Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Healthy Lifestyle Helps the Planet

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

A Healthy Lifestyle Helps the Planet


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The Tranquility of Nature
It is well-known that meditation offers profound benefits in terms of reducing emotional turmoil, anxiety and stress.  It also provides the possibility of improving immune system function and lowering a person's blood pressure.

You can enjoy the same benefits by communing with nature - admiring the beautiful colors as the sun dips below the horizon, taking a leisurely stroll through a wooded area, or walking barefoot along a sandy shoreline.  Spending time in a nature creates a marvelous feeling of tranquility and peace in most people, which can also improve their health and well-being.

It may take a bit more effort for city dwellers to find a patch of green, but the benefits are worth it. Green spaces, including green-trails, rooftop gardens, and stands of trees, can be an oases of tranquility amid the stress and hurry of city life.

Even adding houseplants to your home is a simple way to help you connect with the natural world.  Not only that, but they can also help purify your the air you breathe by reducing toxins in your home.

Has it ever occurred to you that the choices you make to increase your health and well-being may also improve the health and well-being of the planet?  They can, especially when there are a large number of people making the same healthy choices to improve their welfare, and that of their family and community at large.

Maintaining a health-enhancing personal lifestyle with regard to nutrition and fitness can have a positive impact on the both the local environment and the global biosphere. Our personal choices and the positive actions we take can make a difference. When we make life-affirming choices to get fit, remain fit, and eat a health-promoting diet, it often has a positive affect on everyone and everything around us.

Consider how you get to work.  For most Americans driving to work is a lifelong habit that they don't even think about. But driving a car or truck with a typical internal combustion engine produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Every gallon of gas burned pumps 17 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

If you walk or ride a bicycle to work, you are gaining not only the vast health benefits of exercise for yourself,1,2 but you're also helping to reduce GHG emissions which can help to stabilize the overall climate.

If you live too far away from your place of work to reasonably walk or bike there each day, perhaps you could arrange a car pool with your co-workers and bike or walk to their home on days when you're not the designated driver.

Buying local farm products and produce is not only good for you, but good for the planet also.  Food is usually much fresher, tastier, and more nutritious when it doesn't have to be transported across the country or from the other side of the world - which also saves on fossil fuel and reduces the emissions involved. Did you know that on average, food consumed in the United States travels an average of 1,500 miles to get to your local grocery store? Foods that are grown locally eliminate most of the fossil fuel resources that are otherwise wasted in transporting non-local items. Check out LocalHarvet.org and EatWild.com - Alabama for local farms near you.

In addition to supporting local farmers, tending your own garden or participating in a community garden is a health-enhancing activity that offers a triple benefit.  First of all, food production doesn't get more local than your own garden, saving fossil fuel resources and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.  Secondly, you'll be adding the freshest vegetables to your family's diet, providing an abundance of natural vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that are necessary for good health.  And last but not least, gardening is terrific exercise! It's the kind of exercise our forebears used to get, way back when people didn't sit in chairs at their desks all day long.


The side benefits of participating in health-promoting activities don't stop there.3 For the most part, healthy people don't wind up in the local hospital emergency room. Resources saved include fossil fuels burned by high-speed ambulances, fossil fuels burned to produce electricity used to power life-saving medical devices, and energy utilized to produce the vast amounts of medical supplies consumed in an emergency procedure, including syringes, IV set-ups, and towels, wipes, and disinfectants.  Additionally, if you are able to keep yourself healthy by maintaining a health-promoting lifestyle, chances are you will avoid or at least minimize the amount of prescription drugs you take during your lifetime.  This benefits you by avoiding the expense and side effects, but it also benefits the planet because you're not adding to the increasing amounts of pharmaceuticals that end up in the water we all drink.

Making an effort to improve your health and that of your family has a huge multiplying effect. Your chiropractor knows that all body systems are deeply interconnected and must work together to produce good health.  It is the same with the population and the many different living systems that make up Planet Earth. Your Millar chiropractor can provide you with detailed information regarding good nutrition and health-promoting exercise that can help make a real difference in not only your own health, but that of your community.


1Villegas R, et al: The cumulative effect of core lifestyle behaviours on the prevalence of hypertension and dyslipidemia. BMC Public Health 13(8):210, 2008
2Christie BR, et al: Exercising our brains: how physical activity impacts synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus. Neuromolecular Med 10(2):47-58, 2008
3Booher MA, Smith BW: Physiological effects of exercise on the cardiopulmonary system. Clin Sports Med 22(1):1-21, 2003

 




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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Above-Down, Inside-Out

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Above-Down, Inside-Out


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The Nerve System and Chiropractic Care
How is it that chiropractic health care can be so effective across so broad a range of conditions? One of the main reasons is because chiropractic focuses on optimizing the nerve system by normalizing its function. The nerve system directs and coordinates all the functions in your body. A properly functioning nerve system can help your body recover from many kinds of problems.

Chiropractic physicians are specialists in analyzing and correcting nerve interference, which in turn helps your body function more optimally. Chiropractic care helps to reestablish the free flow of information between your brain and the rest of your body. When the various systems of your body receive accurate information - on time and in the right sequences - they can do the jobs they were designed to do. The result is the full expression of vibrant health and well-being.
Dr. B.J. Palmer, one of the founders of chiropractic, used the phrase "Above-down, inside-out" to describe the inner workings of the human nerve system which connects the brain and spinal cord to all parts of the body, including cells, tissues, glands and organs.

This was Dr. Palmer's way of addressing the complexity of human physiology all at once. From a high-level viewpoint, he was describing how the central nervous system communicates with the rest of the body. One major conclusion is that the brain originates nerve signals that flow to the spinal cord and from there to the glands, organs, cells, and tissues - and is therefore the master controller of all the other systems. The cardiopulmonary, endocrine, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal systems are all ultimately controlled and regulated by activities within the brain. 

Dr. Palmer was also referring to the organizing intelligence responsible for all the operations of a living organism. This concept, referred to as "Innate Intelligence", was advanced by his father Dr. Daniel David Palmer.  Dr. B.J. Palmer expanded upon his father's work, and promoted the idea of Innate Intelligence as he helped the field of chiropractic become the second largest healing arts profession in the United States.

In this paradigm of "above-down, inside-out," the guiding, intrinsic force that maintains ongoing health and healing is Innate Intelligence. It is this inborn intelligence that knows precisely what each cell needs to meet its energy requirements and thrive. Innate Intelligence knows precisely how to create a new antibody to fight a previously unencountered virus or bacteria. Innate Intelligence knows how much insulin is needed to properly use the carbohydrates you consume. And on, and on.

It is clear that disorder within the nerve system can interfere with the body's ability to carry out the instructions of Innate Intelligence. Symptoms, pain, disorders, and disease result from such nerve interference. Chiropractic treatment helps the nerve system function optimally, thus helping to restore health and well-being.1,2,3



1Nguyen LT, et al: Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Self-Rated Health Status: Results from a National Survey. J Gen Intern Med Nov 5 2010 (Epub ahead of print)
2Millet JD: Progress in complementary and alternative medicine research: Yale Research Symposium on Complementary and Integrative Medicine. Yale J Biol Med 83(3):127-129, 2010
3Ahn AC, et al: Applying principles from complex systems to studying the efficacy of CAM therapies. J Altern Complement Med 16(9):1015-1022, 2010





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Sunday, January 13, 2013

Lifestyle Choices

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Lifestyle Choices


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Enhancing Your Lifestyle with Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic physicians are experts in achieving and maintaining wellness. They can teach their patients how to begin safe, effective exercise programs. Chiropractors can also teach their patients how to design healthy food plans that can improve their own health and well-being and that of their families. Healthy lifestyles are an important aspect in the overall chiropractic approach to long-term wellness.

Chiropractors are highly trained in nutritional science and rehabilitative exercise. In addition to your hands-on chiropractic adjustments and other treatments, regular vigorous exercise and a healthy nutrition plan will assist you in regaining high levels of wellness and well-being.
The fitness craze was initiated in the United States in the early 1980s by a group of celebrities, (most notably Jane Fonda,) who understood that regular exercise is crucial for health and well-being.

Although many of their methods were flawed, these early pioneers helped to promote the idea that physical fitness is very valuable in and of itself - an idea that has seeped into the collective consciousness over the last thirty years. But although most people are now aware of the importance of physical fitness, many still fail to take any action on their own behalf in this critical area.

Typically, a person will procrastinate about beginning an exercise program for many years while the extra pounds continue to accumulate. Then when they have finally become frustrated enough to take action, they will often join a gym or hire a personal trainer, and buy new workout gear in a flurry of activity.  Then, after the initial burst of enthusiasm begins to wane during the first month or two, more often than not the typical fitness-seeking person loses their interest, and their motivation to continue seems to evaporate along with it. Gyms and other fitness facilities across the globe profit by selling new memberships, with the full knowledge that most new gym members will discontinue their efforts within four to six weeks.

But fitness is important. And from an even broader perspective, lifestyle largely determines the risk of many diseases such as cancer, heart disease,  cerebrovascular disease (including hypertension and stroke), and pulmonary disease - which accounted for more than sixty percent of the 2.4 million deaths in the United States in 2007.1 It is now widely understood that each of these conditions is primarily what we consider a lifestyle disease. In the case of cancer, less than 10% of occurrences are due to an inherited condition. The balance are a result of lifestyle choices such as excessive alcohol consumption, overweight and obesity, smoking, and lack of exercise.2

One of the best things you can do for yourself to help ensure your long-term health is to make regular vigorous exercise a life-long habit.  For those who have been sedentary for many years, enjoying a daily walk is usually a great way to begin a life-long exercise program. Begin with a modest five or ten minute walk, and eventually build up over over the next couple months to a 30-minute walk each day.  You can even break it up into two or three shorter walks during the day - perhaps a fifteen minute walk in the morning to start your day off right, and then another fifteen minute walk in the evening to help release the day's accumulated stress.  Once you've gotten to the point of walking about 30 minutes each day, you can gradually increase your walking pace to make it a bit more challenging. Once you've achieved this, you may enjoy alternating basic strength-training workouts with your walks.

Fitness does more than enhance your lifestyle though.  It also improves your state of mind.  Once a person becomes fit, they are very often motivated to remain fit. A person who becomes fit will often notice they naturally begin to make healthier food choices than they had previously.  Sugary drinks, ice cream, doughnuts, cake, potato chips and candy suddenly begin to lose their appeal. Water, organic whole foods, organic apples, raw nuts and protein smoothies become more appealing. People who develop a fitness enhancing lifestyle find themselves losing weight, easily and naturally.  They are free from stress-inducing diets and the feelings of deprivation.  Gone are the days of drastic weight loss and gaining the weight back plus a few extra pounds for your trouble.  Instead, the pounds just slowly but surely disappear because the person is exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet.3

People who become fit are motivated to maintain their results by continuing their improved, life-enhancing habits.  This new, healthy lifestyle becomes their preferred lifestyle.



1Xu J, et al: Deaths. Final data for 2007. Natl Vital Stat Rep 58(19), May 20, 2010
2Kirkegaard H, et al: Association of adherence to lifestyle recommendations and risk of colorectal cancer: a prospective Danish cohort study. Brit Med J October 26, 2010 (Epub ahead of print)
3Brietzke SA: A personalized approach to metabolic aspects of obesity. Mt Sinai J Med 77(5):499-510, 2010






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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Are You Flourishing?

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Are You Flourishing?


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Chiropractic Care Can Help You Flourish
Health problems can make it more difficult to fully participate in life. For example, chronic back pain can make a person  anxious and irritable.  It can limit a person's activities, saps their energy and wastes valuable metabolic resources. Being in pain and the resulting physical limitations can also become emotionally draining.

Chiropractic care may offer significant benefits in the treatment of back pain and many other physical ailments. Gentle chiropractic treatment helps reduce pain by increasing mobility and lowering the inflammation in affected ligaments, tendons, and muscles. As the person's pain disappears, their interest in daily activities begins to expand.

Reducing pain is an important factor in increasing involvement in life. As optimal health and physical functioning is restored, the person's ability to thrive and flourish is restored as well.
How do you decide how well your life is going? Whether you're fulfilled and happy vs. just going through the motions? Whether you're stagnant or instead expanding and developing yourself as an individual?  To put it simply, do you awaken feeling excited at the prospect of a new day? Or do you instead wish that you could remain hidden beneath the blankets, putting off your daily routine for as long as possible?

"Flourishing" is a term long-used by philosophers to describe a state of ongoing positive engagement with life.1,2 When a person is flourishing, he or she is not only an engaged and interested participant in life, but also tends to expand and widen their range of experiences. Many of us think of our plants and gardens when we think of the word "flourishing". A plant or tree that is flourishing is replete with new branches, leaves and buds.  The bark of a tree that is flourishing is often a deeper, richer shade of brown than one that is not. Its leaves will be a more vibrant green in the summer and display more intensely colored foliage in the fall. All the flourishing tree's semi-moving parts will be joyously turned toward the sun's life-giving rays.

Sociologists and Psychologists often characterize well-balanced individuals as happy.  But "being happy" seems like a relatively passive state.  Of course it's wonderful to be happy, but being happy is more of an emotional, subjective state of being.  A person is happy in response to something else. In contrast, when a person is flourishing they are an active participant in creating their happiness. Someone who is flourishing is the initiator rather than the responder. They are in the driver's seat, and get to say how things are going to go.

So how can we achieve a state of flourishing? As always, it's the journey, not the destination, that provides the biggest payoff - in this case, a fulfilling, joyful life.  Don't think of flourishing as an endpoint, but rather think of it as a moving target. We need to be proactive to replenish, reinvigorate, and revivify our lives each day.  It takes some effort to live a full and satisfying life, rather than merely exist. Living this way requires imagination, interest, action and creativity. Flourishing is an outcome of taking an active and proactive role in one's life and participating fully in all the wonderful aspects of life.
 


1Menk OL, et al: Exploring measures of whole person wellness: integrative well-being and psychological flourishing. Explore (NY) 6(6):364-370, 2010
2Fosha D: Positive affects and the transformation of suffering into flourishing. Ann NY Acad Sci 1172:256-262, 2009
 




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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Make a New Year's Resolution to Try Chiropractic Care

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Make a New Year's Resolution to Try Chiropractic Care



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Choosing a Chiropractic Physician
Depending upon the size of your community, there may be an abundance of choices for every profession. Physicians of various specialties, podiatrists, optometrists, accountants, business consultants, psychologists, and attorneys occupy the office space in professional buildings. How can  make sure you choose the one who's right for you?

The best option is often to ask friends and family for a recommendation.  With a personal recommendation, you have real-world information - you have it on good authority from people you trust that the specialist is skilled and competent - you're not flying blind.

When meeting a new professional, you should expect to be treated with respect and your time should be valued. The office itself should be pleasant and comfortable. The office staff should be friendly, professional and eager to help you as you adjust to a new environment.

And most importantly, your chiropractic physician should be willing to take the time to answer all your questions. When you're with the chiropractor who's right for you, as with any other professional, you'll have the experience that you're in the right place.
It's New Years again already, and perhaps you're determined that this will be the year that you actually follow through with your New Year's resolutions. This is finally going to be the year that you make your self and your health a priority.  You'll eat better, exercise regularly, lose weight, and you're finally going to find our whether chiropractic care can make a positive difference in your life.

If you're like most people, you've probably been thinking about doing more to improve your health for many years. Perhaps you even have family and friends who have been recommending chiropractic health care to you for a very long time. You decide you're ready to take action and you make an appointment to see your local chiropractic physician.

Chiropractic health care is more important now than ever before. Today, many Americans are lacking health insurance or are underinsured.  Deductibles, premiums and copayments seem to keep rising while most household incomes have been stagnant.  Because Chiropractic treatment is both corrective and preventative in nature, it tends to be a very cost effective choice and can play a large part in solving our current health care crisis.

In contrast to most medical care, Chiropractic care is low-cost while providing high value. Chiropractic treatment  focuses on the musculoskeletal system - bones, muscles, and joints - but first and foremost, it addresses and optimizes the functioning of the nerve system.  Simply put, chiropractic care makes your nerve system more efficient. And an efficiently functioning nervous system is crucial for optimal functioning of all other critical body systems - your cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, endocrine and digestive  systems.

Chiropractic care utilizes a hands-on approach, and you'll notice that your visits with your chiropractor provide real, personal interactions between you and your doctor. Your chiropractic physician is highly trained in a variety of disciplines - including nutritional evaluation and restorative exercise - and he or she will make recommendations that are specially designed for your particular needs.

Chiropractic care itself - called spinal adjustments - is gentle and relaxing. Immediate results often include decreased pain and muscular tension, and a noticeable increase in mobility of the neck, back, hips, and shoulders.  For patients with back-related pain, improvement is often noted within 24 or 48 hours.  People also often report sensations of increased alertness and increased focus after chiropractic adjustments, and an increased feeling of relaxation, ease and general well-being.

Additional profound benefits of chiropractic care derive from its direct effect on nerve system functioning.1 Although chiropractic health care is not specifically a treatment for headaches, menstrual cramps, asthma, allergies or digestive problems, improvement in one's health may occur across the board as an indirect result of chiropractic therapy.

So, chiropractic care provides a tremendous amount of "bang for your buck" - a lot of health benefit for your health care dollar. And at your chiropractor's office, you not only receive the benefit of treatment but also the benefit of your doctor's vast health-care knowledge - you learn about how your body works and how to best take care of it naturally. The original meaning of the word doctor was teacher, and your chiropractor is an educator as well as a health-care provider, interested in all aspects of your health and well-being.2




1Bronfort G, et al: Efficacy of spinal manipulation and mobilization for low back pain and neck pain: a systematic review and best evidence synthesis. Spine J 4(3):335-356, 2004
2Johnson C, et al: Chiropractic and public health: current state and future vision.
J Manipulative Physiol Ther 31(6):397-410, 2008






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Monday, December 24, 2012

Using Breathing Exercises To Reduce Asthma

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Using Breathing Exercises To Reduce Asthma


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Tips to Help Minimize Asthma Symptoms
Make sure you change your furnace filters regularly, and choose filters that remove dust mites, mold spores, pollen and other allergens.

Avoid all chemical fragrances including perfumes, and fragranced personal care products such as shampoo, conditioner, lotion and deodorant.  Ask your family and friends to use fragrance free products.

Use fragrance free laundry detergents and dryer sheets to avoid toxic fragrances that can trigger severe asthma attacks.
Use an air purifier to help clean the air in your home.

Use special mattress and pillow barrier covers that block dust mites.

Eat foods with omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, or take a good fish oil or krill oil supplement.

Supplement with vitamin C (ideally in a natural form such as Rose Hips, and including bioflavonoids), which can help to reduce allergies and wheezing.

Make sure you receive regular chiropractic treatment. Chiropractic adjustments, especially to the thorax spine, are extremely important in the treatment of chronic asthma.  
Approximately 20 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma; and almost half of them are children. Over the years, corticosteroid inhalers have been the most commonly prescribed treatment for Asthma.

A recent study found that special breathing techniques can reduce the necessity of using these reliever inhalers by more than 80% and reduce the dose of preventer inhaler that is needed in mild asthma by half, according to this research.

This study, which was published in the journal Thorax1, compared the effect of two different breathing techniques on the use of medication, symptoms, lung function, and quality of life among 57 adults with mild asthma.

One technique had the participants focus on shallow, nasal breathing with slow exhalations.  The other technique relied upon relaxation and general upper body exercises.

To qualify for the study, subjects required the use of a preventer inhaler and also needed reliever inhaler at least four times a week.  These participants were then randomly assigned one of these two breathing techniques.

Over a period of 30 weeks, the subjects were required to practice their assigned breathing exercises two times a day for approximately 25 minutes. They were further encouraged to use an abbreviated version of their exercises instead of their reliever inhaler, and to only rely on the reliever inhaler if the exercises failed to halt the asthma attack.

Researcher Professor Christine Jenkins, of the the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, found that the use of reliever medication fell by 86% in both exercise groups.  This drastic improvement began within weeks of starting the exercises, and was maintained over eight months.  She writes: "Breathing techniques may be useful in the management of patients with mild asthma symptoms who use a reliever frequently."

By the end of the study, the participants dropped from using around three puffs of their reliever inhaler each day to approximately one puff every third day.  Preventer dose requirements were also cut in half.

Another promising treatment for bronchial asthma is the natural anti-inflammatory Boswellia, which we often recommend to patients to reduce musculoskeletal inflammation and pain.  In a 1998 study,2 asthmatic patients given the gum resin of Boswellia serrata resulted in 70% improvement evidenced by disappearance of symptoms, versus only 27% of the control group who showed improvement. 



1 Thorax 61:651-656 doi:10.1136/thx.2005.054767
2 Eur J Med Res. 1998 Nov 17;3(11):511-4







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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Pregnancy and Parenting - Avoiding Lower Back Pain

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Pregnancy and Parenting - Avoiding Lower Back Pain


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The Best Way to Pick Up Your Kids
We're not referring to an S.U.V. or a car pool here.  Parents spend plenty of time bending and lifting their little ones. It is important to do this correctly to minimize the risk of injury.

First, make sure you are as close to your child as possible.  It is best to have your arms right next to your body, rather than extended out in front of you. 

Next, make sure to always bend your knees instead of bending at the waist with your legs straight.

Now contract your stomach muscles, which will help to limit the potential strain to the muscles of the low back.  It is crucial to engage your abdominal muscles, which are designed to support the weight.

The last step is to straighten your legs, while you hold your child close to your body and continue to keep your abdominal muscles engaged.

After just a short amount of practice, this safer lifting technique will have become a habit.



You're pregnant! What a wonderful blessing! Your body is now going through incredible changes. One unfortunate and unwelcome change, however, may be increasingly chronic pain in your lower back. Recent studies suggest that two-thirds of pregnant women experience lower back pain.1

This is not surprising when you consider the increasing weight of the growing baby, amniotic fluid and placenta, creating an unbalanced load in front of the lower back. This can easily strain and irritate the spinal muscles, tendons and ligaments, which causes pain, decreased mobility and muscle spasm.

Of course it is important to rule out other causes of pregnancy-related back pain, such as pregnancy-associated osteoporosis, septic arthritis, and inflammatory arthritis.2

The vast majority of cases of back pain in pregnancy, however, are mechanical in origin.

Your Millar chiropractic physician will perform a complete examination in order to determine the appropriate course of treatment. Once your low back pain has diminished, you will likely be able to add a safe, gentle routine of stretches and exercises to help prevent your low back pain from reoccurring. The goal is to minimize the detrimental mechanical effects of pregnancy by strengthening your lower back.

It is easier to prevent or minimize low back pain in the first place by being as fit as possible. (It is ideal to "train for pregnancy" by beginning your fitness program in advance, if you are trying to become pregnant.) This includes following a healthy diet, regular exercise, and gaining an appropriate amount of weight during your pregnancy. Your obstetrician will likely recommend vitamin and mineral supplements and will monitor your weight. The average healthy woman gains between 25 and 35 pounds during the course of her pregnancy.3

Let us now look a couple years into the future - to when your newborn baby is now a toddler. You often have to bend and lift, not just your child, but also other items such as a bulky car seat and stroller. There is a lot of bending, lifting, and twisting involved in caring for a toddler.

So how do you keep yourself from injuring your back?  The answer lies in regular exercise. You will probably be saying to yourself, "But how can I possibly have the time to exercise, when I already don't have enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I need to do?"

That is certainly a difficult question, but if you truly understand the vast benefits of regular exercise, you will know that it is worth the time and effort.  Even a thirty minute workout several times a week will make a big difference. And, when you have fully established the habit of regular exercise, you will be amazed to find how much easier it is to bend over and pick your child up, and how much easier it is to carry them. The reason it is easier is because you're now stronger, healthier and more fit than you were before. It also makes being with your children a lot more fun when you have increased energy, strength and stamina.




1Pennick VE, Young G: Interventions for preventing and treating pelvic and back pain in pregnancy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 18(2):CD001139, 2007.
2Sax TW, Rosenbaum RB: Neuromuscular disorders in pregnancy. Muscle Nerve 34(5):559-571, 2006.
3Jain NJ, et al: Maternal obesity: can pregnancy weight gain modify risk of selected adverse pregnancy outcomes? Am J Perinatol 24(5):291-298, 2007.