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If you would like to perform better at your sport of choice or simply address a nagging pain that has been hanging around, chiropractic adjustments along with Active Release Techniques are a winning team to help you accomplish your goals. I use these together to help my patients experience the quickest and most direct relief and the results they are looking for.
Additionally, I often recommend Acupuncture as a great adjunct therapy for my patients, for decreasing pain, improving energy, and addressing other specific health concerns that they have.
A local acupuncturist that I refer my patients to is Rebecca Cates, M.S., L.Ac. Rebecca's knowledge and professionalism come across in her expert care, using gentle and effective needling. She knows all the right points to treat to restore balance, reduce pain and invigorate health. I have enjoyed and derived much benefit from her treatments over this past year. Her beautiful office is conveniently located at 770 Page Street in North Berkeley. She can be reached at 415-573-6168 for appointments. Her website is: http://rebeccacates.com/
In order for me to be able to help more people stay fit I have opened a second location in Walnut Creek. It is located at 1280 Boulevard Way, Suite 211, just off highways 24 and 680 at the Mt. Diablo Blvd exit. I am currently there on Wednesdays.
Our main office's new location is 6330 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609. Our new Chiropractic Center is a spacious and beautiful building located between Alcatraz and 63rd Street. You can reach us at (510) 601-6330.
With You In Health,
Dr. Richard Burg, DC
The Luck of the Draw
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| We Can Make Our Own Luck |
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Making your own luck with respect to good health involves taking various actions on your own behalf. In fact "luck" itself, without any help from us, only goes so far. For example, you could be lucky and blessed with a fast metabolism. That's great, you can eat whatever you want and not put on much weight. But is eating exclusively from the three main food groups of pasta, pizza, and peanut butter what you really want to do? |
HTN is often described as a lifestyle disease. 2,3 Those who are overweight and/or obese (this characterizes two-thirds of American adults) are at increased risk for HTN, as are persons with diabetes. People who don't exercise regularly are more likely to develop high blood pressure, as are those who smoke cigarettes. In fact, overweight/obesity, lack of exercise, and tobacco use are the top three causes of HTN.
Obviously, achieving an average weight, exercising regularly, and stopping smoking (or never starting) are three main lifestyle actions related to decreasing one's risk of developing HTN. But some people who are slim, have exercised all their lives, and do not smoke may still develop high blood pressure. In such a case, HTN is termed "essential hypertension". The person has a very healthy lifestyle, there are no risk factors for HTN, and still they become hypertensive. That is the luck of the draw, otherwise known as a genetic predisposition to this disease.
In a contrasting example, a few people may smoke two packs of cigarettes a day since age 15, drink a quart of gin every few days, and never get really sick. They don't develop lung cancer or liver cancer and have no problems with HTN or heart disease, and live lives that fly in the face of all received wisdom in the field of public health. They continue to thrive well into their 80s and beyond and love to tell their well-meaning friends and relatives, "I've never been sick a day in my life" while lighting up another cigarette. Such persons are described by epidemiologists as outliers, those whose health parameters represent an outlying 2.5% or less of the standard values. Their luck of the draw lies in possessing an indestructible constitution.
Of course the exceptions only prove the rule. Their existence does not suggest that rules for good health should not be observed. Regular vigorous exercise and a healthful diet containing plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables are important for all of us, young and old. Chiropractic care is an important component of the lifestyle mix. Chiropractic care helps people, young and old, achieve the best health possible. This natural form of health care helps take the "luck" out of the equation. We can make our own luck and chiropractic helps us do that in the arena of health and well-being.
1Zhang WW, et al: Hypertension and TIA. Int J Stroke 4(3):206-214, 2009
2Schmid AA, et al: Current blood pressure self-management: a qualitative study. Rehabil Nurs 34(6):223-229, 2009
3Pascual JM, et al: Body weight variation and control of cardiovascular risk factors in essential hypertension. Blood Press 18(5):247-254 Top
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