Chiropractic Health & Wellness Blog

Do the cold Minneapolis temps have you down?  Do you wake up every day feeling like you have less and less energy to handle all of your work and home activities, tempting you to want to hibernate until spring? If so, you aren’t alone.

Statistics published in the American Family Physician suggest that roughly five percent of the population struggles with the winter blues, also called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD for short. Also, for those affected, the symptoms associated with this condition (such as fatigue and depression) can last almost half the year. 

This makes finding ways to ease SAD critical to improving the quality of life for a large amount of our patients. How can Lyn Lake Chiropractic help?

Although most people think that chiropractic is only beneficial when it comes to easing back or Quick read more or view full article neck pain, research has found that chiropractic can actually have a positive effect on mood. For instance, one study published in the Journal of Upper Cervical Chiropractic Research found that five out of the six participants experienced relief of their anxiety and depression symptoms after just 12 chiropractic visits primarily aimed at treating the cervical, or neck portion of their spine. 

These individuals also reported a “decrease in muscle tension and pain and increase in mental clarity and physical energy” after engaging in chiropractic care. This makes this particular treatment method soothing not only physically, but mentally as well.
Massage therapy can often help ease these types of symptoms as well. In fact, one meta-analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry even concluded that “massage therapy is significantly associated with alleviated depressive systems.”
Part of the reason this type of remedy is so beneficial to your mental health is in the way that it relaxes you. It eases the tension in your body by releasing tense muscles and it also reduces the stress in your mind as you let your thoughts wander while our experienced therapists help rid your body of the negative emotions that can sometimes make this colder part of the year more difficult to handle.
If you’re struggling with the winter blues and live in the Minneapolis area, contact Lyn Lake Chiropractic today and find out what we can do to help you lift your spirits all year long! Read Less

How to Exercise Safely Outdoors In the Winter

Here in our Minneapolis chiropractic office, we see a number of patients with sports-related injuries. While some are due to overuse or pushing too hard, others are a result of the weather. Specifically, winter offers some challenges that you don’t see other times of the year—especially in Minnesota.

Because we get our fair share of cold temperatures, snow, and ice, it’s important to take precautions if you like to exercise outside in the winter months. Here are a few to consider:

• Warm up properly before. Warming up your muscles is advised any time of year, but it is even more critical when it is colder outside. This means taking 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning of your workout and engaging in a light-intensity cardiovascular activity such as walking or riding a stationary bike.
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• Stretch your muscles after. Stretching after you work Quick read more or view full article out outdoors helps keep them from tensing up, which means less pain and soreness in the next few days. Massage can help with soreness as well, so this is something to consider if you are engaging in a high-intensity or long-distance training or event held outdoors that will likely leave you fatigued.
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• Stay hydrated. Although you might not get as thirsty exercising outdoors in the winter as you do in the summer, you’re still losing water through sweat, so it’s important to stay hydrated. For this reason, be sure to take a water bottle with you so you can sip on it as you go.
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• Dress appropriately. Ideally, you want to wear clothes that wick the moisture away from your skin because, as we just discussed, you’re likely going to be sweating despite the colder temps. Also, it’s a good idea to dress in layers so you can keep your body at a healthy temperature throughout your entire workout, from beginning to end.
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• Mind your step. Because snow and ice can be prevalent in this area, you always want to be mindful of where you’re stepping to avoid a slip and fall. Although this is basic common sense, we still wanted to mention it because it is important to consider.

Do these five things and make your winter workouts safer. Also, don’t forget to come into our Minneapolis chiropractic office for your regular visits so we can help keep your spine healthy enough to sustain your active life…even in these colder months!

Lyn Lake Chiropractic Minneapolis Chiropractor - 612-879-8000

Dr. Kevin Schreifels

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Sinus Problems Got You Down? Chiropractic Can Help

 

This time of year, it isn’t uncommon to see many of our Minneapolis chiropractic patients struggling with sinus issues. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that almost 30 million adults are diagnosed with sinusitis on an annual basis, prompting over 11 million office visits. So this is a rather common problem in other regions as well. Admittedly, sometimes the issues can only be resolved by seeing a Quick read more or view full article medical doctor and being prescribed medication, but chiropractic can usually also help as well. 
 

The reason chiropractic is beneficial when it comes to your sinuses is that vertebral alignment is necessary in order for your sinuses to drain properly. Specifically, if the fluids don’t flow as they should due to issues within your spinal column, it increases the likelihood of swelling in that region and this is when problems begin as the drainage begins to accumulate, sometimes becoming infected as a result. 
 

Research has proven the benefits of chiropractic care when it comes to effectively dealing with recurrent sinus problems. For instance, there was one case study which involved a 12-year-old boy who was dealing with sinus infections every couple of months. Even though he was taking antibiotics to help control them, they kept reappearing over and over again—that is, until he started chiropractic care. 
 

After just two sessions with a chiropractor, he was finally able to quit taking his antibiotic as the infection was no longer present. Additionally, once he had completed three weeks of chiropractic care, researchers noted that he had better movement in his neck and upper-middle spine, allowing him to carry his head in a more upright, thus healthier position. 
 

Based on the amount of progress he made in a relatively short period of time, researchers concluded that "both patient and parents are aware of the quality of life that is returning as an apparent result of chiropractic care.” In other words, chiropractic can help not only relieve the bothersome symptoms of sinus issues (congestion, runny nose, headache, and fatigue), but it can essentially give you your life back by dealing with these issues once and for all.
 

If you struggle with sinus issues and live in the Minneapolis area try our Minneapolis Chiropractor  Dr. Kevin Schreifels at  Lyn Lake Chiropractic at (612) 879-8000 and schedule an appointment with us today!

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How to Tell When You Need to See a Chiropractor

One of the most common questions that Minneapolis residents have when it comes to chiropractic care is how to tell when you need it. Specifically they wonder whether it is  something that you seek only when you have a tremendous amount of neck pain or low back pain, or are there other times that it can be helpful too?

To help you best understand the answer, let’s use an analogy of the dentist. Of course, when you start to get a toothache, you probably want to get a dental appointment soon to figure out what is going wrong and fix it before it becomes too problematic, right? 

Well, the same is true if you’re having any issues with lower back pain or neck pain. It’s best to get those looked at by a chiropractor sooner rather Quick read more or view full article than later so they don’t get worse and cause even more problems. Plus, studies show that chiropractic has an 87 percent success rate when it comes to relieving muscle spasms, so the sooner you get these types of issues resolved, the sooner you’re over the pain and participating in the activities that bring you job.

Going back to the dental analogy again, there’s also the issue of preventative care when looking after your teeth, which is why it is recommended that you see your dentist every six months. Ultimately, this increases the likelihood that you’ll be able to catch any areas of decay before they get too big and require a crown or root canal versus a more simple process of getting a filling.

Again, the same is true when it comes to chiropractic care. You shouldn’t wait until there are issues with your spine before tending to its health. Like any other area of your body, the more attention you give its health up front, before you need it, the fewer the problems you’re likely to have as a result.

In short, seeing a chiropractor is good from both a preventative and treatment standpoint, which means that you should make an appointment to see your Minneapolis chiropractor today—whether you’re experiencing issues or not. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and we believe that too!

When you feel it's time to see a chiropractor call our Minneapolis Chiropractic Clinic - Lyn Lake Chiropractic 612-879-8000

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