Archive for April, 2010
Where Your Health is Concerned, It All Adds Up
Apr 28th
There is just no getting around it, if you want to get healthy and stay healthy, you must commit to a healthy lifestyle. Though it may not seem like it, every little thing you do each day from eating a banana to walking around the block makes a big difference in helping you to maintain your overall health and longevity potential. And, in just the same way, every little thing you don’t do makes a big difference as well. In fact, according to a new study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the cumulative impact of smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, and excess alcohol consumption can add up to increased risk of death. Or to put it another way, these four bad habits can shorten your life by as much as 12 years. Not to mention, of course, the low quality of life enjoyment you’ll experience right up until “the end” prematurely comes along! In fact, the study authors say that, when compared to a healthy lifestyle that includes none of the above (or excludes all of the above), the combined effect of all four behaviors tripled or even quadrupled the risk of death.
So, yet another wake up for you procrastinators out there. The bad habits you eliminate and the good habits you develop will tip the scales significantly in your favor. Don’t put healthy changes off one more day. A healthy lifestyle can profoundly affect your chances of living to a happy old age.Social Media Marketing, Your Clinic, and You
Apr 27th
The “hottest” buzz word on the internet today is Social Media. For those of you who would like to delve into Social Media marketing as an adjunct to your overall chiropractic internet marketing strategy, but aren’t quite sure what all the buzz is about, let’s take a minute to talk about the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” of social media and you, that’s “Who.”
Social media marketing may seem familiar in some ways to other chiropractic marketing strategies you’ve considered in the past, but still unfamiliar at the same time. In the “familiar” category, you wouldn’t consider any kind of marketing plan without making an effort to understand what it is and what you want to get from it. It’s important to ask yourself, “What are my goals?” Once you know what you want, it’ll be easier for you to use social media to your biggest advantage.
When you are ready to begin your social media endeavor, but before you start, it will be highly important for you to make certain that you “own your name” on all the social media outlets, that is to say, make sure that your name or the name of your clinic is attainable so that you can use precisely same name on every one of the social channels you want to use. There is a service that is free and will help you with your search when you’re ready. Knowem.com is the who to go to. Knowem.com will check where your name is and/or if it’s available or not on a substantial number of social media sites.
When you have secured all of your social media accounts, the next step is to make a decision as to where you ought to be active. Initially only a limited number of social media sites is preferable because, let’s face it, you have a clinic to run and patients to see. You won’t want to get involved in too many social media sites. How do decide which sites are best for you? The big ones (where most of the action is) are facebook, twitter, linkedin, and Youtube.
What your social media activity mission should be is to build a real presence in your community. What is definitely ill-advised is for you to try to “sell” on your social media sites, which is to say don’t sell your clinic, don’t sell services or products, don’t sell anything! The benefit of social media is for you to go out and network with the community. By all means, inform them about what you do, but do it by becoming a participant. There is truly no difference between the way social networking works and the way you normally network offline. People on social media sites don’t want to be sold to, plain and simply. Social media sites are very much like a neighborhood backyard barbecue. People are standing around talking about who they are and what they do, and then someone asks you what you do. Or, perhaps you begin the conversation by simply stating, “Hi, I’m Dr. ____. The same kind of interaction applies with social media. Social media sites should be handled the same way you’d “work” offline networking opportunities to promote yourself, i.e., answer the questions and concerns that let people know who you are and gets them interested in the who that’s you!
Cincinnati Chiropractor Advises: Get Your Balance Checked to Avoid Work Injuries
Apr 22nd
At my Cincinnati Chiropractic Clinic I treat a lot of elders who are challenged by balance problems. In fact, nine percent of adults, aged 65 and older, are affected by dizziness, “wooziness,” and other balance-related problems. Good balance is crucial, of course, in aiding older adults to stay independent and to avoid falling down and incurring injuries that are commonly very serious or even fatal. But, would you be surprised to hear that falls are the cause of a large portion of work injuries for individuals under 65 years of age, including individuals in their twenties and thirties? That’s right! Balance challenges can occur at any age. In fact, those who work in “high places” like construction workers, roofers, oil platform employees, windows cleaners, or any other place where a ladder is required are in danger of serious injury if their balance is “off.”
The essential action of good balance is to aid us in managing and maintaining our body position, whether standing still or moving, and whether on the ground or high up on a platform. Good balance aids us in walking without faltering, arising from a sitting position without swaying, and in climbing stairs without missing a step. To sum it up, then, good balance is vital to our health and well-being.
What come as a surprise to you is that you could have a balance dysfunction without realizing how significant it may be. On occasion an individual may be able to “shake off” a dizzy sensation and the feeling may not reoccur for a while. However when unexpected dizziness occurs at a critical time, it is too late to shake it off and a fall is most likely unpreventable.
The sensation by some individuals that they, themselves, are spinning or that objects around them are moving is called “vertigo.” Nearly forty percent of individuals in the U.S. will have at least one experience of dizziness that is serious enough to seek out help from a health professional, like your Chiropractor at Cincinnati Chiropractic. But, if you work at any of the jobs listed above, having a chiropractor check your balance before an episode of dizziness, make adjustments if needed, and then aid you in maintaining good balance, may save you from serious injury or worse.
Balance disorders are dangerous at any age. It is crucial for you to be examined and treated without delay if you think that you may have a possible balance disorder. Often guidelines are helpful. Therefore, if you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, even if the experience is seldom or infrequent, you should discuss the symptom(s) with a chiropractor as soon as possible:
• Have you experienced a feeling of being “unsteady?”
• Has the room seemed to spin around you?
• Has there ever a time when you felt as if you were moving when you knew you were standing still?
• Have you lost your balance and/or fallen down?
• Have you ever felt as if you were falling?
• Has your vision ever become “blurred?”
• Have you ever felt disoriented, or lost a sense of time, place or identity?
As discussed above, balance problems are not confined to a particular age group. From the time we learn to walk until we take our final step, our falling down is possible. If you work in a job that makes your falling down a “critical” event, you need to have your balance checked. Don’t wait until it’s too late! If you’re in the Cincinnati area, give Cincinnati Chiropractic a call today!