Having problems getting to sleep or maintaining uninterrupted sleep? You are not alone!

There are many natural, inexpensive, and non-invasive/drugless strategies you can implement to help yourself get the sleep you desire and need!

The Triad of Health: SLEEP IMPROVEMENT

Physical/ Structural TIPS

• Chiropractic care: balances the nervous system by calming sympathetic energy (flight or fight) and stimulates parasympathetic energy (relax, restore, regenerate). Massage is good too!
• Properly tend to your injuries: body pain and arthritis are major contributors to insomnia.
• Exercise: A minimum of 20 minutes per day; but not within 2 hours of bedtime.
• Mattress: not too old and soft, not too hard and nonconforming; helps control motion. (see The Right Mattress )
• Pillow: correct height for your size, conforms to your shape, keeps spine straight.
• Don’t fight daytime sleepiness; nap for 30 minutes or less; earlier in the day is preferable than later.
• Use a neti pot to restore proper health and air passage to your airways as well as reduce allergen reaction. (see Sinus Irrigation or Neti )
• Do some yoga or easy stretching an hour before bedtime.
• Have your kidneys, thyroid, hormone levels checked for possible imbalances.
• Lose weight, if needed.

Mental/ Emotional TIPS

• Meditate and/or pray daily.
• Practice letting go of problems, allowing your “higher power” to work things out; refuse to worry.
• Let go of offenses held against yourself and others.
• Practice gratitude and count your blessings. (rather than sheep)
• Hide your clock or commit to not looking at it at night. If available, switch the light level to low.
• Don’t talk about how you “can’t sleep”; reprogram your mind to believe you can sleep peacefully.
• Change unsatisfactory lifestyle factors: job, recreation, hobbies, weight, family patterns, routines, relationships.
• Consider that you are worth every effort you take to help yourself be as healthy and as functional as possible.
• Consider getting some spiritual or psychological guidance to solve problems, or at least be sure to spend some time talking with a trusted friend.
• Use your bedroom only for sleep and lovemaking; recondition your mind for proper bedroom use.
• If you watch TV at night, choose low-key nature or arts programs. For some, this would be best done in a chair and not in the bedroom.
• Create a routine for sleep preparation, beginning a half-hour before bed. Include light stretching to reduce muscle and joint aches.
• Reset your internal clock, gradually, to awaken between 6 and 7 a.m. and retire between 10 and 11 p.m.
• In bed, calm your mind by using a mantra such as “relax”, “calm”, or “peace”.
• Write down all your “to-do’s” and worries/concerns which may be occupying your mind; tell yourself you’ll take care of them the next day.

Chemical/ Nutritional/ Environmental TIPS

• Take a warm Epsom salt bath with candlelight and soft scents of jasmine, lavender, rose, marjoram, or hops before bed.
• Eat your evening meal at least 2 hours before bedtime; include enough protein to sustain blood sugar for 8 hours; enough carbohydrate to soothe the nerves.
• Get your bed-partner to address their snoring or sleep apnea issues.
• Eliminate allergens from the bedroom; keep it clean.
• Do not allow pets into the bedroom.
• Avoid sugary, caffeinated, salty, spicy, rich or fatty food and drinks anywhere near bedtime, especially.
• Alcohol and nicotine both interfere with proper sleep even though they may initially sedate you.
• Keep your bedroom tidy, noise-free, dark, cool.
• Avoid exposure to electromagnetic frequencies from electronics at work and home, especially in the bedroom. Keep devices at least 3 feet from you.
• Find out if a medication you are taking may have stimulant effects on metabolism or the nervous system. Ask about alternatives.
• Five to ten minutes of deep, easy breathing can raise natural melatonin by 500%.
• There are many helpful herbs, homeopathic remedies, and nutritional supplements to help sleep; consult a knowledgeable practitioner for help in choosing them.
• Get exposure to sunlight to stimulate the pineal gland, earlier in the day, while avoiding too much light later in the day, especially electronic light/screen light.
• Most sleep-inducing drugs create dependence and have toxic side effects.

Gardening can be enjoyable but, to avoid potential pain from it, it is important to stretch your muscles before reaching for your gardening tools. The back, upper legs, shoulders, and wrists are all major muscle groups affected when using your green thumb.

A warm-up and cool-down period are as important in gardening as it is for any other physical activity,” said Dr. Scott Bautch of the American Chiropractic Association’s (ACA) Council on Occupational Health. “Performing simple stretches during these periods will help alleviate injuries, pain, and stiffness.”

Before a gardening session, make sure you have had plenty of water.  If not, have some right away and while you’re at it, grab some to take with you outside to have during your gardening.  Afterward, sit and relax with some additional water before rewarding yourself with that cola, coffee, beer or cocktail.

Two very important principles of stretching are: Do NOT force a stretch and NEVER bounce.  These behaviors actually cause your muscles to tighten more and may even tear one.  Stretch only as far and as you comfortably can.  Additionally, during any stretch, breathe in and out slowly and rhythmically; do not hold your breath.  Next, review our suggestions for proper stretching at this link:      STRETCHES

Here is a good routine to warm up your muscles and joints before, during, and after your gardening session:

Ankles- draw circles with your toes in the air, one foot at a time, while balancing on the other foot- if you can; grab a stable object otherwise.  Next, point and flex your foot to target the front and back of your lower leg.  Hold 5 to 10 seconds.

Quadriceps–  (You may need a prop for balance)

1. Stand on one leg while grasping ankle or foot of opposite leg behind you.  Use a strap or loop a towel to cradle around your ankle if getting your leg up to your hand is difficult.

2. Slowly bring bent leg backward to meet the thigh with the knee pointing toward the floor. Hold 10 to 15 seconds.

Hamstrings-

1. Place one heel out in from of you while standing on the other leg, pointing your toe toward your shin OR…sit on the floor with one leg extended in front of you and the other leg bent with the foot in towards the thigh.

2. Push your buttocks back.   Keeping your back straight, lean forward, pivoting at the hip joint just until your feel the stretch in the back of the thigh.  Hold 10 to 15 seconds.

Hamstrings Curls- Walk in place, exaggerating the backwards motion of your lower leg towards your buttocks, shifting your weight from left to right, right to left for 10-15 seconds.

Gluteus (butt) muscles-

Sitting or standing, pull one knee to your chest.

Gently pull your knee across your body toward the opposite shoulder.  Hold 10 to 15 seconds.

Sides- Reach up and across your forehead, feel the stretch along the side of the body and toward the spine.  Hold 10 to 15 seconds.

Lumbar Flexion and Extension– Slowly and carefully bend forward at your waist as if touching your toes.  Keep your knees soft.  Pay close attention to the pull on your back and hamstrings.  Make it a gentle, controlled stretch felt along your lower back.  Hold no longer than 5 seconds.

Place your hands on your upper buttocks, palm in.  Tightening your abdominal muscles, carefully lean back no more than 10-15 degrees.  Feel the stretching of your front and the tightening of the back.  Hold no longer than 3 seconds and repeat 3 to 5 times.

Shoulders- Roll your shoulders with a big, full motion, in a backwards direction.  Repeat 10 to 15 times.

Arm Circles- Rotate at the shoulder, first with elbows bent, then with straight arms.  Repeat 10 to 15 times.

Wrist Circles- Twirl your hands at the wrist in both directions.  Repeat 10 to 15 times.

Fingers- Clench and straighten your fingers several times.

*Just a word about fatigue: know your limits!  Resist the temptation to do “just one more thing” or “just a little more”.  Gardening while too fatigued may set you up for a sprain or strain that you would not have had otherwise.

NOTE: These exercises should only be performed after evaluation by a qualified professional. Should you experience pain or discomfort while doing an exercise, stop immediately. Follow only the exercises that your doctor has recommended to avoid the potential of further injury.

We thought a message regarding trust would be appropriate here.  When it comes to health care, trust is a big topic, loaded with all sorts of possible meaning.

Within the realm of health care, there is trust associated with the competency and skill of the doctor and facility through which they do their work.  There is trust that you will be charged a fair price for the services given.  There is also trust that the care you are given is up-to-date, and of the latest proven methods which have shown the greatest results with the least side effects or chance of harm.  We could continue to list a few more, but we’ll let this be adequate for now.

How to Find a Trustworthy Doctor

Most people seem to agree that the best way to find out whether a doctor is trustworthy is to do some research.  That research may be done via the internet, the state board which licenses practitioners, word-of-mouth within the community (depending on the size of your community, this may be more or less easy), or even by going directly to the doctor’s office and attempting to talk with the doctor or with her staff, personally.

These are all good ideas and I would recommend them, especially when it comes to the treatment of more serious conditions with greater consequences for not getting the best care available.  Where does chiropractic care fall in the list of types of care needing a proper investigation, vetting, if you will? Would you say it was more or less, important to find the best chiropractor possible to treat your or a family member’s condition?  How much effort would you give to do your research?

Earned Trust

At this point I am asking these questions only to start a discussion and inform potential patients about our clinic, giving some assurance that for over 20 years we, the doctors of Levin and Chellen Chiropractic, have sought the trust of our patients and community.  We have sought trust by several avenues, as mentioned above in paragraph one.  

• We work and train to remain competent and improve our competencies and skills as doctors of chiropractic.  
• We charge fair prices for the services provided and never recommend services which are not necessary.  
• We keep our recommended treatment plans to a minimum, never stringing along more visits than absolutely necessary; never creating long-term plans for profit.  
• We use only techniques and methods which are based on solid evidence of safety and effectiveness, bringing ourselves up-to-date with regular coursework.
• We have never been brought before our Board of Chiropractic on any charges, nor have we ever been accused of any wrongdoing.
• We have never been removed, discharged,  or dismissed from any organization, facility, or membership pertaining to our profession and professional duties.
• We have never had a malpractice suit, nor even so much as an accusation of malpractice.

We invite you to contact our licensing board, The Minnesota Board of Chiropractic Examiners; and we invite you to check out our web presence, read about the kind of things being said about us on various sites.  We can say this with complete confidence because we know what is “out there” and we are proud of it.  Our testimonials page is loaded with all sorts of complimentary things our patients have written and said about us over the years.  We hope that makes a difference to you when you may need a chiropractor someday and would like to make your decision with confidence and peace of mind.

Thank you for reading!

Treating Low Back Pain:

An Ice Pack or the Hot Tub?

Please read this article and share it. Using the correct therapy makes all the difference and may prevent further injury!

I’ll also add two warnings:

1. NEVER stretch the part of your body that has been recently iced. Those tissues have become less pliable and will likely tear before stretching. Let the area warm up a good hour before attempting a gentle stretch; and,

2. ALWAYS use a thin layer of cloth/ towel between the skin and the ice pack to prevent frostbite/burn.

Thank you to Chiro-Trust .org for the following :

“Many patients perform some self-care when they first hurt their lower back, hoping this will keep them out of a doctor’s office. While home remedies can sometimes make the pain go away, sometimes they don’t. It just depends on what you try. When the back is first hurt, it’s often a sprain/strain type of injury with accompanying muscle spasm. When a nerve in the low back gets pinched or irritated, the body will protect the delicate nerves by keeping you from moving and risking further nerve injury. The easiest way for the body to do this is to cause the back muscles to spasm in the injured area.

Muscle pain can be quite severe and heat can sometimes soothe muscle pain. For this reason, many patients take to the heating pad or to the hot tub to try and get some relief. This should be avoided in an acute injury because inflammation is present. With inflammation, there is increased heat and the additional heat you provide is like adding gasoline to a fire. The results are usually not good.

A better choice with an acute injury is to ice the area, but this also needs to be done with some caution. The simplest ice pack is ice cubes placed in a plastic bag. While effective, you can cause a frostbite injury if you leave the pack on for too long. When you first ice the area, you will go through several phases before some pain relief is achieved. At first, the pack will feel cold. The next phase is a burning sensation and the ice will almost feel hot. This is followed by an aching or throbbing sensation. Just before the area is numbed, a very sharp pain will be experienced followed by the relief you desire. It can take between five to ten minutes to go through all of the phases. Once numbness is achieved, the pack should be removed. You should most definitely not fall asleep while the pack is on.

If this simple procedure does not solve the problem, it’s best to get your spine checked by a doctor of chiropractic.”

To access the original article go to: CHIRO_TRUST  http://www.levinchellenchiropractic.com/therapeutic-heat-ice/

Where Are You Looking? Symptom or Source?

Is the crack in the plaster where the real problem is? No, not unless there was a direct force on the wall at the point of the crack. The crack may be just a symptom.  The source of the crack is often in the foundation or frame which supports the wall. A worthy solution is going to address the foundation or frame as part of the overall lasting fix to the real problem.

Chiropractic care seeks to address the source of the stress which caused the problem (symptoms) rather than putting a patch on the symptoms. Patching, usually pain medication, allows the source of the pain to be uninterrupted and even continue to degrade over time. Eventually, the root of the problem could get deeper and more difficult to resolve.

A doctor of chiropractic will seek out the imbalances in your “frame” and realign it so the symptoms will not be regenerated over and over. It is your job to seek out a chiropractor and follow the instructions given to strengthen and stabilize your frame, thus aiding the natural healing process.

That’s it in a nutshell! Why not give chiropractic care a chance to help you regain your joy in the activities you love, free of pain and lost function?

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After months of not being able to stand or walk for more than 10 minutes at a time, and countless restless nights, Dr. Nels took the time to evaluate what was going on and got to the root of the problem. I haven’t felt this great in years…even before my last major issue. The time and care he spent on me during the first visit and my follow up visit on adjusting, massaging, and educating is more than I’ve ever had. I truly feel he cares about every single one of his patients and will do whatever he can to help. Both my husband and I would recommend him immediately to anyone. Thank you!!”

Janette, Minnetonka, MN

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This one is for the men…*

Save yourself from the destructive consequences of sitting on a wallet. If you have been to a chiropractor, you have already heard this and had the “Why” explained to you. If you have not and are not sure “why”, take a look at the accompanying illustration and understand that it’s about two things,

1. an unlevel foundation for the spine and the compensations the body makes to counter that unlevel foundation

2. the wallet is pressing into the buttocks muscles and is slowly crushing the sciatic nerve buried deep within those muscles.

Natural and holistic health care has been described in many ways, with many analogies. This analogy, below, is one of our favorites and provides a view into the mindset of true healthcare providers and researchers. Providing care for the relief of pain and prevention of death is a good thing, but as individuals and as a society, we need to keep in mind the idea of “going upstream” to be truly preventative and forward-thinking.

THE STORY OF THE RIVER
Once upon a time, there was a small village on the edge of a river. The people there were good and life in the village was good. One day a villager noticed a baby floating down the river. The villager quickly swam out to save the baby from drowning. The next day this same villager noticed two babies in the river. He called for help, and both babies were rescued from the swift waters. And the following day four babies were seen caught in the turbulent current. And then eight, then more, and still more!
The villagers organized themselves quickly, setting up watchtowers and training teams of swimmers who could resist the swift waters and rescue babies. Rescue squads were soon working 24 hours a day. And each day the number of helpless babies floating down the river increased. The villagers organized themselves efficiently. The rescue squads were now snatching many children each day. While not all the babies, now very numerous, could be saved, the villagers felt they were doing well to save as many as they could each day. Indeed, the village priest blessed them in their good work. And life in the village continued on that basis.
One day, however, someone raised the question, “But where are all these babies coming from? Let’s organize a team to head upstream to find out who’s throwing all of these babies into the river in the first place!

At Levin and Chellen Chiropractic, we have used the tag-line, “Our goal is for you to need us less!” The bulk of our energies are first put into getting you out of pain, but as you recover and begin to feel good again, our energies are more tuned toward keeping you feeling good through the application of strategies which empower through a greater self-care knowledge.  We do not want to create dependence, but independence; not patients, but partners!  Please go to our Testimonials page and read about the many positive experiences our “partners” have had during our almost 20 years in practice.

Great article!  Good solid advice.  Share it with loved ones.

For many reasons, but especially having chronic pain, we humans can have bouts of the blues. Holiday time can trigger an episode quicker than ever due to expectations we feel from others, and even from ourselves.

This article provides some useful tips to deal with the potential and the experience of depression, specifically for those with chronic pain and depression around the holidays and can be applied any other time as well.

Thank you to Stephanie Burke of Spine-Health for her timely article first appearing Nov. 2014, represented for this new holiday season.

CLICK HERE: 5 Tips for Dealing with Depression and Chronic Pain around the Holidays

Additionally, chiropractic care may help chronic pain sufferers, not only directly by treating the cause of pain, but also indirectly by rebalancing the nervous system.  If you haven’t yet tried chiropractic care, give us a call at Levin and Chellen Chiropractic.  We are happy to help you find answers to your health concerns.  Have a happy holiday!

Dr. Sharon Levin and Dr. Nels Chellen

Levin and Chellen Chiropractic

(952) 474-1777

Chiropractor for Minnetonka and

the Minneapolis Metro Community

http://www.levinchellenchiropractic.com

Disclaimer

Thank you for visiting the Levin and Chellen Chiropractic web page. Please note that the information located on our site is not intended to provide specific chiropractic advice. You should consult with a chiropractic doctor and not rely on any information contained herein regarding your specific condition. We welcome the receipt of electronic mail though not for making appointments, soliciting and sales, or inquiries which need immediate response. Please be advised, however, that the act of sending electronic mail to this office or to Dr. Sharon Levin, DC or Dr. Nels Chellen, DC does not alone create a physician-patient relationship. We will neither accept requests for chiropractic advice or treatment nor offer specific chiropractic advice over the internet. The information here is presented for general information purposes only and is not intended to be used as a substitute for medical advice.

The doctors of Levin and Chellen Chiropractic have long championed our patients’ ability to help themselves heal and need fewer professional interventions.

One well-documented way to do this is by harnessing the power of your nervous system.  Chiropractic care harnesses the power of the nervous system, as does massage, meditation/ mindfulness practice and, indirectly, many other well-known healthy lifestyle practices.  When referring to the nervous system here, we are specifically meaning the autonomic nervous system, or ANS.  Perhaps you remember noticing an article or two, or three, or four while listening to the news, reading popular magazines, or watching shows like Dr. Oz, which showcase the wonders of the ANS.

The ANS is made up of two oppositely functioning, yet completely interdependent halves, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). For a good Wikipedia article which explains these two more thoroughly, see: ANS .  Suffice it to say here that being stuck in too much input from either one of these branches of the ANS can have serious repercussions to one’s health.  The more common condition is for us to be stuck in the SNS mode with too little PSNS input.  In our clinical experience, this is not just more common but IS common.  There are a multitude of ways (read “lifestyle habits”) we generate this imbalance.  Often it is a “slow-burn”, or sneaky development which we won’t notice before we begin to feel the effects in our lives from crabbiness/short-temperedness to high blood pressure, to succumbing to the flu.

Besides an occasional “tune-up” of your nervous system at your favorite chiropractor and disciplining yourself to follow basic healthy lifestyle principles, what can you do to re-regulate your ANS?  Breathe!

Here is an excellent article from the New York Times that will help you understand more and incorporate this simple, go-to technique into your life.  Enjoy the immediate benefits and don’t forget to share this article!  Everyone needs to know this!  see; BREATHE

If you would like to discuss whether chiropractic care is right for you, just give us a call to schedule your complimentary consultation on the phone or in person.  

We are waiting to help you!

Call Us for a Free Consultation!

(952) 474-1777

Disclaimer

Thank you for visiting the Levin and Chellen Chiropractic web page. Please note that the information located on our site is not intended to provide specific chiropractic advice. You should consult with a chiropractic doctor and not rely on any information contained herein regarding your specific condition. We welcome the receipt of electronic mail though not for making appointments, soliciting and sales, or inquiries which need immediate response. Please be advised, however, that the act of sending electronic mail to this office or to Dr. Sharon Levin, DC or Dr. Nels Chellen, DC does not alone create a physician-patient relationship. We will neither accept requests for chiropractic advice or treatment nor offer specific chiropractic advice over the internet. The information here is presented for general information purposes only and is not intended to be used as a substitute for medical advice.