by sunshine | Sep 28, 2023 | Exercise, Healthy Living, Pain
Today we’re going to go over how you’re supposed to walk. You may not know that you are walking wrong, and you could be making things worse, maybe even increasing your back pain. I’ve been doing a lot of research recently about bio-archaeology. It is about how humans developed and moved away from our ancestors. I love this topic because our spines, in particular, are of great study because they’ve changed so much versus our nearest ancestors, which would be the chimpanzee. Chimpanzees, being our nearest primate relative, have spines that are very, very different from our spines. And it all comes down to this: humans are built to walk. Chimpanzees are built to live in trees. And so what humans have done in the course of our evolution is to change our spines to allow us to walk... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | Jun 21, 2023 | Healthy Living, Pain
I’ve got an incredible story for today’s blog that I wanted to share. I think it’s essential for you, but I need to preface some of the stories with some background information, and today’s background information will bore you to tears. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. It’s me. So tonight’s background information concerns the FDA and the Food and Drug Administration. Have you ever heard those letters before? Then you hear about it in the news occasionally. It seems like everyone has a positive or negative connotation with the FDA these days. First, let’s dive into where it started, why it started, and maybe what it’s become. The U.S. government realized that food items, drinks, drugs, and snake oil-type things were being sold all over the place. And we needed some way to stop that because it was killing people,... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | May 23, 2023 | Healthy Living
Here on our blog, I talk about the everyday things we see in our practice, and many of the videos I do are more about a rabbit hole that I chased down here recently. And this was this is a weird one. Have you guys ever done that and chased down a rabbit hole? Typically, for me, it happens with Netflix. But this time, it occurred to me via reading, so I do a lot of reading. I like to read books, and I came across this one called Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. This is from the late 90s and it is a fascinating read about colonialism. It’s about how different cultures exercise control over other cultures make them into their subjects. It could very well just be called germs and dumb luck because the whole... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | Apr 25, 2023 | Guidance, Healthy Living
You may be wondering why a chiropractor would be writing about kidney stones. Here at Nightlight Chiropractic, we don’t treat kidney stones, but we see a lot of kidney stones here. And we know these kidney stones because back pain is the most common presenting complaint. So a patient comes in, they say, I’ve got some back pain. Can you help me? And then we’ll do an exam. And during that exam, we found some pain in their flank, and we determined that they had kidney stones and we couldn’t help them. And we need to send them off to a medical facility. So the medical facility typically will give you some medication for pain, and they might give you some medication to dilate your urethra so that you can pass this kidney stone. But today, I will talk... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | Mar 26, 2023 | Healthy Living
I am always listening to the news so I can bring you interesting things that are happening in the world of health and wellness. When I heard this piece, I went from a sense of nostalgia, maybe almost to horror within the course of just a couple of different sentences. One of the big stories was about Weight Watchers, and the news was that Weight Watchers has come to the conclusion that they’re going to add medical doctors that members will have access to. Those medical doctors will help to prescribe medications that will potentially help with health. That sounds great right so far, that doesn’t sound bad at all. I love Weight Watchers. I just had a patient the other day that had lost a bunch of weight by going to Weight Watchers. He’s doing great and looking... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | Jan 18, 2023 | Guidance, Healthy Living
Here at NightLight Chiropractic, we are always asking our patients about the types of things they want to learn about in our video and blog series. A while back, you decided on the topic of ADHD and brain exercises that you can do to reduce the symptoms. We’re excited to share some of the research we’ve discovered and to offer some ideas for you! It’s interesting how many people think that if you have ADHD, you have one choice and one choice alone, which is to start taking medications to reduce those symptoms. Truth be told, medications really offer no long-term benefit for ADHD. You take the medication, you feel better for the day. Tomorrow, you’re going to have to take that medication to feel better for the ADHD or to get rid of some of your symptoms. The... Continue Reading
