it comes to an injection of the flu vaccine into my body, I must respectfully decline.