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{lifestyle} How to Stay Away from the Chiropractor



By Dr. Cathy Subber – Advanced Health Naperville

We moms sure do have a lot on our plates, don’t we?  Between the pregnancy, weight gain, childbirth, lack of sleep, nursing positions, child-lifting, vomit-cleaning, diaper-changing, stress-juggling, and multi-tasking we deal with, how on earth are we supposed to feel good?  Not to mention the saggy things on our body that used to look pretty darn good.  Ok, so that really doesn’t have much to do with pain but it just doesn’t seem fair to me that our bodies create and birth these amazing, beautiful children and then for a reward, it gets trashed!  Wouldn’t it be awesome if our bodies got better with each childbirth?

Okay, back to reality.  What can you do to prevent walking into my office hunched over in pain?  First off, we need to actually take care of our bodies.  I am the first one to admit I don’t always do a good job of this.  We need to eat healthy, natural foods and drink a TON of water!  Being dehydrated has been charged with playing a part of almost every disorder and disease on the books.  How much is enough?  I go with half of your body weight in ounces.  Yikes, I better fill up my glass.

Stretching, which is often overlooked, is another one on top of my list.  I can’t tell you how much quicker a patient heals if they are actively keeping their muscles lengthened so that they don’t continue to put pressure on the spine.  While we’re on the S’s, another sneaky culprit of back and neck pain is stress.  No matter how you think you are emotionally dealing with stress….it comes out physically as well.  Overbooking ourselves, worrying too much about the things that don’t matter and not giving ourselves an occasional break, create visits to my office every day. 

Another VERY important “S” is sleep.  There is a reason that they recommend 8 hours of it — our bodies heal when we sleep.   I know how challenging it is as a mother, especially as a new mom, to get that sleep in, but there is also a reason that they say, “sleep when the baby sleeps!”

I tell my patients all the time that staying in one position for too long can cause 90% of your problem.  Always ask yourself:  am I in a neutral or symmetrical position?  Crossing your legs, sleeping on your stomach with your head turned or looking at a computer screen for too long in a bad position can spell trouble.  And don’t even get me started about bending, twisting and lifting at the same time.  How many times have you done that while wrestling your squirming 2-year-old into his or her car seat?

So, that’s easy enough, right?  Just get 8 hours a sleep in the perfect position, sit straight, limit computer time, drink a gallon of water daily, eat healthy, natural meals, exercise/stretch daily, limit multi-tasking and child-lifting and don’t get too stressed out.  That actually made me laugh a little as I wrote it! 

To your health,

Dr. Cathy Subber

www.AdvancedHealthNaperville.com 

www.NapervilleMomsNetwork.com 

Contact:
1767 West Ogden Ave, Suite 153 Naperville, IL 60540
phone: (630) 355-8988

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