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!

September's Product of the Month!

Posted by: The Balancing Center

And we’re back to school after a (hopefully) relaxing and (oddly) mild summer break. Today is the first day back for Chicago Public Schools. Besides new supplies and new teachers, school means new exposure to more people and more stress. The last thing any student or parent needs is a compromised immune system, especially when this time of year can be so exciting!

To support your immune system and the immune system of your child, The Balancing Center recommends the supplement Immune (fittingly named) by our trusted partner-in-health, Orenda. You might have heard us mention it before and we’ll continue to mention it because we have seen so many experience so many benefits from it!

Immune boasts a signature formula of “immune response ingredients.” They are designed to boost the process of “glucuronidation,” which describes how certain naturally occurring chemicals and acids in the body detoxify your cells and your system. Some toxins are easily stored and stuck in fat; Immune helps to make those toxins water soluble and thus easier to flush from your body. In general, Immune supports your body’s innate ability to balance its varied and complex systems.

A little help can go a long way. Combined with regular chiropractic adjustments, more exercise, healthy foods, and less stress, a supplement like Immune can support you and your system during the excitement and hubbub of a new school year.

This is why The Balancing Center has chosen Immune to be the Product of the Month for September! Purchase a bottle of Immune at the office and receive a $5 discount on this wonderful supplement.

Our stock usually flies off the shelf so remember that you can also purchase Immune online and have it shipped directly to your home! Click here and select the “Get Started” icon in the top right corner of the page to shop for Immune and other Orenda products. If you have any questions, give us a call at (312) 787-7222 or schedule an appointment.

Destress and detox for the new school year!

Going Green!

Posted by: The Balancing Center

We are honored and ever grateful to have hundreds of patients visit our office and receive our care. Those hundreds of patients mean we also have hundreds of files and thousands of sheaves of paper stored in our office. Beyond providing wonderful chiropractic and therapeutic care, what better way to honor our valued patients than to help reduce our paper impact on the environment?

On September 1, 2013, The Balancing Center plans to do just that: we’re switching to an electronic medical record system called ChiroTouch and ditching those outdated paper files. We’re going green to better serve our patients and our world.

Our new electronic records system means faster and easier service. Patients can choose to be reminded of their appointments via convenient emails. We can track treatment and care plans with greater efficiency and that means we can take even better care of our patients.

Over the next month we’ll be shifting from paper to PC and we ask that you pardon our administrative “dust” as we establish the foundations of our new system. Now is the perfect time to update your information, sign-up for those email reminders, and smile for the picture we’d like to take to include in your new, electronic file.

If you have any questions, give us a call or, even better, schedule an appointment and address them with us when you’re in the office. We are constantly striving to serve you better and look forward to seeing you soon!

The "Kneed" for Alignment

Posted by: Lindsay

The other day as I was finishing up my run, I heard someone call out from behind me, “Hey, a little tip!” A fellow runner catches up to me and points to my right leg. “I’m a PT and I noticed you run with your foot turned out. You should pull your foot in or you could damage your knee.”

I replied that I had been told this before and shrugged, since I tried my best to keep my foot straight (apparently to no avail) and I didn’t know what else to do. She ran one way, and I ran the other, wondering how long before I did that damage to my knee.

Fast forward a couple of weeks. Dr. Dan is teaching me some Foundational Movement Practices, having me “twist and turn” and feel the connection between my hip bones and my legs. I’m twisting and turning in my seat and then he has me twisting and turning as I walk.

“Like the models on the catwalks,” says Dr. Dan. We have a laugh about how more people need to walk like models.

The next day on my run, I decided to “twist and turn” as I jogged down the sidewalk. Why not, after all? This practice is designed to help me move better, so why not see how it does that?

Not even a minute into my new, FMP-powered run, I noticed that my foot was landing straight. I stopped twisting and turning from the hip and tried to see if my foot turned out again and sure enough, it reverted back to what it was doing before. I started twisting and turning again and felt the alignment from my foot to my hip. I must have looked like a gangly crazy person, hopping and jumping down the street.

But then I noticed how much easier it was to run, how much power I felt I suddenly had. My feet would hit the ground and almost sink into it a little bit and then rebound up as if propelled. I felt like  runner. (A big deal for someone who vehemently despised running for almost all of her life.) Two words that capture this experience: more leverage.

The Foundational Movement Practices get you (and got me) more connected. The different parts of your body can work together the way they should, with and not against gravity, in fluid and dynamic tension, in order to give you more power.

And after just one short lesson, I was running correctly, with gravity, with more power. I won’t have to worry about damaging my knee. Instead of needing therapy to exercise, exercise is now my therapy.

Since then, I’ve been hoping to find that PT who initially called out to me. Just to say, “Look! Look what I’ve learned!” And then to recommend she send her clients over to see if some of our care might help them in the same way.