Use Your Noodle!!!

Starting August 13^th, we will begin our “Use Your Noodle” program, the premise of which is to help restore the proper curvature and movement of your spine. The noodle is a piece of foam tubing which will be placed under the base of your neck while you are lying on your back. For some of you, it will be placed at the base of your spine. We recommend that you do this twice a day for as little as 5 minutes can help reverse the damage that we accrue sitting for more than one hour per day. This will be especially important for those of you who work on computers. Sitting, according to one researcher, is now seen as detrimental as smoking. One of the first signs of this problem is loss of proper curvature. The neck flattens and sometimes even curves forward which causes a strain to even hold your head up. This is also evidenced by chronic spasms in the trapezius muscle (those at the top of your shoulder). Using your Noodle on a regular basis will have a wonderful cumulative effect, we recommend listening to your favorite music and if you have the time, 10 minutes is even better.

Give us a call and let us know if you would like to purchase one of our NASA space-age, miracle foam cervical reformers.  Operators are Standing By!!!

Lyme

Lyme Disease.
Seems like it is everywhere; everyone or at least someone you know has had it. Maybe you do and don't know it.
The latest studies reported in this month's Townsend Letter are astounding; there is a huge  variety of symptoms that are associated with  Lyme disease, most of which go undetected.
In the blog soon to follow, I am going to share with you the very detailed checklist of Lyme symptoms, as well as suggestions for treatment.
if you suspect you have Lyme, for whatever reason, do not stop at Go and collect $200.00 Go directly to your health practitioner that can write a prescription for the appropriate type and dosage of antibiotics.
If you have ANY questions, do not hesitate to call me at the office.
203-397-7767.
Yours in Health & Happiness,
Dr. Jenn

So, unless you arte living in or under a rock, you are probably inundated with GMO in your headlines.
Monsanto, GMO; what does this mean  and why should you care?
This is a long, often falsely fabricated tale that includes  a few facts  ( the rest? propaganda and more) that you, oh precious consumer , should know.

1.
We are what we eat. That said, what exactly  are we eating?
Aye, herein lies the rub or should I SAY, THE GRUB?

2.
 Food is politic. We are the body politic. Politics  are ruling our foods: how they are grown, how they are manufactured, how foods affect our health, to name a few.
It is timely and oh so important that you educate yourselves, because the future is and will be entirely driven and maintained by BIG PHARMA and BIG CORPORATIONS unless you use your voice.
To be continued.....

ASK THE DOCTOR!
Welcome to our latest blog, ASK THE DOCTOR.
At Cofrancesco Chiropractic & Healing Arts, we are excited as we enter our 2nd season here at 260 Amity Rd.
Our second season is a new season; offering a variety of opportunities for inspiration and education, creativity and good health.
BUT, we want to know what subjects you want to see discussed.
Please make your comments and suggestions and we will incoirporate your interests in future blog postings.
Yours in Health & Happiness,
Dr. Jenn & Dr. Lou

Rest, Digest, Repair

In the last blog, we broke down the organization of the Nervous System and discussed the Sympathetic Nervous System, what it does and why. The flip side of the the Sympathetic Nervous system is the Parasympathetic Nervous System and to describe what it does, I’m going to twist the metaphor on you. Sorry.

So go back to the Newsroom in your mind’s eye and change all of the characters in it into little kids. The whole thing is a bunch of 4 to 7 year olds playing make believe Newspaper, in my head they are Muppet Babies (if you are not of the Muppet Baby generation try plugging in Little Rascals.) The Central Nervous System and Editor-in-Chief is Kermit, of course. His two right hand guys, the Peripheral Nervous System are the muscle man Fozzy and the Autonomic Nervous System is Scooter. Working under Scooter, we have the Sympathetic Nervous System which even though is only one guy, for the sake of my imagination he is double cast with Gonzo and Animal.

Now remember, whenever the Sympathetic Nervous System sees fit, it screams “STOP THE PRESSES!!!!!” And craziness breaks out. Everyone else in the room throws whatever they are doing into the air and starts working furiously on the new story.  

Imagine the mess. Muppet Babies pretending to be Newspaper people with Animal and Gonzo at the emergency lever. Who cleans up this mess? If you can remember you  80’s cartoons correctly, Nanny does. But we hardly ever seen Nanny in the cartoon. In fact she is just a voice and green stockinged legs, because she is a smart Nanny and she waits for the kids to fall asleep before undoing what they did. What is the point of following them around and picking up the flying papers and pencils until they are done throwing them around?

That is what happens with the Parasympathetic Nervous System. When the Sympathetic Nervous System is done, the body slowly goes back to it’s regularly scheduled activities and then, even later, when all the day to day stuff simmers down, it’s cleanup time. The body’s “rest, digest and repair,” mode kicks on.
Heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, all decrease, pupils constrict, and digestion kicks on. These are the conditions necessary for the body to heal itself.

An important aspect of the Parasympathetic Nervous System is that unlike the Sympathetic Nervous System it doesn’t have On switch. To be healthy we should spend at least as much time in a Parasympathetic state as we do in a Sympathetic one, but that is not usually what happens since we need to create the conditions for the Parasympathetic state i.e. all the kids need to go to bed. And once again, in our modern lives were are all under constant stimulation. Even things we think relax us, like trolling the internet, and watching TV are actually stimulants, and do not promote the Parasympathetic Nervous System.

So how do you help create the conditions for your body to turn on its Rest, Digest and Repair mode? If you are a do-it-yourself type, meditation, certain types of yoga, and other relaxation techniques will help, but if you feel like you are always stuck in go, go, go there are many modalities available at Cofrancesco Chiropractic and Healing Arts that can help you turn off your inner Animal and activate your inner Nanny. Chiropractic, Bowenwork, Reiki, Massage, Naturopathy all have ways of balancing out these two facets of your nervous system.

Fight or Flight

Last time we talked about stress and started to unpack what stress really is: a biological reaction to stimuli. Or the stress response, or Fight or Flight. So what actually happens when this response gets triggered?

Let’s imagine your nervous system is like a busy 1940’s black and white movie style newspaper. Your Central Nervous System (CNS) is the like the Chief editor. He is receiving information and sending out commands, he sees all, knows all, and is in charge of all (or so he thinks).
Your Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) are the two second in command editor types. One guys is a busy body in charge of all of the moving parts of the paper, and the other guys (the Autonomic Nervous System: ANS) is kind of quiet and doing all the stuff it takes to keep a paper going; paying bills, ordering paper and ink, making sure the thermostat stays at 62 degrees, etc. Each of these gentlemen have teams working under them. Everyone is very busy doing their thing, reporting back, keeping it moving.

Your Sympathetic Nervous system works for the quiet editor. He is the guy who spends his time looking for headline news and when he sees it, he bursts into press room and screams “STOP THE PRESSES!,” at the top of his lungs, and he has a handy lever to pull that actually does stop the press and puts the breaking news guys in motion before his boss, or his boss’s boss even knows what happens.

The breaking news guys are out the door, and the presses are at a dead stop, and the front page editors are already redesigning the Headlines before the ANS editor or the CNS big boss editor even poke their heads out of their offices.
In many ways the Sympathetic Nervous system is the most important guy in the room because he has ultimate control whenever he sees fit.

In your body, the Sympathetic Nervous System has direct pathways to your major organ systems and a superhighway to them as well, so the impulse doesn’t even have to take the slower route via the Spinal Cord. It is faster than thought.

So what does the Sympathetic Nervous System tell your body to do?
Increase heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration. Release adrenaline into the system along with extra glucose. Your pupils with dilate, your sweating will increase, and your digestion will slow down and/or stop. You will also need to go to the little boy’s or girl's room.

This is a super important skill because if humans had to think through every response to danger, we wouldn’t make it. We need the reflex, and fast action of fight or flight to survive. The problem is, for most of us we have a jumpy little guy for our Sympathetic Nervous System, and our modern world has far more stimulants in it.  Back in the days of the caveman the newspaper headline would read:
SAW A BEAR!
Now a days it reads:
ALMOST HIT A SQUIRREL!
GOT A MEAN EMAIL!
LOST MY KEYS!
WATCHED C.S.I.!
FOUGHT WITH MY BOSS!
DROPPED MY PHONE IN THE TOILET!!!!!!!
JUST READ A CONFUSING BLOG ABOUT STREESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

What used to be a one line situation is a full on page. And believe it or not each of these things causes the the Sympathetic Nervous System to kick into gear.

The antidote? Stimulating the Parasympathetic Nervous system or the guy in charge of rest and digest. Maybe he is a soothing advice columnist or the the hippie who delivers lunch but that is for next time. 

STRESS!!!!

 
AaakK! Stress!

How did it get to be October already? The lazy days of summer are all over folks, fall is technically in full swing, and the Holidays (cue scary music) are hard upon us.

As we move into the spooky season it seems like a great time to crack a scary subject. Stress. We all have it, we all talk about it, but why is it so scary? Well, because it is a mystery. We all kind of know what it means, we all kind of know that it is not so good, but for the most part we don’t really know why. For example this is a definition of stress via Wikipedia (obviously the end all be all of information, duh):

Stress typically describes a negative concept that can have an impact on one’s mental and physical well-being, but it is unclear what exactly defines stress and whether or not stress is a cause, an effect, or the process connecting the two. With organisms as complex as humans, stress can take on entirely concrete or abstract meanings with highly subjective qualities, satisfying definitions of both cause and effect in ways that can be both tangible and intangible.

Well! That sure clears that up!

So for the next few blogs, we will look at stress, what it is, what it does both bad and good (yes some stress IS good). And what you can do about it.

For now, let us frame stress as a biological reaction as opposed to an amorphous blob (IT’S THE BLOB!!! RUUUUNNN!) The Stress Response is simply what happens in your body when you react to certain stimuli. The layman’s term for the stress response is “Fight or Flight.” That’s right, every time you feel that overwhelming “I am so stressed out” feeling” it is the result of your primal self protection mechanism.

The really scary part, is that we are basically always triggering the Stress Response in our modern life. Instead of being spooked a couple of times a day by a prowling saber toothed tiger or woolly mammoth, we get a little burst of the same biological activity when someone cuts us off in traffic, or when we can’t find out keys when we are late, or when our boss gives us the stink eye when we slink into the meeting 20 minutes after it started.

Next time we will go into what is happening in your body when your Stress Response gets triggered. Until then, try to notice what happens when you get those little hits of the stress response. Instead of just giving into the feeling of “stressed out” try to pick out the physical sensations that go along with it and see if you can’t pick out some of the things that happen in your body when you start to “get stressed.”

Dr. Lou will is holding weekly Workshops, many of which focus around Stress.  This week "Emotional Stress!" on Wednesday, 10/10/12 at 6:30 pm.  Come on down, you will NOT be disappointed!