by Dr. Merrill | Aug 18, 2021 | Uncategorized
The kids are going back to school, and here at Nightlight Chiropractic, we want to take YOU to Back School! The term “Back School” has been around since the mid-’70s. A doctor in Sweden found that if he took physical laborers and taught them how their backs worked and what it was supposed to look like when they’re doing their jobs, they experienced fewer injuries and disabilities. It worked out so well that it was copied again in Canada and then in California. Now, you can find some version of Back School in a lot of different businesses as a tool to prevent injury to employees. Today, we’re going to distill it down into the basic concepts so you can keep your own back healthy. Basic Anatomy Let’s start out with basic anatomy. The spine is 33 movable units... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | Jul 20, 2021 | Uncategorized
Here at Nightlight Chiropractic, I’m always looking for ideas for you to keep you healthy, to keep you at the top of your game. One of the most common complaints we get here at our downtown Orlando chiropractic office is tennis elbow. Whether you’re gardening, golfing, wrapping presents, or lifting weights, if you’re getting elbow pain, I know what it is. And I’m going to show you how to fix it without ever stepping foot in any medical office, including mine. What is Tennis Elbow? First of all, really important, what you’re getting when you’re getting pain along the outside part of your elbow when you’re using scissors or doing some other kind of manual work, is almost inevitably tennis elbow, otherwise known as lateral epicondylitis. But when people think tennis elbow, they think, well, I don’t play tennis.... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | Jun 14, 2021 | Uncategorized
Holiday parties, spring renewal, bikini season, there are so many reasons and motivations to get in shape and look great. Every new season brings a new wave of motivation in hitting those goals that seem to always get away from us each year. Sometimes our patients decide to join a gym and give it everything they have. While exercising can be greatly beneficial towards one’s health as it combats harmful illnesses and can help improve our overall quality of life, are you ready to exercise? Let’s go over why it is important to be ready as well as testing if you are ready to tackle the gym. While we applaud your motivation for the gym and we only want to hear of success, it can be very easy to hurt yourself when starting back up at the gym. A... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | May 12, 2021 | Uncategorized
You’re going to have some stress in your life — we all do, and it’s unavoidable. Here at Nightlight Chiropractic, I often speak with my patients about how they can improve their health by managing that stress, even if you can’t control the source of it. Let’s talk about stress, how it’s affecting you, what maybe you’re not understanding or thinking about it, and then what are we going to do to try and combat this issue and take care of it. How Stress Impacts Your Health We have to start today’s conversation with a basic premise and that premise is this: stress, when it’s too much for too long, severely impacts your health in a variety of different ways. There’s a list I put together here: headaches, muscle pain, insomnia, frequent viral infections, hypertension, obesity, acne, psoriasis, alopecia,... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | Apr 9, 2021 | Uncategorized
It’s time to talk about a question that I get all the time. I get this question so often; in fact, I almost feel like there should have been a class when I was going through chiropractic school to help me to answer this question! I’ve had to do a lot of study through the years to give patients the answers that they’re looking for to this question: “Which pillow am I supposed to use, Dr. Merrill? How am I supposed to navigate this pillow stratosphere? I can get pillows in all these different places, all these different claims about what a good pillow is and what a good pillow isn’t. I need to know once and for all what the best pillow is.” SLEEPING POSTURE FIRST We are here to help you to figure out which pillow is... Continue Reading
by Dr. Merrill | Mar 24, 2021 | Uncategorized
One question that we get all the time here at Nightlight Chiropractic is: Is it ok to crack my back or neck myself? We’re talking about adjusting yourself. Self-manipulation is what it’s called in the chiropractic literature. It’s when you use your own body, or your own hands, or something else to make your own joints crack, and move, and adjust. Get to Know Your Spine We’ve talked before about what the spine looks like and how it’s shaped. Basically, each spinal segment is connected to the next with two joints in the back. Those joints function very similarly to your knuckles. They’re a joint space. They’re surrounded by synovial fluid. They pressurize. You can crack that. Then you expand it just a little bit so that the joint depressurizes. That’s what you’re doing when you self-adjust, or self-manipulate,... Continue Reading
