Chronic Pain Relief in Manahawkin, NJ

1. Chiropractic Care in Manahawkin, NJ

Our brain controls everything. From how we perceive and respond to the world to our emotions to the healing process, not to mention it’s responsible for the function of every single cell, tissue, and organ in the body. For example, if you smoke cigarettes, the smoke breaks down the lungs creating inflammation, creating disease within the lungs. The brain is responsible for trying to heal the lungs from the damage of the cigarettes. It’s the brain’s job to regulate healing, maintain homeostasis, coordinate function, and allow the body to continue to adapt to environmental changes and stresses, like toxins, traumas, and our thoughts.

The way the brain does this is through the nervous system – the body’s electrical system. Just like the lights don’t go on without the electrical system in your home, nothing in your body animates, moves, or works, without your nervous system. The spinal cord, encased in the spinal bones, acts like an electrical wire that connects the brain to the rest of the body. Anytime the brain wants to control a function in the body, adapt, reduce inflammation, or initiate the healing process, it sends an electrical impulse through the spinal cord to traverse the network of nerves throughout the body.

From the day we’re born, we encounter stress that causes a condition of the spine known as subluxation. Subluxation is the misalignment of spinal bones that stresses the nervous system, diminishing the nerve impulse’s velocity. Whatever cell, tissue, organ, or gland is at the end of that nerve, if it’s not getting full, high-velocity nerve supply, it begins to break down. This causes inflammation. Chronic inflammation results in disease.

Chiropractors identify subluxations and correct them. We have a scientific, methodical, measurable way to locate subluxations. At Healing hands, we use a thorough examination and X-rays to locate subluxations. X-rays also allow us to measure the results of chiropractic care. This allows our results to be reproducible from patient to patient. Once we find the subluxation, we use a chiropractic adjustment to move the spine back into alignment. This relaxes the spinal cordand the nerves that exit the spine making it a better conductor of electricity. The information from the brain can now more easily flow through the nervous system reaching vital areas and organs, reducing inflammation, and allowing the body to adapt and heal from chronic illness and disease.

Most chiropractors only do this work at segmental levels of the spine. At Healing Hands of Manahawkin, we work with advancements and technology in spinal biomechanics, allowing us to correct the spine’s structure globally. This approach is a more permanent correction in the reduction of subluxations, so patients aren’t always on the treadmill of getting an adjustment, feeling better, feeling worse, getting an adjustment, feeling better, feeling worse.

2. Regular Exercise

Motion is life. It may sound like a cliche, but it’s a cliche for a reason. There’s a reason we often see people dealing with chronic disease or even passing away when they begin to slow down or even retire. They’ve stopped moving their bodies.

Movement is absolutely essential on so many different levels – overall health and healing of the body, joint health and hydration, flexibility, coordination and balance, and preventing injuries. It’s also critical to our immune system and lymphatic drainage. The lymphatic system is the bug zapper in your body to viruses and bacteria, but it can get clogged and needs to be cleaned out – much like a stagnant pond can become swampy and filled with bacteria. Exercise improves your lymphatic flow and blood flow. This is essential to the healing process as blood brings vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and oxygen to every single cell in the body.

Regular exercise also keeps your cells oxygenated. Our body’s cells are the manufacturing plants of the body. Much like a car assembly line, each cell is a little factor responsible for a particular aspect of keeping the body running. If our cells aren’t properly oxygenated, they won’t be able to make as many cars, so to speak. Cell oxygenation in the brain is absolutely essential for nerve function and coordination of the body.

At Healing Hands of Manahawhkin, we use mirror imaging or postural corrective exercises to retrain the body and strengthen the stabilizing muscles that hold us in good posture. We also believe in the power of community for encouragement and accountability. We hold beginner yoga classes to help keep people moving. Through these classes, we’ve seen people inspire and motivate one another. Working out does not have to be drudgery. You can stay active with someone you love, whether it’s lifting weights in a gym or walking on the beach at sunset.

3. Eating Real Food

We have forgotten how to eat real food. Real food is anything that comes from the earth. Most of us are eating things that are made in a factory. Anything frozen, in a bag, or in a box is not real food. It doesn’t come from the earth. Real food provides the essential vitamins and minerals our body and cells need to run on.

Think about your car. It runs on fuel. You have a few choices at the pump for the type of fuel to feed your car, everything from regular to premium. Regular fuel will run your car, but it certainly won’t run it as well as premium. Boxed, canned, bagged, frozen, and processed food will give you some energy, but they’re not going to give you the same quality energy you would get from eating real food.

At Healing Hands of Manahawkin, we are committed to our patients consuming real food, so their bodies can function at optimal levels. Our team practices Nutritional Response Testing, a system using applied kinesiology to help patients determine vitamin, mineral, and nutrient deficiencies. Our team will put together a supplement program to fill your unique void.

4. Proper Hydration

Everybody knows this, but it’s a good reminder, the body is about 78% water. That alone underscores the importance of staying properly hydrated. It sounds simple, but hydration is crucial to our overall health.

The majority of Americans are dehydrated. By the time you’re thirsty, your body’s cells are already significantly depleted of the amount of water needed to function. Water probably plays an even more important role in cellular function by providing oxygen to the cell. Our cells break up the water molecule to make essential molecules and hormones, the chemical building blocks of the body. Spinal hygiene hinges on proper hydration as well. Our spinal discs, which cushion our spine and provide structure for our nerves to pass through and service our body, are 98% water.

The rule of thumb for how much water you should have is to take your body weight in pounds divided by two and that’s the number of ounces of water you should be drinking per day. So, if you’re 200 pounds, you should be drinking 100 ounces of water a day. Anything less, and you’re dehydrated. This number doesn’t take into account any diuretic drinks you have throughout the day, like coffee, tea, soda, and alcohol. You should drink an additional eight ounces of water to compensate for each diuretic you have throughout the day.