Our Fall Updates

Posted by: The Balancing Center

The seasons have changed and taken us along for the ride! New systems, new promotions, and new employees--here’s what’s new for Fall at The Balancing Center!

Going Green:

Transitioning to our electronic records system continues. Despite some early glitches, we are running more smoothly every day. It’s been a period of real learning, challenge, and growth for the chiropractors, bodyworkers, and front desk associates. And it’s also been a time of change for our patients, whose patience we greatly appreciate!

November New Patient Promotion:

From November 1st until November 30th, we are featuring a special “New Patient” promotion. New patients can receive $50 off their first visit! We are handing out promotional postcards with all the details to our wonderful existing patients. If you know someone who could benefit from our care, this is a great way to give him or her the gift of health.

Monthly In-house Raffle:
Also starting November 1st, we are running a monthly raffle. If you are an existing and active patient, you can be eligible to win one of our monthly, changing prizes!* This month you can win a $100 gift card to Whole Foods! Ticket entries are based on your presence at and engagement with The Balancing Center.

How can you increase your chances? Here is the breakdown:

Action	Tickets
Complete an appointment at the office	1
Like, share, or comment on our Facebook, Twitter, or blog	2
Complete your monthly care plan	5
Leave us an online review (Yelp, Google+, Citysearch, etc.)	5
Refer a new patient	10
Provide a written or video testimonial	10
Graduate between stages of your treatment plan	10
Invite one of the docs to give a FREE health talk at your office!	25

Our first raffle drawing will be on November 25th. We love our patients and want to show it! Look for more information about this raffle coming soon.

New member of our office family:

We would like to formally welcome Jackie to The Balancing Center as our newest front desk associate and patient advocate.

 

Jackie Woodruff graduated with a psychology degree from Duke University, which she loves to put to use by better understanding and meeting the needs of the Balancing Center’s patients. She has a deep understanding of the power of thought and belief, and greatly enjoys learning more about the connection between the brain and body. Her passion for wellness and service come together perfectly at the front desk, assuring the best quality of assistance for our patients.


November Hours:
To accommodate for being closed on Thanksgiving and Black Friday (Nov. 28th and 29th), we have extended hours on November 27th from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm. Dr. Dan will be working the Saturday shift on November 30th from 8:30 am until 1:00 pm.

That’s all we have for you for now! We wish you all a most happy Fall and hope to see you soon!

Unleash the Fear

Posted by: The Balancing Center

We might not consciously think of it, but beyond the candy and the costumes, Halloween is a holiday that allows us to confront fear. We visit haunted houses and marathon scary movies and feel the primal chill that runs through our guts. It’s uncomfortable but electric and undeniably compelling.

What other time of year do we decide, nationally, to let fear flow through us? (Maybe inadvertently at Christmas time, but that’s another post.) Most of the time we strive to minimize the fear in our lives (even as the culture around us strives to create a fear-based economy, but that too is another post).

Fear does strange things to us. We might run, we might fight, we might freeze. Rational thought stops as our heart races, our blood vessels constrict, our cortisol levels rise, and our stomachs drop to the floor. And because we are so rarely educated in how to deal with fear, we don’t always make healthy choices. We ignore the fear. We distract ourselves from or anesthetize ourselves to the fear, eating out of stress, using drugs (including caffeine and nicotine), watching too much television, spending too much time on the internet.  

After school specials and our moms tell us to face our fears. Why? Because fear, in its primal profundity, can be an opportunity. If we can breathe through the fear, if we can pause before we run or fight or freeze, we might get a chance to figure out why we’re afraid and, even better, find a way to defeat, confront, or embrace what is scaring us.  

Understanding the causes and effects of fear opens up so much of life. We’ll try new things. We’ll want to run and stay anyway; we’ll want to fight and instead we’ll forgive.

At The Balancing Center, we strive to present the facts of your health. Whatever emotions arise out of that--fear or frustration or confusion--we strive to find ways to work with you through those emotions.

When you don’t let the fear move through you, well, it can’t move through you. It will get stuck. Emotions cause physical reactions and the emotion of fear will cause your body to enter its defense physiology, leading to poor sleep, increased stress, constricted digestion and respiration. Just like how fear might paralyze you from growing, fear that is stuck somewhere in your body can prevent that part of your body from healing.

And we want you to heal.

The chiropractors at The Balancing Center also practice N.E.T, or “NeuroEmotional Technique,” a question-based method of discovering the locations of trapped emotions and stress in your system. Practical example: we store fear in our kidneys and in the vertebrae T1, T5, and T8. By using N.E.T., the chiropractors can discover if you’re storing fear and they can help you to release that from your system. 

Your body can relax and rest. And you can use your fear as the spring board into health. Fear will always find a way into your life. And you can always find a way through it.

Allow this Halloween holiday to unleash the fear in you and see what happens. Let the fear move through you and see what it can in turn unleash and even inspire. And then consider making an appointment with us to round out your October.

Flu Shots: Beyond the Banner Ads

Posted by: Lindsay

Today in the Red Eye I saw an ad that made me pause. Along the bottom of the page, a banner touts the flu shot by way of the tacit endorsement of the sports celebrity pictured in it. It is one ad in a larger, citywide campaign to get you to buy a flu shot because your favorite sports star says it’s a good idea. If you want to be awesome, like this soccer star, buy a flu shot!

If you can tell by my tone, I’m not a fan of this campaign. Using celebrity to promote products or services is nothing new, but a tactic doesn’t have to be new to still be irresponsible. And it’s irresponsible to push the flu vaccine in this manner.

Before we get into a huge fight, let me say this: I’m not here to denounce vaccines. Vaccines can be and have been effective at reducing or eliminating countless once-lethal diseases. I’ve never had polio or the measles and neither have most of my family and friends and coworkers. That’s simply amazing.

What I am here to do is advocate informed consent. A flu shot might work for you and it might not and knowing the difference can be key! There’s no fine print on the ads that tell you that the effectiveness of the flu shot can vary between 30% and 90% depending on how old you are, how healthy you are, and how accurate the CDC is. The vaccine’s effectiveness varies depending on whether or not the CDC has guessed correctly which strains of the flu are going to be most prevalent this year. And the debate about the vaccine's effectiveness continues among the medical and scientific community. (The New York Times alone has posted articles both for and against promoting the vaccine.)

This issue is obviously complex just in terms of science, never mind that the debate involves public health and millions of dollars. It wouldn't be unreasonable to take a step back, learn about both sides, and then make a decision from there.

What I'm also here to do is promote additional and alternative methods of strengthening your immune system. Wouldn’t it be great if you could prevent the flu without having to receive injections of it? Here are some ideas you might have heard before:

1. Eat a healthy, balanced diet.

2. Reduce your stress levels.

3. Exercise regularly.

4. Get regular chiropractic adjustments.

Yes, those recommendations are repeated to the point of inanity. But sometimes the cliches bear repeating.

I’m not a fan of that ad campaign. I am a devoted fan of educating yourself and choosing for yourself.

Check out Dr. Ken’s and Dr. Dan’s take on the flu shot. And visit the National Vaccine Information Center, an informative resource for all-things-vaccine, for an unbiased fact sheet on the flu shot and its risks.

October's Product of the Month!

Posted by: The Balancing Center

O is for October and O’Tropin, our Product of the Month!

O’Tropin is a spray supplement from Orenda. Its plant-based amino acids support the healthy function of the pituitary gland.

As we say in the office, Orenda is like “chiropractic care” for the pituitary gland. Chiropractors treat the spine, which is the master control of the nervous system. And Orenda supports the pituitary gland, which is the master control of your hormones.

O’Tropin features a “liposome delivery system,” which is an advanced system of delivering supplements throughout your body. This system is actually quite common in pharmacology but rare in the natural health industry. It's an effective way for your system to absorb the beneficial amino acids featured in this spray.

Healthy hormones mean healthy growth, stable blood pressure, and so much more. We can all use a little support in life, and this is why we recommend getting a little help from Orenda, our partner in health.

If you want to look and feel young, naturally, then try O’Tropin! Purchasing this spray in the office gives you at $5 discount!

To order O’Tropin, click here and select the “Get Started” icon in the top right corner of the page to shop for it and other Orenda products. If you have any questions, give us a call at (312) 787-7222 or schedule an appointment.

Chiro Q&A - Meditation

Posted by: The Balancing Center

In Chiro Q&A we ask the members of The Balancing Center a question and they answer!

Today’s question: What is your favorite way to meditate?

Dr. Dan: I practice spiritual exercises that focus on projecting my consciousness outward.

Dr. Ken: If I’m going to meditate, I listen to the “Holosync CD.” It has some guided listening that helps you get to sleep.

Dr. James: I do something. I walk, I do the dishes, I like to puff on a cigar, doing something helps me zone out and relax.

Barry: Three meditations I practice are the recordings of Kelly Howell, transcendental meditation, and meditating on the mantra I receive from Amah.

Mary: I meditate through a centering prayer and by practicing tonglen, a Tibetan meditation.

Mark: I like to practice a walking meditation. My second favorite way is to meditate while performing the last half of my yoga routine.

Jen: I like to be myself and I usually meditate in bed before I go to sleep. I’ll practice dynamic tension as I meditate and I can fall asleep right away!

Lindsay: There’s this audio track of shamanic drumming that takes me to cool places. I also like to try to listen to everything and pick up every sound that my ears can detect.

Jackie: I love running while listening to music. I can just be in it with my runner’s high.

There’s more than one way up the mountain! Meditation doesn’t have to just be sitting in silence. If your particular practice helps you quiet your thoughts and get you centered, go for it!

Meet the Docs - Dr. James Tickel

Posted by: The Balancing Center

Dr. James Tickel, one of six children, grew up fighting for his food. We joke in the office about how he still inhales his lunches, as if his four brothers and one sister are hiding around the corner. Dr. Tickel says, "The dinner table was a battlefield."

That big family is rooted in chiropractic: Dr. James’ father, mother, older brother (and his wife), and younger brother (and his wife) are all chiropractors. The late Dr. William Tickel was a foremost chiropractor and philosopher on the practice of chiropractic. You might say that it was inevitable that Dr. James himself become a chiropractor.

But he’ll be the first to tell you that while he was born into chiropractic, it wasn’t until college that he discovered he had a true passion for it. As a young adult, Dr. James disliked school and decided to finish his undergraduate degree as quickly as possible and then his chiropractic degree as quickly as possible. He wanted to figure out, as quickly as possible, if the field was right for him.

While attending Life University’s College of Chiropractic in Atlanta, Dr. James found out that he loved chiropractic, while making some of the best friends of his life. Seven years later, he brings his skill, passion, and healing intuition to The Balancing Center every day.

Did you know that Dr. James was a patient at The Balancing Center before he became an associate? He lived in the city at the time, and would visit Dr. Ken to get adjusted on his commute to his chiropractic office in the suburbs. Now he lives in the suburbs and commutes to the city to work--the one thing that has remained the same is that he still sees Dr. Ken (and Dr. Dan) for his weekly chiropractic adjustments!

Dr. James and his wife, a psychiatrist, plan to open a holistic healing center offering psychiatric resources and chiropractic corrections. We love working with Dr. James and witnessing him grow into an even better chiropractor and healer.

In the meantime, Dr. James and his wife enjoy a variety of eclectic hobbies, including the production of their own wine! Dr. James is about ready to bottle wine that has been already aging for a year and the first bottles will be ready to uncork in about six months. They have also imported some grapes from Lodi (a vineyard just south of San Francisco) to begin a new year of zinfandel.

You can ask Dr. James about his wine, and about anything else (since he swears he’s an open book) during your next appointment with him!

Surprise! Allergy Relief

Posted by: Lindsay

One of the wonderful features of chiropractic care is the pleasant surprise. You might come in to ease your back pain and walk out also cured of your migraines. Dr. Dan certainly experienced a number of pleasant surprises after his first chiropractic adjustment. Going in for back pain, he was shocked to discover how his headaches disappeared, his sinuses drained, and his allergies simply went away.

That allergy part sounds great. I’ve had hay fever since I was 8 and learning that chiropractic care can ease my itchy eyes and sneezy nose made me an enthusiastic patient indeed!

How does chiropractic care alleviate seasonal allergies? An aligned spine eases allergies on several different fronts. For one, a subluxation or misalignment in your spine can pinch nerves in your body. Since your brain controls your body through your spine and your nervous system, pinched nerves make it more difficult for your brain to send messages to all the parts of your body. Certain vertebrae are in charge of controlling your sinuses and if these are out of alignment, they cannot control and regulate your sinuses correctly.

If your sinuses are not functioning correctly, they might overreact when certain irritants invade your nose and eyes. Allergies (watery or dry eyes, runny or stuffy noses) are the body’s overreaction to irritants like pollen and ragweed.

So a spinal adjustment that decreases the pressure on your nerves can increase the functioning of your nervous system so your brain can properly tell your sinuses, “Calm down! It’ll be okay!”

And speaking of calming down, an aligned spine means your body is just under less stress. Less pressure on the nerves means better communication throughout the body and if everything can connect without interference or struggle, everything can flow with ease. Your body is better able to respond and react to stress, handling new pressures or changes with grace.

This isn’t to say that chiropractic care doesn’t help your back pain because it definitely can and does! But sometimes people don’t realize or know about the other wonderful, unexpected results you can experience because of a straightened spine.

This allergy season, you might give chiropractic care a try. And maybe you’ll come in for allergy relief and walk out with more energy than you’ve had in years. Visit our office and discover some pleasant surprises!