Leave your pain behind

Is recurring back pain, sciatica, neck pain or muscular injury stopping you from enjoying the life you want? If the answer is yes, to many of the above, then you've the chance to do something about it, today.

Complete Chiropractic is an established clinic which started 9 years ago and provides professional, effective and pain-free chiropractic care in a friendly relaxing environment.

Francois Hacault, provides treatments that focus not only on alleviating the symptom but finding and correcting the causes of pain.

Chiropractic "adjustments" gently remove pressure and irritation from the spinal nerves and joints to help restore optimal spinal function and alignment.

If the spine is out-of-line or unbalanced it can cause a variety of problems throughout the body, including back and neck pain, headaches, sciatica, stress, disc problems and pregnancy related pain.

By working to realign the spine we, at Complete Chiropractic, can help restore people's optimum health and movement of the body.

All treatments begin with a thorough initial consultation; a full medical history is taken, a postural and spinal examination is performed as well as details on lifestyle and symptoms. From this, we build up a picture of what might be causing the problems and tailor a course of treatment accordingly. The adjustments are carried out fully clothed and are pain-free.

At our clinic we know that back pain and muscular complaints can be successfully treated, so instead of "learning to live with it", I encourage you to try chiropractic.

If you are feeling worse this year than last and are tired of that recurring pain, if you want to be able to do the things you want to do pain-free, Complete Chiropractic may be the answer you are looking for.

The benefits of Wellness Care

Have you ever thought of what you do every day to have the best quality of life possible? of do you just get up run around all day and go to bed only to start over agin tomorrow.

As we will all slowly find out, we are not the indestructible 20 year old for long. As our demands change with the years, the job, family, the week seems to get shorter and shorter with less and less time for us to do the things we used to do to keep the negative stresses at bay, and we need to now more than ever find and make the time and priority to invest in ourselves so that we can go through our 40ies, 50ies, 60ies feeling as good as we did in our 20ies.

Now is the time to act. Not tomorrow. Not next week. The years are going by to quickly to put it off! Do something about that niggle, that headache, that back ache, that neck ache, the slow decrease of energy. Invest some time in yourself and it will reap rewards you thought you had lost and would not get back.

Are you fighting the winter colds?

Many people in Autumn feel the seasonal changes by experiencing a runny nose, sore throats, sinus pressure and pain, fever, tummy bugs and general dis-ease. Have you ever thought of what nature is doing at this time of year? What is happening to the trees? They're losing their leaves, plants are becoming dormant in preparation for winter. The weather is changing, its colder, darker.

Isn't it logical that our bodies should go through a change as well. Shouldn't we change our cells as well. Just think of what happens when we blow our noses, sneeze or cough. We are expelling cells to make way for new ones that are more appropriate to the seasonal changes.

Think of this, every spring, or autumn, when the trees start to change, most of the population will experience changes as well. Some will go through the change more noticeably than others, blosing their noses, having a fever (which is the bodies way or weakening the bugs that try to take advantage of our bodies changeing.) or possibly tummy bugs. We've been taught that these changes are bad, but are they actually?? It is part of nature to change with the seasons, so why shouldn't we?

If you are going through a tough time try these simple but effective helpers.
1) 1000-5000mg of vit C daily (spread out throughout the day). This helps your cells assimilate iron better to ward of the invaders.
2) Steam inhalations with eucalyptus. The steam and eucalyptus help weaken the foreign bacteria as well as helps to expectorate the old cells.
3) Drink loads of water, green or herbal tea. Fluids help keep the body hydrated as wel as allowing you to flush the bad cells out of your body.
4) Get plenty of rest. Resting helps your body divert essential energy to the immune system and changeing body parts.
5) Try to decrease your intake of sugar or sweeteners. These depress your immune system for 30-60 minutes after injesting them.

Good Luck and to a better seasonal change.

Francois

The benefits of a pH neutral body

Have you ever thought about whether your body is acidic or not? How would you feel if you are over acidic?

When your pH is out of the normal range, the cells and tissues in your body have to work harder to do the daily tasks that they are meant to do. Just imagine your house, do you take out the garbage when the bin gets full or do you just leave it overflowing. What will eventually happen to the room, or your house if the waste is not removed. This is like the effect of an acidic body on your cellular function.  Chances are you will be fatigued, have sore muscles, be prone to frequent colds and suffer from back or neck ache or frequent headcahes.

Would you find it harder to move? Do you think it would affect your emotional state of mind? Do you think you would have to work harder to move around? An acidic body leaches the essential minerals you have to try to keep the acid/alkaline balance alkaline minerals include calcium (Ca+) potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg+) and sodium (Na+). Just look at your salivary pH. If you have an acidic body you will be below 7 on either of these tests.(or be an orange rather than blue color on the pH test strip)

Your body and blood try to stay at an optimal pH of 7.35. The strongest acid are closer to 0 and 14 is the most alkaline.

High acidity enters your body when you eat processed foods, pre-packaged foods, sugary foods, pastas, dairy products (milk, cheese, ice cream, etc.), alcoholic beverages, drugs, table salt. Meats also promote acidity.
Stress also plays a significant role in creating excess acid. This is why Type A personalities - who tend to live in a perpetual state of tension and rigidity - are prone to develop acidic conditions. If you don’t get enough sleep or exercise or face life-changing events - loss of a job, divorce, moving to a new city, etc. - your body probably has more acid than it can handle.

Moderate changes in your diet can help restore your pH balance. For starters, try eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, almonds, and yogurt. And go lighter on cheeses, soft drinks, alcohol, processed foods, and sweeteners (use raw honey instead). Roughly 75 percent of your diet should consist of alkaline-producing foods and add 1 heaping teaspoon Barley grass as a body alkiliniser to your everyday eating routine.

To lower your stress level, which will help put your pH reading in the normal range, you may want to try deep-breathing exercises or what ever type of relaxation technique works for you. Moderate exercise - even walking 10 minutes a day - can also go a long way toward reducing stress and restoring balance, the key to good health.

Proper cellular pH balance is absolutely vital for regenerating, healing, and rebuilding your body, as well as detoxifying and eliminating the accumulated toxins from the body, especially the liver and kidneys.

The importance your neck curvature.

The importance of the curvatures in your spine are extremely important yet overlooked by most health professionals. Over the years I have been privileged to help many people make life lasting changes to their spinal posture and prevent spinal degenerative changes. The impact on the spinal cord and nervous system is immense as the change in spinal joint tension on the nerves is increased in altered spinal postures. Just think of a garden hose with a kink in it or someone gently stepping on it. This changes the amount of information travelling from the brain to the body and back to the brain again.



Original x-ray demonstrating a straight neck with no cervical curve



Post curvature now near normal



The change of posture of the neck can lead to all sorts of symptoms including neck pain, frozen shoulder, upper back pain/ cricked necks, pins and needles in the arms, headaches and muscular pains. By maintaining a healthy nervous system and proper spinal posture we can help your body get back to normal and feeling great again.

Do something about it today.

Yours in Health Naturally

Francois Hacault B.Sc., D.C.

Chiropractor

Happy 116th Birthday Chiropractic - September 18th 2011

 

The History of Chiropractic

On September 18, 1895, D.D. Palmer was working late in his office when a janitor, Harvey Lillard began working nearby. A noisy fire engine passed by outside the window and Palmer was surprised to see that Lillard didn’t react at all. Patiently Palmer managed to communicate with the man, and learned that he had normal hearing most of his life. However, he had been over in a stooped position and felt something ‘pop’ in his back. When he stood up he realised he couldn’t hear.

He approached the man and tried to strike up a conversation. He soon realised Lillard was deaf.

He ran his hand carefully down Lillard’s spine and felt one of the vertebrae was not in its normal position.

“I reasoned that if that vertebrae was replaced, the man’s hearing should be restored”, he wrote in his notes afterwards.

“With this object in view, a half hour’s talk persuaded Mr  Lillard to allow me to replace it. I racked it into position by using the spinous process as a lever, and soon the man could hear as before”.

Over the succeeding months, other patients came to Palmer with every conceivable problem, including flu, sciatica, migraine headaches, stomach complaints, epilepsy and heart trouble.

D.D. Palmer found each of these conditions responded well to the adjustments which he called ‘hand treatments’.

 

Later he coined the term chiropractic – from the Greek words, ‘cheiros’ meaning hand, and ‘praktikus’ meaning action.

Chiropractic Bio Physics

What Is It?

 

Chiropractic Bio Physics is a system of chiropractic spinal analysis and care developed by Donald D. Harrison and Glenn Harrison to improve patient well being. They are trained chiropractors from America, who have been researching this method of chiropractic analysis for over 25 years.

The goal of the CBP technique is to restore three dimensional human posture. They have developed many methods to achieve this, including the ‘mirror image’ posture adjustments, rehabilitative exercises and cervical, thoracic and lumbar extension traction and manual techniques.

The CBP corrective care program involves chiropractic adjustments, instrument assisted adjustment and a variety of corrective extension traction procedures and corrective postural exercises.

What is involved for me?

 

During your initial consultation Dr Francois took a full case history, conducted a thorough orthopaedic and neurological exam and assessed your posture for any irregularities. Your x-rays were analyzed to decide on an  appropriate schedule of care, involving the use of the bio-physics techniques.

The most common posture we see is ‘cervical hypolordosis’, where the patient’s head is pushed forward and the ligaments and muscles in the neck have shortened to adapt to the abnormal posture.

The purpose of the cervical traction is to provide a slow adjusting force to stretch them back out. This helps to restore the natural curve in the neck and assists in holding adjustments longer.

 

By using these methods our chiropractors have amazing success in  restoring the natural curves in our patients spines and assisting in achieving optimal spinal structure and function.

The Leaky Roof Patch or Fix?

Most people are so focused on their symptoms that they often neglect to address the cause of their discomfort.  When the cause is obvious, people often make the right decision.  For example, if you had a pebble in your shoe and it was bothering you, you wouldn’t take a pain killer or an anti-inflammatory to cover up the discomfort.  You would recognize it was the pebble and you would take a moment to remove it from your shoe.

But, are headaches or back pain the result of an inadequate supply of aspirin in the bloodstream?  Of course not.  Yet, we chiropractors are often called in to “clean up the mess” associated with many chronic health problems. 

Consider the leaky roof.  It only leaks after it rains…it doesn’t leak all the time.  If you called us in to clean the carpet after a bad rain, wouldn’t you want us to point out that the mess is not the real problem and direct your attention to the cause (the leaky roof)?  Sure.  But why?

Because you know that if we just “clean up the mess” we will have to do it again after the next rain.  But, why wouldn’t someone want to fix the roof?  Usually, the answer is that it is much cheaper to just clean up the mess than to fix the roof.  This is a misconception. 

Over a 10 year period of time, the same money will be spent whether we fix the roof now or just clean up the mess every time it rains.  The difference is that if we just clean up the mess, 10 years from now the roof will be in far worse condition than it is today and will require much more time, money, energy and effort to fix…if it is even fixable at that point.  If we invest the time, effort and money to fix the cause of the mess now, then 10 years from now we are likely to have not had to continuously fix problems but will also have a “healthy” roof.

The decision is always yours.  It is our obligation to point out the leaky roof so that the decisions you make are informed decisions.   

COMPUTER POSTURE

Contrary to popular opinion, the ideal position for your computer monitor is not at or below eye level. This is not a normal position for your neck.

 

The long term effects of abnormal posture can be devastating. The impact of spinal degeneration on your ability to function normally at work, at play or even in your relationships with others can be a significant limitation. 

In severe cases it can stop you from performing at all.

 

Position your monitor at a height where the middle of the screen is slightly above eye level.

This will allow your head and neck to be positioned at or near the ideal position the majority of the time.

Not only will this allow you to concentrate better, and to focus on the task at hand, but it will minimize the stress and strain upon all of your spinal tissues and reduce abnormal stress and strain upon the neck and shoulder muscles.

Make sure your spine rests firmly against the back rest and your legs are at right angles to the floor. Your feet should be able to touch to floor.

Normalizing your spinal posture while working on your computer is just one more way to improve your overall health.

Studies have shown that this will help your abnormal spinal position improve more rapidly, and will enable you to reduce stress on your spine, and therefore avoid a re-occurrence of postural spinal subluxation.

Avoidance of any abnormal spinal positions is most important to optimize your body function.

Remember, optimal posture is a major part of optimal health. Optimal health keeps all of your options open in life.

Complete Chiropractic St Albans, First Floor, 15 High Street, St Albans   Herts AL3 4EH  Ph. 01727 848 481

Improving Your Posture

When standing - hold you head high, chin firmly forward, shoulders back, chest out and stomach tucked in to increase your balance. If you stand all day in a job like a cashier or clerk, rest one foot on a stool or take breaks to get off your feet for a while.

 

When sitting - use a chair with firm low back support. Keep desk or table top elbow high, adjust the chair or use a foot rest to keep pressure off the back off the legs, and keep your knees level or slightly higher than your hips.

Get up and stretch frequently - every hour if you sit for long periods of time. Do not sit on a fat wallet, it can cause hip imbalance!

When sitting in the car - adjust the seat forward so your knees are higher than your hips. Put a small pillow or cushion in the small of your back.

When sleeping - sleep on your side with your knees bent and head supported by a pillow, to make your head level with your spine. Or sleep on your back, avoiding thick pillows under your head. Use a small pillow under your neck instead. Don’t sleep on your stomach.

When lifting - let your legs do the work in order to prevent injury to your low back. Stand close to the object, then where possible squat down and straddle it. Grasp the object, and slowly lift the load by straightening your legs as you stand up. Carry the object close to your body.

When bending - never twist from the waist and bend forward at the same time. To lift or reach something on the floor, bend the knees while keeping the back straight.

 

The Spinal Model

Complete Chiropractic St Albans, First Floor, 15 High Street, St Albans   Herts AL3 4EH  Ph. 01727 848 481

Your body and spine is an incredible marvel of engineering, being able to withstand large forces and yet maintaining great flexibility.

The ideal spine at rest consumes practically no energy to support upright standing posture.  If it were to be maintained properly, the spine could easily last 120-150 years with minimal degeneration or arthritis.  

The Harrison Spinal Model http://www.idealspine.com/ is our goal of care for correction. Just like blood pressure, there are normal ranges for spinal alignment. When you fall outside of these normal ranges, the spine will degenerate faster than it should and wear like a car tire that is not properly  balanced. 

The human spine should be straight from the front and have 3 curves when viewed from the side

It is quite obvious why our spines need to be as straight as possible from the front, but those without an engineering  background may fail to see the need for curves when viewed from the side. 

Let's take the neck for example.

The arc in the neck provides leverage for muscles which move the head, while also distributing the forces of gravity through the spine.

The ideal shape of the spine is an amazing balance of natural

forces that are constantly challenging us. These include such loads as compression, tension and shear. How efficient our spines are to resisting these detrimental forces is di

rectly related to health.

By altering and restoring the natural curves of the spine we can help you get rid of neck and low back pain and prevent the spine from wear and tear.