Do It Yourself Chiropractic Adjustments

from our Orange County clinic director’s blog:

http://ocegoscue.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/marie-makes-her-own-chiropractic-adjustments/

One of the things i love about Egoscue is that it so empowers the client. Most people have a sense that they understand their bodies and have a feel for what is wrong. They’re looking for someone who will believe in them and guide them, who will work WITH them instead of just throwing pills or procedures at them. And that’s exactly what Egoscue does. We encourage our clients to trust their own instincts and to never act against them. They know their bodies better than ANYONE else, including all the so-called experts, and that includes us Egoscue therapists. i don’t just encourage our clients to share what they think and believe about their bodies with us, it’s mandatory, something they MUST do if our relationship together is to be as productive as possible.

So congratulations, Marie, for taking ownership of your body and the process. Keep on rockin’!

Technorati Tags: Egoscue

How to do Raw Food

Clients of our clinic know that we’re big fans of the Boutenko family. Victoria Boutenko has written a book we frequently recommend to clients looking to improve their health. “Green For Life” talks about how greens are the true nutritional powerhouse in our grocery stores and how to use green smoothies to unlock their nutritional power in a way that is tasty and simple.

The Boutenkos were just in Austin and gave a talk sponsored by Dr Ritamarie Loscalzo, a lady who is one of the great health resources here in Austin (note, you can visit her website at www.drritamarie.com). I wasn’t able to attend but I purchased the ability to watch videos of the event and from the little I’ve seen so far, this was a great event that is well worth watching. If you’re looking for ways to improve your health, if you want to learn more about how to make raw food easy, you will want to watch the video from this event. It’s a bargain at only $15.

You can buy your access to the event here:

http://www.drritamarie.com/Boutenko-Videos.php

I highly recommend the book linked above, and this talk by the Boutenko family is a great companion. You’ll learn a lot, I know I am.

Technorati Tags: Egoscue

Heal yourself by giving

I love this, very, very cool. She is helping her MS by focusing not on her symptoms and problems but on helping and blessing others. What a concept.

http://tinyurl.com/yhyo5h3

Technorati Tags: Egoscue

A note from Rick

Hi folks, I wanted to apologize for my erratic and infrequent posting here of late. It’s been an interesting couple months.

Early in the year, I fell while roughhousing with my teenage son and tore a tendon in my left shoulder. I knew it probably required surgery but wanted to give it every opportunity to heal on its own. I ended up getting surgery in early September and it went very well. They found a third of the subscapularis tendon was ripped away from the bone and needed to be reattached. The first month after the surgery was a challenge, I had to have my arm in a sling most of the time. Even though it was my left arm and I’m right handed, you forget how many things you use both arms for. Rehab is going well and I’m ahead of schedule and doing great with it.

Then I had the privilege of contracting the H1N1 flu. It’s just ripping through our school district. The good news is I used a lot of the strategies I’ve discussed here and while it wasn’t any fun, I got over it faster than the typical Central Texas case (from what I’ve read), and my symptoms didn’t get all that bad. During most of it I actually could’ve worked, but I didn’t want to communicate it to anyone else so I laid low.

Then this past weekend I developed a case of cellulitis/MRSA on my right elbow. Basically, that’s a localized staph infection of the tissue that is resistant to antibiotics. The only way to effectively treat it is IV antibiotics, so guess what I’m doing right now? I’m in the hospital getting IV antibiotics! I actually feel great, just gotta get this elbow cooled off and I’ll be on my way, thank you very much.

It was funny, I asked if they could unhook me from the IV setup after the last dose was finished so I could maybe go for a walk outside and get some sunshine and fresh air. Nope, not allowed to leave the floor, had to drag the IV stand with me. OK, I thought, have it your way. So I went out and started doing laps around the floor. Freaked the nurses out, they weren’t used to seeing someone walking that fast around their floor, shoot, I was the only patient up and walking at all, and most of the beds here are full. At first they smiled, then on the second lap they kind of laughed and made some jokes, by the end they were saying “next time we should just follow you and do a group workout!” Yes, come join me! And afterwards we’ll do an Egoscue menu and I’ll show you all how to help those tight shoulders feel better.

So anyway, hopefully on a physical level I’m about to come up for air. I’ve got some cool stuff to share with you and I promise it’s coming. Thanks to those of you who regularly check back here and I promise more content is on the way. The elbow is already responding well to the drugs and I’m hoping to be discharged in a day or two.

Peace and health to all our friends out there.

Technorati Tags: Egoscue

Great video piece on the Patch!

The Egoscue Foundation donated a set of the Patch Fitness equipment to a Boys and Girls Club in the San Diego area, and the local news did a piece on it. Cool stuff, you can see it here:

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/health/Fitness_Patch__the_Great_Equalizer_San_Diego.html

Technorati Tags: Egoscue

Why didn’t you do your Egoscue menu today?

Here’s a great blog post from our clinic in Orange County on this subject, enjoy!

http://ocegoscue.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/how-come-you-did-not-do-your-menu-today-let-me-guess/

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

A great article from our Santa Monica clinic director, Paul Schell:

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop
The origin of this saying goes back to a funny story like this:

A guest checked into an inn one night was warned to be quiet because the guest in the room next to his was a light sleeper. As he undressed for bed, he dropped one shoe, which, sure enough, awakened the other guest. He managed to get the other shoe off in silence, and got into bed. An hour later, he heard a pounding on the wall and a shout: “When are you going to drop the other shoe?”

And so the definition of “waiting for the other shoe to drop” is something to the effect of: waiting for an event to happen that is expected to happen, based on a causal link to another event. In the world of chronic pain, we see this all too often. People have back, neck or some other pain and after a little rest or popping a few ibuprofen (or stronger), the pain simply goes away. Or does it?

In the years of listening to clients describe their pain, there are always warning signs — shots across the bow so to speak. It may be a tweak in the neck, spasms in the low back, chronically tight hamstrings, declining energy levels, or other aches that tell you that something is going on. Many of these symptoms are often ignored only to show up as debilitating or severe down the road.

In many cases, these “mild” symptoms are the first shoe dropping and it’s a waiting game for the second to hit the floor. If the cause of the symptom is not identified, it is only a matter of time before the body uses another means to let you know that it is serious and needs attention.

I’ve worked with a number of clients who knew something was going on but waited til it became so excruciating that it became a much longer process of getting back to pain free. Don’t let this be you. Get ahead of the curve by taking care of your pain now. Living in fear waiting for the other shoe to drop is no way to enjoy freedom of moving about and enjoying activities. Achieve peace of mind by taking action today!

Get some help with your plan of action. You can get started by reading one of Pete Egoscue’s books. I recommend “Pain Free” if you have symptoms. You can also get started with the exercises on Egoscue.com or, better yet, call to set up your free consultation and find out what the best path is for your personal condition at 310-450-2549 (that’s the Santa Monica number, for Austin, call us at 512-527-0030).

Egoscue-isms

“I’ve never met a sport, workout routine, or piece of gym equipment that I didn’t like. It doesn’t matter what your favorite physical activity is. If it’s bungee jumping-okay. But make sure you come to the activity with a fully functional musculoskeletal system; otherwise the repetitive motion involved in the sport or workout will end up strengthening your dysfunctions and destabilizing your body.”

Technorati Tags: Egoscue

Make movement fun

At Egoscue we teach our clients that health and motion are so closely related that you can’t have health without motion. Our bodies are designed to move. We also know most people don’t move enough. So here’s today’s advice: find a way to make movement fun! Find ways to move that YOU enjoy. If you enjoy running, then run. But if you hate running and you run because you think you should, then I suggest you find something that has you moving that you DO enjoy. For example, I’ve never been a big fan of running. I think it’s a tremendous activity and I encourage people to do it, I always just found it boring and I never looked forward to my runs. But I love tennis and basketball, and those get you running and moving, so I’ll play those instead, and get a great workout.

Find things to do that don’t just nourish your body, they feed your spirit at the same time. You’ll find it’s then much easier to keep moving. Want some proof that fun leads to increased motion? Check out this great video, a cool experiment that proves this point beautifully. Less than 2 minutes long:

Technorati Tags: Egoscue

Another reason to avoid surgery if possible

If you’ve ever had general anasthesia, you know that……

“Waking up is hard to do”

enjoy

Technorati Tags: Egoscue

Does back pain “run in your family”?

I have a lot of new clients who think their back hurts because of their age, or because if other members of their family like mom and dad had back pain, then maybe it’s genetic.

Well, if you’d like to get a better understanding of why you or someone you know might have back pain, then read this terrific piece from our downtown San Diego Clinic Director’s blog:

http://timmygtime.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/bad-backs-run-in-my-family/

This is a fantastic article that does a REALLY good job of helping communicate some basic facts about the spine. Give it a read!

Technorati Tags: Egoscue