 Muscle spasm, trigger points and chiropractic
Since over 60% of your body is nerve, muscle and bone, it should come as no surprise that chronic pain, strain, spasm, irritation, inflammation, trigger points and other neuromusculoskeletal (nerve-muscle-bone) conditions are so common. In fact, many of the millions of people who visit their doctors of chiropractic do so because of these problems.
Trigger Points
Trigger points are tender, sensitive areas that when pressed, stuck, heated or cooled can be exquisitely painful. You may first discover trigger points when you are surprised by someone pressing a seemingly pain-free area. Trigger point pain may also be referred to other areas of the body. Trigger points are common in chronic muscle spasm, myalgia, myositis, fibrositis, strain and sprain, and other muscle and joint problems.
The Cause
The cause of this mystery illness may, at least in part, be spinal trauma. It's not unusual for adults who have had neck injuries to report back, neck, muscle and joint pain and fibromyalgia within one year of their injury.
The Chiropractic Approach
 Those suffering from muscle spasm, trigger points, neuro-muscular pain and problems, fibromyalgia and similar symptoms are seeing chiropractors in record numbers. Why? Because they are getting results. For example, in one study 5 men and 18 women, aged 11 to 76 with chronic fatigue syndrome, trigger point pain and fibromyalgia, who had been suffering from 2 to 35 years, began chiropractic care. Every patient was able to resume normal activities including full time work and maintained their improvements one year later at follow up. The authors of the study write: "Improvement in symptoms of 92-100% was achieved in both these syndromes...." (1)
What Do Doctors Of Chiropractic Do?
Chiropractors locate and correct subluxations, a condition that damages nerves, muscles, fascia, meninges and other tissues. Subluxations cause joints to "freeze" or lose normal movement, causing damage to the involved area.
Conclusion
Under chiropractic care your head is more balanced, your hips and shoulders are more level and stress is taken off the joints and muscles throughout your body. Because less of your energy goes into supporting an unbalanced spine and skeleton, you may immediately discover more energy, greater ease in movement and improved relaxation.
A healthy spine and structural system can make the difference between a life of pain, suffering and disability and one of ease, happiness and freedom.
 Infants, babies & chiropractic
You do so many things to ensure your baby's health: during pregnancy you eat right; you avoid cigarettes, alcohol and all drugs (even aspirin, cold, flu and other over-the-counter medications can damage your unborn child or cause problems in pregnancy). You educate yourself so you may have a natural, drug-free birth. After the baby arrives you breastfeed knowing that is the superior form of nutrition; in short, you do everything you can to make sure your baby is healthy.
But have you had your baby's spine and body structure checked? How do you know if your child is really healthy? An unhealthy spine and body structure can affect your child's health for his/her entire life. Your doctor of chiropractic is specially trained to check your child for areas of distortion causing nerve damage - subluxations.
For over a hundred years doctors of chiropractic have observed the often dramatic responses of infants after chiropractic care.
When Does A Baby Need a Chiropractic Checkup?
According to the late chiropractic pediatric specialist Larry Webster, D.C., there are six times in a baby's first year of life when chiropractic examinations are especially important:
· After the birth process.
· When the baby starts to hold his/her head up.
· When the baby sits up.
· When the baby starts to crawl.
· When the baby starts to stand.
· When the baby starts to walk.
Give your baby the best possible chance to have a healthy life. You have your baby's eyes checked, heart checked, hearing checked - bring all of your children in for a chiropractic spinal/structural checkup. A simple checkup now might make a BIG difference for your child for the rest of his/her life.
 More reasons to breastfeed
Breastfeeding prevents obesity. Breast milk contains a protein that could reduce the risk of obesity later in life. In fact, the longer a child is breastfed, the lower their risk of obesity. (2)
Breastfeeding reduces mom's risk of cancer and other conditions. Women who breastfeed have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers and osteoporosis later in life. (3)
Save money. If you breastfeed you don't have to prepare bottles and formula - breast milk is always fresh and ready to go. This will save you a substantial amount of time. Breastfeeding also saves you the expense of buying formula, which typically costs at least $800 per year. Breastfed babies have fewer doctor's visits and lower overall medical expenses. One study even found that a group of formula-fed babies had over $68,000 in health care costs for six months, compared to only $4,000 for the breastfed group. (4)
Germs are good for you
 How does your body get stronger? Exercise? Exercise stresses your muscles, bones, joints and your cardiovascular system (and other systems). Your body responds by building more muscle, strengthening bones, empowering your heart, etc. Well, your immune system gets stronger the same way. How do you stress your immune system? By being exposed to and dealing with germs. Germs are necessary for immune system health. As one researcher writes:
"Our research suggests that ultra-clean, ultra-hygienic environments early in life may contribute to higher levels of inflammation as an adult, which in turn increases risks for a wide range of diseases....Our immune system needs natural exposure from the environmental so it may function properly throughout childhood and into adulthood." (7)
HUMOR!
They walk among us, and they vote.
During a recent password audit at a local company, it was found that a young woman was using the following password:
MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofy
When asked why such a big password, she said that it had to be at least 8 characters long.
Mensa Invitational winners
Here is The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational, which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter - and supply a new definition.
The winners are:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying (or building) a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3 Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize that it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatit is: Terminal coolness.
11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
12. Karmageddon: It's when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes and it's a serious bummer.
13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
14. Glibido: All talk and no action.
15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
18. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.
And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-Nilly, adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
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