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How do Atlas Health Chiropractic North Lakes can help me?
How can Atlas Health Chiropractic North Lakes help you?
When it comes to your health, there are 5 basic categories of things you want to do to maintain your wellbeing at the highest possible level … and are you are probably already doing 4/5 of them.
- Do you sleep? Good! You need to sleep. It’s when your body repairs and regenerates.
- Do you eat? Hopefully the good kind of stuff. Even if you aren’t perfect, you do the best that you can with the information you have.
- Do you move your body? A 60 minute per day walk counts. It doesn’t have to be sweating until your eyeballs bleed. Just keep moving your body!
- Do you have a stress outlet? Meditation is the new trend - and it is very important! - but I’m going to make it even easier as simply something where you have the opportunity to mentally relax and decompress from the day.
Now the last one:
5. Do you do regular maintenance for your brain? And no, I’m not talking about reading or learning new things. I’m talking about doing things that physically preserve the inner workings of the master control system of your body.
Dentists, Hair Stylists, and Chiropractors
When it comes to presentation and care, no one has done a better job of helping the public than dentists.
Take care of your teeth by brushing, flossing, and having regular checkups to ensure optimal dental health.
It’s a simple message with profound implications on your health and wellbeing, And not to dismiss the importance of tooth care, but they are just teeth!
Do you take as much care of your brain and spine as you do your teeth?
This is the message that Atlas Health Chiropractic North Lakes wants to share with the local community. In particular, your neck is your lifeline between your brain and body. It is what controls every organ, muscle, and sensation in your body.
If the messages are not traveling properly between your brain and body, you may not be as well as possible. But if the messages are traveling properly, your body is able to work more optimally.
It is as simple as that?
Also not to take away anything from hairstylists, but it is sometimes a matter of perspective. Let me ask you this way:
Do you spend more time, money, and energy taking care of your hair each month than you do on the actual part of your body that gives you life: your neck?
At Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes, we aren’t saying what is “right” or “wrong.” We simply want to offer an important perspective that may be able to help you for years to come!
What if I don’t have neck pain?
There are three types of nerves in your neck:
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Sensory nerves. These are the ones that you can feel, like pain or position sense.
- Motor nerves. These are the ones that allow you to move.
- Autonomic nerves. These are the ones that control the functions of your body that you don’t even have to think about.
It is possible, if not common for people to have problems affecting their nervous system that are NOT affecting the sensory nerves.
When this happens, people “feel fine,” but there is actually a degenerative process affecting their spine that could have more serious health complications later in life.
Using the dental analogy again, when you have a small cavity you probably can’t feel it. It is the reason your dentist recommends regular checkups: to catch problems when they are small. It is because if the problem gets big enough, they may have to take the tooth out entirely!
When it comes to your neck, surgery is ideally a path that you do not want! So if there can be a natural, preventative way of taking care of your neck before you have neck pain, we might recommend that approach instead.
That is where Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes may be able to help you.
How to take care of your neck with Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes
At Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes, there are two simple activities that we recommend our clients do if they are able to take care of their neck.
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Lie Flat On Your Back. So many activities that people do involve slumping over desks, computers or phones. This posture puts more stress on your neck and on your spine than it is designed to handle.
Now, poor posture is not the cause of this problem. It is actually the effect! Nevertheless, anything that you can do on your own to decompress from the downward force of gravity is a good thing! What this involves is lying flat on your back for 5-15 minutes WITHOUT a pillow. Maybe a small bit of fabric under your head just for padding if you want.
The purpose is to help stretch your neck safely while taking the weight off your shoulders.
One caution: some people with very chronic back issues can feel a pulling sensation into their lower spine. If so, this activity needs to be modified. It is NOT meant to be uncomfortable, and it is a sure sign that you need the care we offer at Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes even more!
2. Bobbleheads. When it comes to stretching your neck, we find at Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes that most people do it wrong! What they do is stretch their neck sideways, or spin it in a circle. We understand what it feels like and why it feels like the right thing to do.
However, these types of stretches usually just jam the joints in the neck and never release things properly. Instead, we advocate doing Bobblehead exercises.
These are movements where you tuck your chin in so that your (head is straight above your shoulders), and then that you nod your head slightly and slowly up and down like saying “yes.” This movement helps unstick your neck, which can allow the muscles to relax. We usually say 5-10 reps as needed is enough to do the job.
Now, what if those exercises don’t work? Or you still feel there is a problem in your neck? That is the other sure-fire sign that there is an issue with your neck, and that we may be able to help at Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes.
A different approach to neck and healthcare
When it comes to taking care of your neck, there are many different treatments,
The approach that we use at Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes is a unique approach known as “Blair upper cervical care.” In fact, we are the only advanced certified Blair upper cervical chiropractic doctor not only in Brisbane but in all Australia!
What we do is focus on the special relationship between the vertebrae in your neck - with emphasis on the atlas (C1) and axis (C2) vertebrae at the top of your neck - and how they affect the health of your brain, body and nervous system function.
What we do is a series of precise tests where we look at how your neck could be affecting your sensory, motor, and autonomic nerves using computerized tests including digital posture analysis and infrared thermography.
If we find at Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes that you do have a problem with your neck, then we have specialized 3D digital x-rays on-site so that we can find out exactly what direction and degree your vertebrae have misaligned.
The procedure we use to correct the alignment does not involve any twisting, cracking, or spinal manipulation.
When we make a correction, then, we prescribe a course of care to monitor your progress - making further adjustments when necessary - and then introducing exercises and other activities for you along the way so that you can get the best possible long term results.
Ultimately, our goal at Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes is to help you to take care of your neck by exercising, realigning, and having regular checkups to ensure optimal nerve health.
If you would like more information - or to schedule a 15-minute complimentary phone consultation with one of our chiropractic doctors at Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes - to find out if care is right for you, you can click the Contact Us link on this page, or call us at
07 3188 9329. We look forward to helping you.
Atlas Health chiropractic North Lakes - “A passion and purpose for helping people to live well.”
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Wong JJ, Shearer HM, Mior S, et al. Are manual therapies, passive physical modalities, or acupuncture effective for the management of patients with whiplash-associated disorders or neck pain and associated disorders? An update of the Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders by the OPTIMa collaboration. Spine J. 2016 Dec;16(12):1598-1630. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2015.08.024. Epub 2015 Dec 17. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26707074
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