wellness Archives - Page 2 of 9 - Damron Chiropractic & Wellness

Eliminate Your Pain and Discomfort

February 9, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

We are creatures of habit. Whether it’s a restaurant we like to frequent, coffee made a certain way, or sleeping on a particular side of the bed. We know what we like. In fact, we like our routines and habits so much that we continue to do them even when we are experiencing pain or other discomfort. Typically, rationalizing to ourselves that “it isn’t that bad” or “I’m sure it will feel better in the morning.” Sometimes we even resort to the internet, looking for reasons why we are feeling the way we are. Again, rationalizing that we can “self treat” regardless what it is. But at what point do the scales tip and we realize we need to seek professional help?

While people have different pain thresholds, pain alone can be enough to cause a person to get medical care. However, many times it isn’t the pain that makes this happen. It boils down to what that person is missing out on, or giving up, that they then decide to finally do something about their problem. For example, a golfer enjoys a weekly round with his buddies. He has been dealing with shoulder discomfort for a while, yet it isn’t bad enough to affect his game. However, gradually the discomfort turned to pain and his golf swing is way off. It is Steve’s frustration that leds him to seek out a chiropractor, not the discomfort and pain.

At Damron Chiropractic & Wellness, we see other similar scenarios with our patients. It is not the pain per se that brings them to us, rather what the pain is preventing them from doing or doing well.

Competitive dancing
Running
Playing with their grandchildren
Work
Pitching
Entertaining their family
Traveling
Sleeping

The list could go on and on. We do not need to wait for this level of severity before we see a chiropractor. Remaining aware of how our body feels every day will help to spare us lost time doing what we love. Similar to how seeing a dentist every six months will help to prevent cavities. Regular visits to a chiropractor will help to keep our body functioning as it should. We are only given so many days in our life. Why waste any of them not feeling our best, especially when we can do something about preventing it today?

Replacing One Bad Habit With Another

January 10, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

It is not uncommon for us to substitute one vice for another, thinking we are choosing the lesser of two evils. Take smoking, for example. With the introduction of the e-cigarette in 2004, smokers who were trying to quit had a new option. This new option gives them the best of both worlds, the sensation and effects of smoking without the harmful side effects. Or do they, because there still exists a habit?

In May of 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would begin extending its authority to include this previously unregulated market. This came about in large part due to the efforts of the American Lung Association. E-cigarettes still contain many of the cancer causing chemicals regular cigarettes do, although in smaller numbers. Carcinogens like formaldehyde and benzine. In addition, e-cigarettes give users the impression that it is safer than smoking. Let’s look at the facts:

Almost all e-cigarettes contain nicotine, a highly addictive substance.
Nicotine is harmful to the developing fetus both for the developing brain and lung functions.
Low birth weights and preterm births have been associated to nicotine exposure.
Adolescent brain development is at risk with nicotine, especially with memory and attention.
There are many unknown chemical in e-cigarettes, which alone is very concerning.
Flavoring/taste are one of the major reasons adolescents try e-cigarettes for the first time.
The Centers for Disease Control has reported an alarming increase in the number of e-cigarette exposure poisonings.
Second-hand emissions contain carcinogens formaldehyde, benzine, plus nitrosamines.
No one knows the long-term effects of e-cigarettes on our health.

There is no denying that smoking is bad on our health, it is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. So, does replacing smoking with e-cigarettes really a solution? Or is it merely a band-aid to cover up the addiction? Wellness is a state of mind where a bad habit is broken, not replaced by another one. A bad habit can run the gamut from smoking, to overeating, a sedentary lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption, and diet sodas. Truly changing means being honest with ourselves and what we are doing to our body. The field of chiropractic care takes that honest approach to health, without depending on medications or invasive procedures to cover up the problem. A chiropractor is your wellness partners for life by helping you to eliminate those bad habits and thrive.

Avoid the “Perfect Storm” of Disease-Care

January 5, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

In 2000, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg starred in the movie “The Perfect Storm”. It is based on the true story of a commercial fishing vessel lost at sea during a storm. This storm was exceedingly rare due to the combination of adverse weather factors. In the chiropractic world, we see a lot of people who got caught in a perfect storm. Negative and unpredictable factors affect their lives in such a way that their quality of life is significantly diminished. Factors such as:

a sedentary lifestyle
car accident
work related injury
smoking
poor diet
diabetes
obesity
chronic pain

Some factors can be self-made, others can be simply bad luck or hereditary. Either way, these factors can create a perfect storm that equates to illness. At Damron Chiropractic & Wellness our goal is wellness for life. We take a person’s perfect storm and work with them utilizing chiropractic, rehabilitation, massage and nutrition.

We hear a lot about disease care with people suffering from chronic conditions. Rarely is there any press on wellness. Wellness means that a person is feeling good and looking good. In our world, being well means the perfect storm is over and that person can get back to doing what they love with a higher quality of life.

Life can give us lemons, and lots of them. But we do have a choice. We can choose to settle for what life hands us or decide to seek help. This does not mean using a band-aid approach either, as tempting as that might be. Rather, it means finding a resolution once and for all by ignoring disease-care. Disease-care actually cares for the disease and not finding out what is causing it in the first place. The presenting symptoms may appear to be coming from the leg, but it is really nerve interference in the spine. Treating the leg pain with disease-care does not address the nerve interference in the spine. Consequently, the leg pain will return. That is not wellness.

If you suspect a perfect storm in your life there is a solution. Life happens, but wellness does not, unless you decide to seek it out.

Good Health Does Not Equal a Diet

December 29, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

One of the most successful women in the world is Oprah Winfrey. From her early days as a talk show host to a producer and actress later. As her career evolved so did her weight. On the television screen we have seen Oprah’s weight fluctuate between the extremes as she tried different diets. Most recently, this legendary woman has done something we can all learn from. She has let go of the hold food has had on her and instead uses it to nourish and sustain her. But, most importantly, she uses it to connect herself with others.

As we approach the new year and the habitual pull of the need to commit to a resolution, perhaps it’s time to change it up. The top resolution for last year, according to Statistic Brain, was to lose weight. While that may not be surprising, what is is the failure rate. Only 8% of those surveyed who made a resolution succeeded. We learned from Oprah’s visibility that a special diet simply does not work in the long run. While weight loss is initially achieved, it is simply not sustainable. Why? Because life happens.

Even our best intentions cannot stop life from happening. Our schedules change at the last minute, we get sick, sustain an injury, travel for business. Non-sustainable diets reveal themselves because we don’t have what we need when we need it, leaving us to find something else to eat. We cannot live in a vacuum. Oprah teaches us that our relationship with our wellness is an intimate one. Food is an essential piece of our overall health. It is the fuel that sustains us, ideally for the long haul.

However, probably even more important than Oprah’s food message is her new perspective on her own health. Being healthy is not about being skinny. It is not about losing weight for the sake of losing weight. Rather, it is about honoring you. Honoring your uniqueness and not trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Being active, eating a healthy diet, getting sufficient sleep, being joyful, not smoking and drinking in moderation are all important steps in living well. Healthy does not equal skinny. It actually equals a lifestyle.

In this new year, change your perspective on what it means to thrive. Feed your soul, nourish your body. Treat it as the temple it really is. With honor and respect.

Optional Chronic Pain

December 13, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Many of us live with pain at some point in our life. Sometimes the pain is acute, or temporary. And sometimes it’s chronic, or much more permanent. Either way, we have a choice as to how we treat it. Taking steps to correct the pain or steps to cover it up. With temporary pain, such as pain that accompanies a surgery or injury, we tend to do what we can to tolerate it until it heals. With chronic pain, we typically start out that way, too. We do things to cover up the pain because we want to believe that it is really temporary. However, we soon realize how wrong we were.

It is not uncommon to hear that a person has “lived with” pain for a long time, especially in our line of work. But when they finally do seek care at Damron Chiropractic & Wellness, why now? Why at that particular point in time? What changed?

When it comes to pain, and living with it, we do not live in a vacuum. While our pain may be a constant, we continue to age, life changes. Usually what we find is that the pain a person is experiencing has begun to interfere with something they treasure be it their golf swing, holding their child, sleeping at night, or remaining active. The ‘living with” has suddenly become something they are no longer willing to do. You see, the pain did not change, the person’s situation did.

If we are to be honest with ourselves, we would admit that settling for “living with” was unacceptable. We chose to diminish our quality of life by doing nothing but covering up the pain. But the problem has bigger implications. We also run the risk of doing more permanent damage to our body due to inflammation and overcompensation from the rest of our body as it adjusts to live with the pain.

Procrastination does more harm than good when it comes to pain. We would do ourselves a huge favor if we addressed our pain head on. No more excuses.

Tinnitus (Ringing In the Ears)

December 6, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

It might surprise you to learn that tinnitus, commonly known as ringing in the ears, is one of the most common health ailments in our country. Over 50 million Americans suffer from this condition, which can range from annoying to debilitating. That is 15% of the population! Although the name implies ringing, other common sounds can be “buzzing, hissing, whistling, swooshing, and clicking,” according to the American Tinnitus Association.

There are four types of tinnitus:

subjective tinnitus – where only the person experiencing the sound can hear it (accounts for 99% of cases).
objective tinnitus – this is extremely rare where the person and others can hear the sound. This is typically caused by the internal functions of the body such as circulation or muscular-skeletal system.
neurological tinnitus – is usually caused by a disorder such as Meniere’s disease that affects the auditory system.
somatic tinnitus – is part of the nervous system that connects the limbs and organs to the brain and spinal cord.

Interestingly, when researching this condition, chiropractic care is often overlooked as a reliable and effective treatment option for those looking for relief. The truth is that pressure and irritation in the cervical spine, specifically the C1 and C2 vertebrae, are the cause of the ringing symptoms. However, the noise that one hears when suffering from tinnitus is not the problem. It is only the indicator light that something is wrong.

In addition to the ringing, sufferers also experience:

anxiety
depression
irritability
confusion
sleep disturbances
mood swings
poor concentration

The cervical spine is the most important area of the spine due to it’s close proximity to the brain stem. A chiropractor’s goal is not only to relieve the pressure and irritation that is creating the ringing symptom but also to determine the root cause for it. For every person the cause will be different, which means that each person’s care plan will also be different.

Quality of life is very important to us at Damron Chiropractic & Wellness. You can take control of your health by changing your path in life from “disease care” to “wellness care.” Come to DCW to thrive!

A Healthy Lifestyle Is the Ultimate Vacation

November 17, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

There is a process we use when making a big decision from what our next car purchase will be, to where we will go on our next vacation. We talk to friends who have recently purchased a car or love to travel, search online for reviews and information, even talk to those in the business of selling cars or traveling. The purpose it to collect as much information as possible to make the best decision possible, especially if what we are looking to do is completely foreign to us. The knowledge we gain from our research may empower us to make the best purchase decision, but it stops there. Let me explain.

When buying a new car or vacationing at that new destination, we are only enjoying the car while we are in it. We are only enjoying the vacation while we are actually on it. Yes, we can look at pictures of our travels and yes we can take our new wheels out for a spin every day, but that’s it. We spent all that time, effort, and eventually money on something that cannot enjoy every moment of every day. Once that vacation is over, it’s over. We also cannot live and sleep in our car. Why not the same time, effort, and money in something that we can enjoy 24/7? Wouldn’t that be the best of both worlds?

Enjoying the fullness of good health and true wellness is something that you can enjoy each and every day. And obtaining that lifestyle is something that can be achieved if we do the right research and information gathering. Take a look around you and list those people you know who already have that lifestyle. What are they doing that you aren’t? Commit to asking them. Spend the time to research a healthy aging lifestyle. At the crux is probably some type of holistic health care such as chiropractic. A unique field of care that focuses on the entire body versus a single system. People who enjoy optimal health are more interested in making every day a vacation. This is quite different than enjoying only 2 weeks of vacation out of the year.

Treat your health as you would preparing for a vacation. Take the time to thoroughly research what it will take beyond exercise and healthy eating to really live well. Create a life where you don’t need to take a vacation from to enjoy it. Feel like you do on vacation, every day of the year.

Looks Can Be Deceiving With Our Health

November 16, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Take that home project that was supposed to be simple, yet turned into your worst nightmare. It started with changing out a light fixture and then turned into so much more. A blown fuse, bad wiring, and an extra hole in the wall.

This same saying seems to be applicable to our health as well; however, with a slight twist. We make the assumption that looking and feeling good equates to good health. As a result, if there are no obvious problems, then there’s no need to fix anything. Yet, how many times do you hear about people suffering major health setbacks without having any warning signs?

This wishful mindset needs to change if we truly value a life of wellness. Because, if not, then we are constantly living on the defense, which is exhausting and puts you at a disadvantage. If you are waiting for a health problem to arise before you take action, then you are already at a disadvantage – both financially and emotionally. It’s like relying on the view from your window to predict the weather. Because you don’t see evidence of a hurricane approaching, it doesn’t mean that it’s not coming.

Good health is our most treasured asset. Consequently, protecting this asset requires a proactive approach. This approach to our health is similar to the one we take with our dentist with regularly scheduled visits to prevent cavities. Also with scheduling regular visits with a pediatrician to ensure our children are thriving. We do this to prevent or minimize a health crisis.

The questions we need to ask ourselves are:

Why to do we choose to avoid preventative health care when we know its benefits?
Why do we choose to distrust the specialization of a chiropractor if we don’t have all the facts? Shouldn’t we care enough about ourselves to learn the truth?
Don’t we deserve the best approach to wellness?
What do we have to lose by being proactive?

Addressing Pain Once and for All

October 20, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

At Damron Chiropractic & Wellness (DCW), people come to us who have been told by other health care practitioners that they were unable to help them. Usually the reason was because they could not determine the source of their problem. The person is typically referred to other specialists, only to be given the same information. How frustrating and expensive this situation can be. Fortunately, collaborative care through chiropractic, therapeutic massage, rehabilitation, and nutrition provides the solution that person has been searching for all along.

Imagine being given a band-aid to stop the bleeding of a deep cut that really needs stitches. Is that the best solution? Would that effectively stop the blood flow? Yet, many of us accept that reality when we take pain medications if there is no long-term solution. While the pain may subside, the problem still persists. When does the cycle end?

Solutions. People like them. We also like to live without pain. So, how can one get an effective solution to their pain, without the band-aid approach of pain medications? The answer is chiropractic care. The approach and results are unique to this field of health care.

Chiropractic is a holistic approach, meaning the entire body and it’s systems are considered in a diagnosis rather than only one or two. For example, a patient with bladder pain is typically treated for their bladder pain. But what if the problem persists, even after treatment. The patient could be referred to urology. But what if nothing is found and the problem still persists? Perhaps this scenario sounds familiar to you, however with another type of pain like the head, back, leg, or neck. How was that pain resolved? Is there still pain?

Time and again we see patients that have found no solutions from other doctors. As almost a last resort they decide to see a chiropractor. The results are profound. It’s time to change the perception of chiropractic care for the 80% of the population that has never seen a chiropractor. Rather than trying to convince you of the benefits, we encourage you to check out our Google and Facebook reviews to learn more.

The Chiropractic Care Conundrum

October 6, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

There are a lot of things in life we don’t question because we make assumptions and trust the source. We don’t question the gasoline that is put in our car, the dyes used to color our hair, the restaurants we dine at, the chemicals on our lawn, or the safety of the cars we drive. However, there are still times when we do question things in life, too, but perhaps not truly understanding why. Take, for example, the distrust of a field of medicine that is not considered “mainstream,” such as chiropractic care. Why do we trust the food we eat, the gasoline we purchase, the chemicals we put on our lawn and hair, yet question the integrity of a medical profession that is committed to genuine health and wellness for over 100 years?

Education is the only way to change this perception of chiropractic care. Unfortunately, society has been conditioned to believe what they see and hear. Print and television ads become the truth. But just because it is advertised does that really mean we take that information at face value? What is typically best for us cannot always be advertised.

So, how can the public be educated? Ownership falls on each of us. It is our duty to advocate for ourselves. Taking the time to research from reputable sources versus relying on what might be skewed information from a paid ad. Another consideration is our own willingness to actually put in the work for our well-being. In a society of instant gratification, obtaining a life of health and wellness means we are not a bystander. We are an active participant that is fully invested in the outcome. There are no quick solutions, but there are long-term rewards.

Change your perspective through education. Learn as much as you can about how you can truly work towards living your best life now without taking any shortcuts.

Eliminate Your Pain and Discomfort

Replacing One Bad Habit With Another

Avoid the “Perfect Storm” of Disease-Care

Good Health Does Not Equal a Diet

Optional Chronic Pain

Tinnitus (Ringing In the Ears)

A Healthy Lifestyle Is the Ultimate Vacation

Looks Can Be Deceiving With Our Health

Addressing Pain Once and for All

The Chiropractic Care Conundrum

OUR TEAM

Dr. Andrew Damron, Chiropractor

Dr. Greg Washam, Chiropractor

Brooke Snyder, Operations Manager

Nicole Foreman, Licensed Massage Therapist

Erika Pantona, Insurance Specialist

Amy Faris, Patient Care Coordinator

Hours

Contact information