High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure affects about 1 in 3 adults in the United States. It is sometimes called a silent killer because it may have no outward symptoms for years. In most cases, the underlying cause of hypertension is unknown. Internally, it can quietly damage the heart, lungs, blood vessels, brain, and kidneys.
Did you know A Chicago-area study of 50 individuals with a misaligned Atlas vertebra (located high in the neck) and high blood pressure showed that after a one-time specialized chiropractic adjustment, blood pressure decreased significantly? The decrease was equal to taking two blood-pressure drugs at once.
Who do you know that could benefit from this information? Please share this with someone you know and care about and help them Live Better...Live Longer!

Does Your Child Have Pre-symptomatic Subluxations?

I recently found this on the website of a colleague and thought I would share this with you on why we check children. Please share this information with someone you care about and help change a life.

Does Your Child Have Pre-symptomatic Subluxations?

Why check children?

Nervous system disturbances can lead to all sorts of health problems. Since we would rather catch problems before obvious symptoms appear, we encourage parents to have their child screened for subluxations. Our screening process is safe, gentle noninvasive and takes just minutes. Should we find any problems we'll make recommendations for care. If not, we'll tell you that too. Either way, you'll have peace of mind knowing your child is healthy. Detecting pre-symptomatic health problems makes sense. It gives your child the best chance to grow up healthy and strong, free from vertebral subluxations.

What do you do to check my child?

The most important information obtained during the screening is the health history of the child. We even have special health exam forms for children. Most of the time, the parents will tell us what we need to know about their child's health and behavior. Then we do a postural assessment and some range of movement tests.

What are some signs my child has subluxations?

• Difficult labor

It all starts at child birth. If you had a natural child birth there can be anywhere from 40 to 90 pounds of pressure on your child's head as he/she comes out of the birth canal. The next thing that happens is the doctor grabs the head, turns it and pulls on the child's head to get him/her out. This part alone can cause a subluxations and lead to future problems. Forceps, vacuum extraction and C-section are even more traumatic.

• Colic

If your child has colic or is very fussy, he/she may have subluxations.

• Breastfeeding difficulties

Your baby may show difficulty in breastfeeding or favoring one side which may indicate the presence of subluxations.

• Unexplained crying

Your baby can't tell you what's wrong and that can be frustrating for parents. Sometimes they are hungry, sometimes they need to be changed, and sometimes they just want to be held. But other times they may have a headache or stomach ache. They may be uncomfortable and the only way to tell you is to cry.

• Ear infections

This is a common problem that can be resolved quite effectively through chiropractic. Why put your child on antibiotics when it has been shown to be ineffective in treating ear infections.

• Growing pains

As your child grows he/she may experience what some people call growing pains. No firm evidence shows that the growth of bones causes pain. The most likely causes are the aches and discomforts resulting from the jumping, climbing, and running that active children do during the day. The pains can occur after a child has had a particularly athletic day.

• Unusual shoe wear

This can suggest there is an imbalance in your child's spine and pelvis.

• Poor concentration

Lack of focus at home or in school can be the result of nerve interference.

• Postural distortions

If you notice your child walking different or has poor posture he/she may have spinal misalignments. Scoliosis is another possibility for postural distortions and a condition that can be cared for by chiropractors.

• Allergic reactions

Nerve interference can lead to reactions within our digestive system causing reactions by the body.

• Contact sports and activities

Children lead an active lifestyle which is good for their health. But it can also lead to aches and pains which left uncorrected can lead to problems down the road.

Can you help my child?

We would love the chance to help your child grow and develop into a strong and healthy adult.

At Blumsack Family Chiropractic we take pride in helping all types of patients; young and old, men and women, sick and healthy. We view health not as a one-time fix but as a lifelong commitment. We also understand that a properly functioning nervous system free from subluxations allows for each person to live their life to its fullest potential.

Repeat after me...

I FEEL HEALTHY!
I FEEL HAPPY!
I FEEL TERRRRRRIFIC!!!

Great!

Have a great day!

Why we check children at birth. (Graphic)

I get asked often why would a chiropractor check a newborn baby at birth and I usually try to explain in detail on why. I decided that a picture is worth a thousand words so here is why:

Need I say more!

Find out why chiropractic adds years to life and life to years.

Live Better...Live Longer!
Dr. Paul

Breastfeeding, convenience, the developmental process and Chiropractic

Paula and I had the pleasure of meeting with Meghan Garcia-Salas of Village Lactation Services yesterday to to learn more about how she helps her clients. She started a support group called Bosom Babies to help mothers learn about and promote the benefits of breastfeeding.

What was interesting about our conversation is that many mothers are going back to the natural way of feeding a baby with breast milk but are using a bottle instead of the mother to baby bond. I applaud mothers for going natural versus giving their baby formula but they are missing some of the major benefits of this natural bonding process when they put breast milk in a bottle.

The breastfeeding process helps both mother and child develop. When a child initially latches on to the mother the bonding process begins but so does the natural transmission of moms immunity to the baby. There is also an emotional connection that is established. As the baby continues to latch on there is an internal pressure created that helps bring the natural skull bones back into proper position. The supporting structures of the head and neck are strengthened. The jaw muscles are developed and the list goes on....

For the mother who is breastfeeding this process helps restore the natural hormonal balance and brings mom physically and emotionally back to a pre pregnancy state.

The mother-baby bonding is so important and can't be replaced by the convenience of bottle feeding. Many moms dont realize that when they stock up on breast milk they are not taking into consideration several important factors. One important factor is that by reducing the frequency of feeding times you reduce the demand put on the body to produce more breast milk. Less demand equals less supply.

The other important factor is that mom is feeding the baby from one moment in time of her life versus various times in her life. Throughout the day a mother has daily changes in her environmental exposure and nutritional intake. One moment she is inside the next she is outside. If mom is not hungry and chooses not to eat the baby will want to feed more often for shorter periods of time and will be fussy. What mom eats for breakfast will be transferred to the breast milk after the breakfast has been digested. So if she always stocks up in the morning she will only be feeding the baby what she had for dinner the night before. Variety is the spice of life and also pertains to the babies development.

The last thing we talked about was that there are many mothers who have difficulty in breastfeeding their baby and they don't know why. Sometimes the baby favors a certain side and will not want to stay latched on for long, they may have also have digestion issues. For the breastfeeding mom it may be that they can't find a comfortable position to sit or lay in.

In the majority of cases these problems were created at the birth process. Whether the baby was delivered naturally or with the use forceps, vacuum extraction, cesarean or breech delivery tiny spinal misalignment's occur in the babies spine that create structural and functional problems. For the mothers the same problems could have occurred throughout there life and then show up when they attempt to breastfeed the baby.

It is for these reasons that we promote to the pregnant moms the importance of making sure that baby and mom are checked within the first days of delivery to help avoid present and future problems. Remember everything is a process and is there for a reason.

For more information on the amazing benefits of breastfeeding or for a support group please contact www.villagelactationservices.com To help make sure you and your baby start off in the right direction please contact our office and well be glad to help.

Live Better...Live Longer!
Dr. Paul Blumsack

Backpack Safety?

Backpack safety is not about making sure your child's backpack fits properly to prevent neck or back pain.

The moment your child leaves your site their going to unstrap and sling that backpack every which way but lose.

I know because we have 5 children and they never listened to us about wearing it properly and they did just fine. They also benefited from regular chiropractic checkups to make sure they had a healthy spine and nervous system to adapt to the physical, chemical and emotional stress of everyday life.

We were more concerned about the torque and tension the heavy backpack placed on our child's brain-stem and spinal cord versus the muscles of their back and neck because we knew that an uncorrected problem over time could alter body function.

What's alarming is that parents may not realize that their child may already have an underlying spinal problem before the child started carrying a backpack.

We don't ask the parents in our office to bring in their child's backpack so we may fit it properly. We ask the parent to bring in their child to make sure their body is working properly and able to adapt to all the stresses they put upon it everyday.

It's not about the backpack its about their life. Please get your child checked.

From near death and back: A Chiropractic patients story.

In 1986 I was on top of the world. I had just won the All  Navy Weightlifting Championships and had set a national drug free record in the bench press.  My full time job became to lift weights and compete and I loved it. I attended college at night and did a number of exhibitions and talks in the community. I had minor celebrity status both in the Naval community and in my city and it was great.

Shortly after returning from a competition tour I began having some sinus headaches and my training started to plateau a bit-I had kept a training journal since I started lifting in 1978 and tracked my progress very carefully. The headaches were not bad--just annoying and so I went to the Navy dispensary and was given some medications. The meds worked like magic, except they gave me severe diarrhea. I went back to the doctor and was given additional drugs to stop that. That went away, but then I experienced severe dehydration and was admitted to the hospital. After many tests, I walked out with 3 more prescriptions. 

My health rapidly begin to spiral downward and soon I was spending my days at the hospital going from one doctor to the next. Within a month I was taking 18 drugs a day--which amounted to about 80 individual pills. I quickly become homebound and disabled--unable to work, drive a car or really do much of anything. The only food I could keep down was applesauce and sometimes apple cobbler---Most nights, I would get a blanket and a pillow and just sleep with the pillow on the toilet because the dry heaves would begin around 1am and would last until sun-up. On good nights, the heaves were 4 minutes apart, on bad nights they were two minutes apart.  I went from a solid 220lbs to around 165-I looked like death warmed over.

This went on for over a year and most of it is still a blur. I had to have someone drive me anytime I needed to see the doctor. Fortunately I had good friends in this regard. I saw all kinds of doctors--was even seen by one of President Reagans doctor at Bethesda. None really had an answer for what was going on except that my immune system was failing.  Diagnoses of Epstein-Barr and severe Chronic Fatigue  Syndrome were thrown out as possibilities.

I had a meeting with the head of the Naval Hospital in Charleston in the summer of 1987. I was brought into his office and he told me that I should get my affairs in order because he felt I only had a few months to live. The news was actually a relief--I wanted to die and end the misery.  I had a friend drive me to a mall later that week to buy gifts for my family for the following Christmas, knowing I was probably not going to be alive.  While in a B.Dalton Bookstore, a man asked me if I was ok ( I could only walk maybe 15-20 steps before I had to stop and rest) I said I was fine, because I had gotten tired of telling everyone the story. This guy persisted a bit and he told me he was a doctor and that maybe he could help me. I told him I had seen some of the best doctors in the world and then he told me he was a Chiropractor.   I think I laughed for the first time in over a year. It told him ai had "INTERNAL" health problems, not neck and back pain, which was the limit of my views on Chiropractic. He kept persisting for me to come to his clinic and about this time, my friend came up and was listening and offered to drive me to the clinic the next day. I agreed with absolutely no intention of going to this quacks office. On the drive home, my friend said something like "well you should give it a shot--what do you have to lose?  And so I agreed to go.

I went to the office the next day and did the whole new patient process--the doc brought me into the exam room and began doing his exam--I was about as skeptical as you could be when all of a sudden, he says 'hey keith, did you have a bedwetting problem as a kid"…….wow...how in the world did he know that?  I did...classic bedwetting case for most of my childhood….4-5 nights a week. Never spent the night with a friend--EVER--kind of grew out of it by the time I was 15-16 but my parents spent all kinds of money on therapies and treatments…...How could this quack have known about that….He tells me he can tell from examining my lumbar spine and he started talking about the bladder and nerves…..ok, he had my attention--if he  pulled that one out of his butt..well  it was a good one. He ended up adjusting me the first day and sent me home with instructions to return.

I woke up the next morning with a stiff and sore neck, actually my entire back was sore--not severe pain, but just very sore. I knew this guy was a quack, I thought to myself--he hurts me yesterday and today he is going to fix me up---sorry, aint buying it---no more Chiropractic visits for me. I shaved, showered and got dressed and as I was walking down the hall to the kitchen---I was hit with a ton of bricks---I  had just slept through the entire night-for the first time in about 15 months...I had just showered, etc. and was not wiped out with fatigue…..I was even a bit hungry.  So went into the kitchen and made some scrambled eggs (which I love) and had been unable to eat for over a year. I sat down on the couch and waited for breakfast to come back up--it never did.

I continued getting adjusted and flushed the meds within the first week---it was not short term miraculous, but each day I get a bit stronger and could do more things--it was  huge victory to be able to walk out to the mailbox and get the mail. Within two weeks I was driving again, within two months  I was back in the gym training and ended up far surpassing my previous lifts.  But I could not figure out what Chiropractic had done for me---I would ask the doc and got sort of a vague answer. I ended up going to Chiropractic orientations at other offices in the area in hopes of figuring this all out, but I was disappointed in that all of the NPO's I attended were "spinal hygiene classes" --how to lift right, bend your knees, drink water, etc.

I could not find much at the library and on periodical microfiches either--most of what I read tagged Chiropractic as being somewhat effective for neck and back pain--and that was it. Finally the doc gave me some old, musty smelling books--kind of a weird green color to them and told me that maybe I would find my answers in them--He had never actually read them. The first volume was "Bigness of the fellow within” by a BJ Palmer" I remember reading it and thinking this guy was whacko. The more I read it, the more sense it made and I began going to the medical library here in Charleston and reading volumes of anatomy and physiology books, Guytons, Harrison and I saw this incredible congruence between books on how the body actually worked and Palmers writings---eventually it sort of clicked in my brain and I retired from competitive lifting in order to focus on communicating the Chiropractic message.  I don’t always like sharing the message, but I don’t feel that I have the right NOT TO...if a person rejects the message--that is fine with me--at that point they are no longer my responsibility and I can move on.

I have had the chance to speak all over North America to thousands of people each year and been blessed by their letters of testimony once they receive Chiropractic care.  I thank you for taking the time to read this and may it encourage you to get your spine checked and adjusted today to help save your life tomorrow.

Keith Wassung

Charleston, SC

            (843) 743-8351      

http://keithwassung.com/