A research study was published in 2007 in Spine magazine called, “Safety of Chiropractic Manipulation of the Cervical Spine A Prospective National Survey”.   This study researched treatment outcomes for 19,722 patients who received neck adjustments.  There were a few minor side effects reported.  The most common was dizziness or lightheadedness immediately after the adjustment in 16 out of 1000 people.  7 days after treatment some patients also reported headaches. However, NO SERIOUS SIDE EFFECTS WERE REPORTED by any of the 19,722 patients.  

This is the first large-scale study that looked at possible serious side effects from neck adjustments.  None were found.

Risk rates for chiropractic treatment are favorable when compared to medications used to treat musculoskeletal conditions.  

Chiropractic adjustments are safe!

The spring time change can affect our sleep for a several days! Here are some ideas to help. These are things my family and I practice regularly.

1. Move your body during the day. There are two ways to move that I have found particularly effective. Go on a long walk. Or even two long walks if you can fit that in. Walk your dog, walk with your spouse, push your baby in a stroller, whatever works best for your life. Another effective way to get some exercise that can help you to sleep better is to have a simple workout routine in the morning. You don’t even have to leave your bedroom to do it. Do a handful of sit-ups, push-ups, and jumping jacks first thing in the morning. Doing a few simple, but vigorous exercises can turn around your morning fatigue quickly.
2. Turn off your screens an hour before you go to bed. Then read a book, or take a warm bath, or do something other than watching a screen. Our electronic devices emit blue light, which can delay your body’s natural release of melatonin. Set yourself a digital curfew.
3. Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet. 60-67 degrees is the suggested temperature range for the best night’s sleep. We have a baby, so we keep our house at 68. Play around with your thermostat and find what works best for you and your family. It can help to turn your clock radio around or drape something over it to block out the light. Earplugs can also work wonders for your sleep.
4. Try a small spoonful of coconut oil before bed. The fat in coconut oil may help regulate blood sugar while you sleep.
5. Find a breathing for sleep exercise that works for you. Most involve counting while breathing in, holding for a few counts, then breathing out. This can help relax your body and change your focus away from the anxieties of the day.
6. Lavender can help treat insomnia and improve sleep quality. One of the easiest ways to reap the benefits of lavender, is to put a couple of drops of lavender oil on your pillow before bed.

Low back pain is very common, with a lifetime probability of about 85%.  That means 85% of people have low back pain at some point in their lives. A person has options when it comes to treating low back pain.  Usual medical care includes using different types of medications, steroid injections, and referring to physical therapy.  One kind of medication that is sometimes used to treat low back pain is opioids (like oxycontin, percocet, vicodin, etc.)  There is a major opioid crisis in our country right now.  They have been overprescribed and are being abused at epidemic rates. There is an urgent need to find low-risk alternatives to opioid prescriptions.  One of these alternatives is chiropractic care.  

There’s a research study that was recently published (Goertz et al., (2018) JAMA Open Network) studying the relationship of chiropractic care and usual medical care in regards to low back pain.  Half of the study participants received usual medical care for their back pain, and the other half received chiropractic care along with usual medical care.  Which group do you think fared better?

Those who received usual medical care along with chiropractic care reported greater improvement in pain than those who received only usual medical care.  

What does this ultimately mean?

Medical doctors and chiropractors working together can result in better patient outcomes!

Biggest Loser contest at Serr Chiropractic!  Come in to the office for 1 weight in December and 1 weight in January, no appointment necessary.  Cash prizes for top 3 biggest losers!  Get motivated to have a healthier holiday season.

Good Luck!

Do you struggle with helping your children eat a healthy diet?  I think everyone does from time to time.  For us, we usually think things are going ok until something happens to remind us that we can do better.  This happened in our family a couple of weeks ago when my son became quite ill for several days.  Other members of our family had a few minor symptoms for a day or two, but my son became much more ill and it took his body much longer to finally heal.  I’m sure there were many factors at play, but we took a close look at his diet and realized there was a lot of room for improvement.  He’s recently become really picky about what he eats, which hasn’t helped.  We’ve tried to implement a few things to help our family get back on track to eating more healthfully.

• Our kids, like most kids, love to snack.  They would much prefer to snack all day than eat meals.  This is especially hard in the summers, when their days are pretty open and free.  We usually are ok with a mid-morning snack and one in the afternoon.  We now tell the kids that their morning snack has to be a fruit or a vegetable.  It isn’t their very favorite thing, but they’ve pretty well stopped begging for fruit snacks at 8:15 am after not eating their breakfast.  We do have to remember to stock our fridge with snackable fruits and vegetables.  We’ve been doing applesauce, baby carrots, cucumbers, olives, pickles, apricots, or frozen berries.
• We are trying to incorporate more vegetables into our meals.  This sometimes means hiding them.  One of the most successful things we’ve found is to grate yellow crookneck squash into our ground beef for tacos.  It looks like cheese.  And, we just might tell our children it is cheese.  Sometimes we mix spaghetti noodles half and half with spaghetti squash.
• We’ve been spending our evenings preserving our garden produce for our family to eat in the coming months.  We are making fruit leather out of apricots from my parents, and loaf after loaf of zucchini bread.  America’s Test Kitchen has a zucchini bread recipe that calls for part whole wheat flour, and uses much more zucchini than any other recipe we’ve tried.

These are just a few simple things we are trying.  Maybe one or two of them will work for your family too.

This summer we became proud owners of a border collie, maltese, miniature american eskimo mix puppy.  My daughter named him after my dad.  In a good way.  We are trying to add value to our life, and my wife feels it is of value for our children to learn how to care for something living.  A goldfish might have been easier, but we ended up with a dog.  Now we are knee deep in toys, puppy food, licks, and dog books.  It turns out dogs can actually be good for your health.

1. Dogs can help keep you active.  When our children are bored, which is most of the day, we tell them to go out and play with the dog.  He’s a built in, real life toy.  They agree sometimes.  Our puppy is just learning how to walk on a leash, so walks are pretty short at this point, but we plan to someday go on daily long walks with him.  He’ll hopefully be a little extra motivation to get outdoors.  My wife sprinted up and down the street with him, and he’s already faster than she is.  He will keep us on our toes for sure!
2. Dogs can help you bounce back from illness.  This is the idea behind  therapy dogs in hospitals and care centers.  Dogs can be calming and promote socialization and mobility.  New research from the University of Missouri-Columbia shows that in just a few minutes of petting your dog, “feel good” hormones are released into your bloodstream, promoting lower stress and a greater sense of well-being.
3. Dogs could be just as good as medicine for some things.  A study published in the British Journal of Health in 2004 found that dog owners have lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure than non dog owners.
4. The Journal of Pediatrics published a study associating dog ownership with a decreased incidence of allergies and eczema in children.
5. A dog can save your life.  Some dogs can actually detect cancer in humans.  Dogs have been successful at sniffing out skin cancer, bladder, breast, lung, and colon cancer.  There are also dogs that can detect low blood sugar in people with diabetes.  Some are trained as service dogs and can be taught how to detect low blood sugar.

We are enjoying being new puppy owners.  I hope some of you fellow dog owners are finding some of these health benefits.

In our spare time, my wife and I love to read.  She loves to read really great, thought provoking stories from around the world and of different eras.  I love to read inspirational, nonfiction, self-help variety books.  She only reads a book once, but I revisit my favorites again and again.  Those are two very different approaches to the same thing, but I guess that’s what makes us a good match.  These books are my current favorites:

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie is my all time most favorite book.  I’ve read it several times, and learn something new every time I do.  The principles it teaches are very simple, but things that are often forgotten in our society.  This book reminds us not to criticize others, to smile, to be a good listener, to make other people feel important, and most importantly, to give praise.   I like that the author emphasizes kindness and how it leads to prosperity.  This book was first published in 1937, but it is timeless and absolutely applicable to relationships today.

Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett B. Gunderson is what I’m reading this month.  This book dispels common myths related to finances, security, and happiness.  It suggests that financial security is really a psychological endeavor.  Think it before you can be it.  The author totes the importance of self-reliance, which really hits home to me.  He reveals the true source of financial security, which is the individual and his skill set, rather than just money.  My favorite idea in this book is the importance of creating value.  This is driving how I run my practice, and how I view my family and my life.

If you’re looking for something lighthearted and funny, Fatherhood by Bill Cosby always fits the bill.

Bone broth is all the rage right now.  So, what the heck is it, and why is it so great?  My wife thinks the name is silly.  She says “It’s soup, right?  Can’t we just call it soup, or stock?”  She’s basically right.  I like that this current food trend actually goes back thousands of years.  Bone broth is a stock made from bones that would have otherwise just been discarded.  It differs from plain broth or stock in that it is simmered for a much longer period of time.  The purpose of this is to obtain as many nutrients as possible from the bones.  Bone broth is extremely rich in proteins.  It also contains gelatin, collagen, chondroitin, glucosamine, and many minerals.  Bone broth can improve the function of your digestive system,  immune system, joints, muscles, and skin.

Many health food fads can be quite expensive.  This one isn’t, as long as you have some time on your hands.  There are many, many recipes online for making your own bone broth at home.  Chances are, you already make it, or your mom or grandma used to make it.  Its really as simple as putting a whole chicken, or some beef bones in your slow cooker with some water and seasonings, and cooking the heck out of it.  In order to ensure you have extracted all possible nutrition from the bones, they should crumble in your fingers.   Bone broth can be used with added meat and vegetables, or beans to make a hearty soup.  You can drink it plain in a mug.  You can use it as the liquid to cook things like rice.  You can use it as the braising liquid for meat, like a roast.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own bone broth, I now carry powdered bone broth in my office.  It is made by a great company, called Ancient Nutrition.  It’s called Bone Broth Protein.  You simply mix a scoop of the powder with 12 ounces of liquid.  It can be consumed hot or cold, and it comes in chocolate or vanilla.  I know, I know, chocolate bone broth?!!  I have been using it daily, and I promise it is delicious.  The chocolate is very chocolaty, and there is no hint of meat flavor.  Each serving contains 20 grams of protein.  It’s completely free of common allergens like dairy, grains, eggs, and nuts.  Each serving only contains 2 grams of carbohydrates.  It is naturally sweetened with stevia and monk fruit extracts.  And the flavor is excellent.

Try adding bone broth to your balanced diet for improved function of your joints and muscles.

Opioid overdose is a serious global problem.  The consequences are awful and include death.  In fact, opioid overdose is the leading cause of accidental death.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sites that “from 2000 to 2014 nearly half a million people died from drug overdose.  78 Americans die everyday from an opioid overdose.”

In the last few months, several bills have been introduced and passed by the Senate and House of Representatives related to this growing problem.  These are promising and positive steps being taken by our government to address the epidemic we are experiencing.  Chiropractic supports this legislation.  American Chiropractic Association (ACA) president, David Herd, DC, said, “Chiropractic physicians, for example, are well positioned to play a vital role in the conservative management of acute and chronic pain. They offer complementary and integrative strategies, as well as guidance on self care, that can provide needed relief for many who suffer from pain….Efforts must now be directed toward educating health care providers and the public about conservative forms of pain management that can be used as a first line of defense in treatment – and expanding access to those services.”

Chiropractic care is conservative care!  In this case conservative means non-invasive and very low risk.  Many people jump to complex and risky treatments, or very strong pain medications with severe side effects as their first treatment.  This is not research based.  The best thing to do for both your body and your pocketbook is to try conservative treatments first.  Chiropractic adjustments help almost every single patient that walks in my office door.  Some conditions take longer to heal than others, and occasionally I refer patients to other providers when they need additional help that I can’t provide, but that vast majority of my patients have a significant reduction in their pain.

If our country really and truly moves to a conservative care first paradigm, people would become less dependent on prescription pain medications.  There would be significant health care savings for families, insurance companies, and the government.  Our country would be healthier if chiropractic care was the first line of treatment.  I see amazing results with my patients everyday!

We have been busy soaking up summer, here in Rupert, Idaho.  The kids are out of school, my wife is off of work, and they are loving it!  We’ve been going for bike rides, evening walks, gardening, swimming, and a little traveling.  And we’ve been doing a lot of grilling.  We recently switched from gas grilling to charcoal, and I don’t think we’ll ever go back!

Grilling is a great way to eat healthfully.  We really like to grill vegetables.  It makes them smoky, and really tasty.  Sometimes our kids will even eat vegetables they don’t normally eat, if they are grilled.  Here’s how we typically do it:

Grilled Vegetables

1/2 lb each of several different kind of vegetables, cut into bite sized pieces like mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, green beans, carrots, potatoes (carrots and potatoes should be precooked until almost done)

Italian dressing, or other vinaigrette, or olive oil mixed with vinegar and salt and pepper

Toss vegetables with dressing and let marinate for at least a few minutes.  Dump onto grill pan, or heavy duty foil with holes poked in it.  Set on preheated grill, and grill until cooked through and browned.