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Spinal health doesn’t need some arbitrary “Awareness Day” or week or month; the truth is, wherever you are, whenever you can, it is always worth improving your spinal health. At Family Chiropractic & Natural Healing Center, we believe that one of the best ways to enjoy a long life is with a healthy back, but we also know that modern life stacks the odds against those who try to keep it healthy! In truth, modern lifespans are now exceeding the shelf warranty of our spines, so it is going to take extra, concerted effort to keep our spines healthy into old age. 

Spinal health is fluid: it doesn’t “start” when you wake up, or “stop” when you go to sleep. Throughout the day and night, we must be cognizant of posture and listen to our body when it sends signals of pain or stiffness to the brain. 

• Let’s begin with the morning. Don’t just jump out of bed; instead, set the tone for a day full of back health by using your arms to slowly support you into a sitting position, before swinging your legs to the floor and standing up.
• If you can find the time after your morning shower, do a few gentle stretches to ease the muscles of your back and body into the swing of the day. Even 5 minutes of gentle stretching will limber your body against the rigors of a day that for many of us is spent sedentary. 
• Throughout the day, remain aware: If you feel your head creeping forward, or your shoulders scrunching together, then correct! Keep your shoulders back and relaxed, your head centered over your spine and your eyes facing forward, so that the neck follows: it should never be down or up for a consistent period of time! 
• Avoid sitting for too long in one go and break the monotony by taking micro-breaks: 2 minutes of brisk walking to the water fountain, or 2 minutes of deep breathing and stretching.
• Try stretching before bed. It influences relaxation by releasing tension from muscles and gets you ready to sleep deeply. 

It’s time to wake up. Feel that constant ache or stiffness in your lower back? Don’t accept it as normal! Call our office and schedule an appointment today so we can establish a baseline of health for your back. 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C. 

Chronic pain is a scourge and a national health concern: it is responsible for disabling more people in the United States than cancer or heart disease. And while statistics are alarmingly effective at establishing the scope of the problem, they also divorce us from the human element: people suffering from chronic pain are living degraded lives and they deserve much better! 

Pain is, essentially, the body’s way of letting you know something is wrong through nerve signalling. It generally falls under two categories, acute and chronic, though acute pain can evolve into chronic pain if left alone long enough. And while acute pain can usually be rooted out and vanquished in a matter of weeks or months, chronic pain can exist independent of injury and can persist psychogenically, affecting both the physical and emotional experience of the sufferer. 

At Family Chiropractic & Natural Healing Center, we strive to be a resource for people suffering from chronic pain. Everything we do is in support of you living a better life, and that starts with less pain. Here are some ways we can influence pain management on a daily basis: 

• Drinking water: stay hydrated sans calories, sodium and caffeine. 
• Keeping inflammation down: through diet and exercise, it is crucial to limit the amount of inflammation that regularly wracks your body.
• Regular stretching and strengthening: don’t let your muscles waste away. The less you use them, the more likely they are to cause you stiffness and pain. 
• Learning posture: if you must sit for hours at a time, you need to be doing it in a way that doesn’t cause excessive harm or pain. 
• Learning how to breathe again: to capture all the oxygen you need and expel all the CO₂ so that every cell in your body can work in unison in support of YOU! 

Come talk to us! Along with the chiropractic treatment we provide, we will help you devise a holistic lifestyle plan that fits seamlessly into your daily routine and keeps you smiling. 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C. 

As a chiropractor and a true believer in holistic wellness, we love the power of nutrition for helping people feel better naturally. There is more information than ever on the web, especially clickbait articles on social media that do not convey the true essence of nutrition: it’s impact on well-being. Because many of our patients are facing musculoskeletal problems that exhibit a similar pool of symptoms and are derived from a similar pool of causes, we focus on nutrition that supports the following: lowering inflammation, increasing circulation, strengthening muscle and connective tissue and building healthier bones. When combined with regular chiropractic attention, cardiovascular exercise, stretching and strengthening, you can make amazing improvements in the health of your back. Here is a list of superfoods, as designated by your Milpitas chiropractor: 

Lowering inflammation

• Coldwater fish: herring, mackerel, trout, halibut, sardines, sea bass and of course, salmon. What’s your favorite fish? Chances are it is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids which are good for fighting inflammation. Other sources of omega-3: flax and chia seeds, enriched eggs, avocados

Increasing circulation

• Oranges
• Dark chocolate
• Cayenne pepper 
• Ginger
• Garlic 
• Seeds
• Salmon 
• Stir fry anyone? 

Healthier bones

• Dairy 
• Green leafy vegetables
• Nuts
• Focus on dairy

Healthier muscles

• Protein, preferably of the lean variety
• Lean beef 
• Chicken
• Eggs 
• Oatmeal

Whatever your health ambitions, there is a way that diet can be used to augment your chances of success. At our office in the bay area, we support natural methods of feeling better; in this respect, nutrition and chiropractic overlap. If you have been languishing with chronic pain, it is time to correct the root cause so that you can focus on feeling better with factors that are within your control, such as diet. To catalyze this process, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C. 

The stiff neck club can be quite a bleak group to be a part of, but if certain statistics are to be believed, up to 45% of the American working public are affected by pain-in-the-neck syndrome. While indiscriminate back pain is probably more widespread, neck pain is, by it’s nature, quite serious and something that should be managed closely and properly. 

The plain fact is, being a human would be amazingly difficult if you could not move your neck. Every time you needed to look at something, you would have to turn your entire body. And while this is an exercise in hyperbole, humans continue to pursue activities which contribute to stiff, sore necks and neglect activities that preserve flexibility and range of motion. There are many virulent factors that can contribute to a sore neck, including: posture, level of activity, proclivity for stretching, pillow quality, the adhesion of scar tissue or something more obscure such as stress. Some of the ways we help include:

• Treating muscle strain: the levator scapula is a muscle that connects the shoulder to the cervical spine and is controlled by nerves exiting between C3 and C4; the sedentary nature of the office encourages this muscle to tighten and if it becomes strained, it can cause pain. We treat strained muscles with trigger point therapy and massage to release the tension. 
• Treating pinched nerves: we use gentle adjustments to correct any nerve impingement that may be occurring in the cervical region, restoring nerve function and improving range of motion in the process.
• Treating Facet Joint Syndrome: when the small facet joints of the vertebra become pressurized, headache, muscle spasm and neck or back pain can follow. 

It’s time we wake up and begin to take posture and the health of our necks seriously to prevent an old age of pain and dysfunction. At Family Chiropractic & Natural Healing Center, we have the tools to help you succeed and we would love to share them with you so call our office in Milpitas to schedule an appointment today! 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C. 

Asking why people smoke is opening a can of worms that can be hard to understand given modern science, readily available information and public perception that seems to contradict any of its perceived benefits. Regardless, smokers persist for myriad reasons. One misconception, that is used as a reason to perpetuate the habit or addiction is that smoking somehow, “relieves tension,” despite there being clear, clinical evidence that suggests the exact opposite. 

While it may alleviate tension for the length of time the cigarette is smoked, the long term effect is one of accumulating toxicity that leads to muscle tension. Yes, nicotine is storied for its analgesic properties, but it is also storied for contributing to elevated levels of both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the bloodstream. This is dangerous when you combine it with the oxygen repression that comes with smoking; decreased oxygen levels lead to lactic acid build up which directly creates muscle tension. So yes, you may be masking the pain you are consequently creating. 

At Family Chiropractic & Natural Healing Center, we can defintively say that one of the easiest ways to living a better life across the board begins with quitting smoking. We help you find a penchant for exercise and, consequently, well-being that will override the short term gratification of a cigarette. There is well-supported evidence that suggests many of the negative of smoking can be reversed after quitting and we would like to help you in this endeavor starting today; call our office to schedule an appointment today. 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C. 

Anterior pelvic tilt is a rather technical sounding term for a positioning of the body, albeit usually subconscious, that is very common in America. Visual cues that would indicate the presence of anterior pelvic tilt include a forward tilted pelvis, a protruding abdomen, and a pronounced lower back curve. In this position the hip flexors are usually stiff shortened while the hip extensors are lengthened and there is often an accompanying deficiency in abdominal and glute strength. 

APT can be problematic for people in the gym: it is especially pronounced with the common exercises of the deadlift and the squat. It is a problem that overlaps with posture and becomes more noticeable and problematic with age: musculoskeletal dysfunction, lower back pain and poor posture are the most common symptoms. At Family Chiropractic & Natural Healing Center, we address APT with an approach that blends postural awareness with strengthening and stretching of all the muscles involved.

• Chiropractic adjustment
• Hip flexor and lower back stretching
• Correcting and teaching posture
• Abdomen and glute strengthening
• Establishing the core as a stabilizer

At our office in the Bay Area, we want to be your partner in overcoming anterior pelvic tilt because we know you will feel a significant difference in well-being and an improvement in pain. This should not be the defining posture of your life, but it is not always easy to conquer the question of posture by yourself. We can lend you a helping hand, but only if you give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C. 

The question of flexibility is becoming more important as Americans move toward a more sedentary lifestyle. The trend cannot really be helped, as jobs and recreation options are shifted into more screen-oriented settings, but there are steps you can take as an individual to fight the kind of stagnation that occurs to your body during a day spent deskbound. Flexibility, simply defined as the ability of the body to bend without incurring injury, can be added (back) into your life seamlessly, but it does take dedication. The upside to be gained with a more flexible body should be enough to convince you of its worth: being flexible is the best way to eliminate or greatly reduce the chance of back pain. Here are some simple stretches to keep the back flexible: 

• Pike stretch: Sit on the floor with legs extended in front of you. Lean forward and try to touch your toes, keeping your back completely straight. Stop before the feeling of resistance turns into pain in any of the main points being stretched: the hamstrings, leg muscles and lower back. 
• Pike stretch, standing variant: stand straight up, bend at the waist and reach toward your toes. Bend as far as you can but don’t cause yourself pain. You should feel a stretch in the back and legs. 
• Spinal stretch: Lie supine, then cross the right leg over the other while extending the right arm in the opposite direction. You can rest your left hand on the knee of the right leg. 

At Family Chiropractic & Natural Healing Center, we believe it is the littlest things which make the biggest difference. We want to help you retain the greatest amount of flexibility as you move forward in life and we can provide you with chiropractic adjustment and help you implement stretching techniques that will truly make a difference in your life. 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C. 

When it comes to feeling your greatest throughout the day, there are few things that will set you off on the right foot like a good morning stretch routine. Rise and shine often means out of bed and out the door, but if you can find a few minutes upon waking, whether it be pre-shower or post-coffee, your afternoon body and brain will reward you handsomely. Try a few of these simple stretches the next morning you think about it and see how they change your day for the better. Remember that vigorous stretching should be done with a warmed up body, so if you choose to do it straight out of bed, go a little easier. 

• Seated spinal twist: sit on a chair with legs together. Rotate from the waist one direction, feeling your spine lengthening. Use one hand on the back of the chair and one hand on the opposite hip to support the stretch. Once you reach a point of resistance, also turn your head to look over your shoulder. Hold for 3 seconds, exhale and repeat on the other side. 
• Standing hamstring stretch: stand facing a bench or the bed and put the right leg up onto the bench, keeping it straight with the foot flexed. Keep the standing leg straight and lean forward from the hips, keeping the spine straight. Hold for 5 seconds, repeat with other leg. 
• Standing forward bend: Stand with feet at hip width, knees slightly bent, and hinge forward from the hips. In this position, your upper body should hang over the legs. From here, clasp elbows and hold for 3 seconds, then reverse the motion slowly. 

All of these stretches are great for the lower back, which is the part of the body that takes the greatest beating during a day at the office. Being proactive about the health of your back is smart- in fact, it’s the greatest investment you can make along with nutrition in order to stay productive and keep a smile on your face. For help on freeing your back from the grips of pain and returning to the greatest life you are capable of leading, give our office in the Bay Area a call and schedule an appointment today. 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C. 

An important stretch for combating the incursions of neck pain during a day of working at the desk is called the levator scapula stretch. The levator scapula is a long muscle that emerges between the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebrae and connects to the shoulder blade. Whenever your neck is stiff or sore, it is worth putting this muscle through some motions to alleviate some of the tension that naturally accumulates throughout the day. 

• On the sore side, raise your elbow above the shoulder and rest it against a door jamb. This lengthens the muscle and prepares it for the articulation that will follow and create the stretch. 
• Turn your head in the opposite direction of the side that needs stretching and move your chin downward, to create a stretch in the back of the neck. 
• Finally, you can use your free hand to pull the head forward gently and add to the intensity of the stretch. 
• Hold for as long as possible, but not for more than a minute. 

This is one of the most effective stretches for alleviating tension in the neck. Little tricks like this can make the world of difference for chronically stiff and sore spines. If there is a deeper lying problem that may be contributing to your recurrent back pain, give our office a call so we can determine the true cause and help you on a path toward recovery. 

Dr. Gregory Lind, D.C.