Save our students.....
   From their Backpacks.....


Make sure that your child's back pack is not harming his/her overall spinal development, posture, and health.


1.  Choose the right backpack.  Look for heavily padded shoulder straps and bags that do not hang too low down the back and, ideally, a waist strap.  Avoid single strap packs.


2. Don't overload the backpack.  If its too heavy the child will lean forward to carry it.  This will put stress on the spine, which can lead to a lifetime of health problems. 


3.  Lift it properly.  Bend the knees and lift with the legs.


4.  Carry it the right way.  Use both straps.  This evens the weight evenly across the back and shoulders.  Use the waist strap to distribute some of the weight to the pelvis and hips.


5.  Have your child's spine checked, if you're wondering.....Call our office and we will be glad to do a complimentary spinal screening. 


And most of all......Have a great school year!!!!!

Is the flu vaccine for everyone?

I was going to follow up on how I want people not to look at pain as a warning sign of something to go bad but as a sign that there is already significant underlying injury generally by the time one is hurting. I will get back to that as over the last week I have been seeing and reading a lot about how ineffective the flu vaccines have been in recent history and the fact that not all people should take them and even those that do should not take them yearly for their own best interest. I know this may rub some of you the wrong way but the truth is that last year’s vaccine was over 62% INEFFECTIVE, and this year’s shot so far has been shown to be as much as 82% INEFFECTIVE. So in other words 82% of people who got the vaccine still got the flu and this doesn’t even take into account the side effects the of the vaccine itself. I do know that much fewer than 82% of the non-vaccinated individuals, in fact less than 20% and possibly as low as 8% have gotten the flu this season. My point is this AGAIN has been proven to be fairly ineffective and unless someone is truly in a life or death potential situation the vaccine may not be the best idea and you and your doctors need to make that decision not pharmaceutical companies with their millions in advertising and strong hold on the American people’s fears. Also a small video clip on some new research I found on weather.com is suggesting (as been stated for years by many) that taking the flu shot every year is probably a bad idea even if the vaccine were effective. The truth is medical research has generally proven the shot is intended for high risk individuals (not most people), is highly ineffective (again 62% on average and thought to be 82% this year), and not something people should take on an annual basis for their own best interest.

An ounce of prevention!

Despite that chiropractic is so much more to good health and overall well-being the truth is most people think of chiropractic as headache and lower back treatment. This has become so because both are a huge problem and cost tremendous amounts of money out of people’s pockets every year. Today I want to focus on lower back pain. This is the leading cause of disability worldwide and the number one reason people miss work and the second most common reason for a visit to a medical doctor, second only to the common cold. This is directly relevant as I see everyday people that waited too long to get this problem handled and now has permanent aspects that can never be 100% healthy again. Thankfully most of these can still be helped and managed, however with insurance coverage getting higher and higher with deductibles and copays, and this is expected to get even worse next year.This is more money from each of you to cover this problem. Lower back pain costs Americans over $150 Billion annually in direct costs out of pocket and time missed from work (indirect costs). This is huge because quite often the problem is preventable if we listen to our bodies (and our chiropractors). Surgery is stated to be affected about one third of the time and a lot of research suggests less. Steroid injections cause deterioration of joints and therefore not something to take lightly. Physical and massage therapy can both be affective when the issue is a muscle issue, however 90-95% of low back pain is mechanical or segmental dysfunction based according to MEDICAL research. What does that mean? In short it is a chiropractic issue and this is why it has been so affective through the years and how there is a reputation for helping with these issues. I do not deny my bias, however, numbers don’t lie and for the most part when chiropractic hasn’t helped especially with lower back pain the individual waited too long in hoping it would go away. That standpoint is not all that different than hoping the cancer, or cholesterol issue, or diabetes will go away if not specifically doing something and if you wait too long with your health in general it can lead to devastating consequences. This is the main reason chiropractors want people to just keep coming back, it really is for your own best interest in that if there is already an underlying issue it unfortunately and often takes a lot of time to stabilize just like with other health issues. If the underlying issue isn’t that bad then we want to keep it that way. Take it from someone that has had severe lower back pain due to mostly a car accident you never want to experience it because it makes life miserable and can make even getting dressed and going to the bathroom painful. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, and a lifetime of chiropractic is better than a single surgery.

Yours in health,

DR. RJ

Welcome

Welcome to our little place in the web.  We hope that in our time together a clearer understanding of Chiropractic - what it is, and what it can do will develop.  If you have questions, we will do our best to answer them and if you would like to visit our website go to www.rungechiropractic.com

Chiropractic - being at your best

Over the next couple of weeks my intentions are to explain chiropractic on a philosophical level to understand how YOUR chiropractor works and thinks. I want everyone to feel better; however pain management is is not my main concern. Some of you may be thinking what the heck am I doing here, but let me explain. What keeps us young and healthy is our body's ability to adapt to its environment, and the things we do in our lives tend to affect that ability to adapt. If we have an injury in our lower backs, the joints, muscles, and nerves are compromised and unhealthy. If the damage is severe enough or been there long enough this starts to hurt and give pain as a warning sign to “get it fixed”. Here lies the first conundrum. People want immediate pain relief as do I, however most of the time with chiropractic it is not a quick or overnight fix, so why is this and why should everyone with a spine be seen by a chiropractor? The correct and right fix is not always the easy fix, and chiropractic is very often that RIGHT fix. If we are twenty pounds overweight we can't have a great workout and lose twenty pounds no matter how badly we want to, but that is the right idea and start on so many levels. If we want to live a more pain free and happy life we need to be healthier and that is where we start with chiropractic, not a cure all fix all, but a great lifestyle to be at our best more often.