Everything in the body is connected to some degree. Some of those connections make huge functional changes in the body, others don’t. There is a huge functional relationship between your feet and your hips and low back. For some of you reading this your hip pain can be managed through all kinds of different modalilites but ultimately caused by your feet.

Think of your feet like the foundation for your spine and body.

When you alter your arches your foundation changes. Just like your house, if your foundation is off the rest of the house will be off. This can cause greater stress on the house. The biomechanics in your foot and lower extremity are extremely sensitive and small changes can mean big compensation at the other end of the leg. This means if your big toe moves in, called hallux valgus, just slightly changing foot biomechanics, it can cause stress in the low back, hip pain and low back pain because of how the whole leg has to now compensate.

Fallen arches

Fallen arches is the most common condition I have seen altering lower extremity function. You have three arches in your foot anterior, medial and lateral. Think of your arches like shocks on your car. Your body takes on more wear and tear from activity if your shocks are not working right. Your arches are also directly related to things like balance and athletic performance.

The bad news is that when your arches begin to fall you cannot really get them back. A main cause of fallen arches is poor footwear/shoes. So, it is important to know if they are fallen and how much they have fallen. The good news is that you can support your arches and maintain what you have. You can do this through custom orthotics, chiropractic care and kinesio tape.

Foot subluxation

As your arches drop the bones in your foot move out of alignment causing the nervous system to malfunction. In chiropractic we call bones out of place causing nervous system dysfunction, subluxation. The reason why this is important is that when we have subluxation around a joint the muscles around the joint become inhibited, so they cannot do their job.

In the case of the foot many of the hip and pelvic stabilizer muscles stop working when the foot subluxates. This means that when you are working out, training, or doing hard work half of your core stabilizers are not working. This can lead to overt gross trauma like throwing your back out or microtrauma causing low grade muscle pain.

A Chiropractor is the only person trained to assess and adjust a subluxation.

Solutions

First would be to stop abusing your feet. Like many things, correction of the symptom is a waste of time if you continue to abuse the problem.

• Make sure your shoes are the right fit for your feet
• Limit use of high heels
• Any other activity you do to provoke fallen arches

For long term management a combination of therapies would be best:

• Chiropractic: for assessment and adjustment of subluxation
• Kinesio Tape: for stabilizing of the ankle and foot to support the soft tissue
• Rehab: to retrain the muscles in the ankle to support the body
• Custom orthotics: to manage fallen arches
• Massage: therapeutic massage can help release fascia in foot and ankle

If you have low back pain or lower extremity problems, you need to get your feet checked out. At DuChene Natural Health Center we use Applied Kinesiology and muscle testing to test your muscles for activation and subluxation. We also use a computerized scan of your feet along with a navicular drop test to test for fallen arches. If you have low back pain or extremity problems contact us now.

I have helped many people with all kinds of headaches. This allergy, lymphatic, migraine connection was an observation I made by working on people with very severe headaches or migraine headaches. Basically finding out why they were having these headaches. The good part is if you have these headaches you can find fast relief by making very simple changes.

What is this?

Most people will have the same presentation for these headaches. It starts in the upper neck and feels like it shoots either through the skull or through the face. The pain can be very intense and I usually find that it is dull and diffuse in nature. Many time you will find the neck very sore or sharp to the touch if you massage your neck.

Cause of these types

The pain that you feel for these types of headaches comes from lymphatic congestion inside of the upper cervical spine. This is why when feeling the soft tissue in the neck it is very tender to even sharp when touching the muscles.

Why is the lymphatic congestion there?

I see two major reasons for this.

First is allergies.

You could be allergic to something you eat, drink, breathe or in contact with. So, the list is pretty much limitless. Many of these people find that they have certain food triggers for there headaches like milk or wheat products.

Second is digestive problems.

This can be anywhere from the stomach on down. I have also found that the degree of problem does not change presentation much. This could also represent the inability to digest carbohydrates or fats. This can be a little harder to nail down.

Lymphatic system

Your lymphatic system carries a fluid called lymph through the body. The channels are very superficial and pumped by pressure on the channels. When flow stagnates and slows down the fluid begins to gel, harden and become painful either on palpation or if severe enough cause pain in general. There are other common pain patterns that I will post for on this blog.

What can I do for them

Allergy lymphatic migraine headaches

First, if you know your trigger then just stay away. If you are allergic to something then you are allergic to it. It really does not matter how much you eat. So, no cheating unless you enjoy your head pain.

Second, if you suspect you have allergies then just cut the food out. I have had many conversations with people who suspected they were allergic but were just waiting for permission to cut it out of the diet. By cutting it out of the diet you should notice headaches decrease in frequency and intensity.

Third, get checked out by someone who can help you with allergies and lymphatics. Many people work with allergies. The best case would be working with someone who already knows how to look for the connection between lymphatics, allergies and headaches that way you don’t have to ask them to check for something they don’t know how to check. Best case scenario would be a Chiropractor who knows Applied Kinesiology.

Digestive lymphatic migraine headaches

First, i would find a natural health provider that can meet your needs for digestive health. You can find relief with a Naturopath, Acupuncturist, or Chiropractor.

This can be a little hard to work with on your own. The good news is that I found a supplement that really works for a lot of people and it even has a money back guarantee.

Iaso Tea

This herbal tea has worked really well for many people with digestive problems and I have seen it work for people who have these types of headaches. If you want to take this it would be recommended that you check with your doctor before trying it to make sure it is right for you.

How can I get help?

At DuChene Natural Health Center I use Applied Kinesiology and muscle testing to find out why people have the health concerns they have. I have found this to be extremely valuable and part of the reason why I people come to me when all other methods fail.

I provide fee consults for those who take their health seriously and want to see if we can help them. If you take your health seriously and looking for some real change contact us today to schedule a consult.

There are many sources for low back pain

Being a good doctor I look for many causes for your low back pain. I have seen referral pain from digestive distress, muscle spasm causing pain, your “hot” low back or low back disc problems. But, one cause of low back pain that many providers either don’t know about or don’t know what to do with is low back pain from your thoughts and emotions or in other words caused by stress.

Thoughts and emotions

Your nervous system controls every aspect of your health and the mind can alter our experience in the matter of seconds. When you experience some form of stress it changes how your body functions. One major area that is changed is muscle function. When under stress it can shut down your core muscle groups or stabilizing muscle groups which increase your chance for injury. This can happen to any and all muscle groups so these problems are not only limited to spine and low back.

How would I know if that is my kind of problem?

Many clients find me because other methods have not really worked for them. So, when I see someone who has been adjusted by many chiropractors with a combined experience level much greater than mine, I need to think different. I need to do something that they are not doing, to look where they are not looking. So, how would I suspect that this is the case?

Here are several ways for you to know if you might have this going on.

• Traditional chiropractic and massage therapy does not work for you.

First, I go off the assumption that the person working with you knows what they are doing until proven otherwise. There are good ones and there are bad ones just like anything else in life.

We learn in school that stress is a cause for subluxation or misalignment of your spine causing nervous system dysfunction. If the underlying stress causing the misalignment then the subluxation will come back not too long after you get adjusted. So, I look for recurrent issues that should be better with treatment or for things that don’t add up. Many times the muscle guarding you see comes from the body trying to protect the low back.

•  What were you thinking when your back went out on you?

Many times when faced with a stressful problem we dwell on it. If your back went out on you by picking up a pillow on the ground or something similar, chances are it was what you were thinking about that caused your back to seize up not the pillow, unless that pillow was made from concrete.

Very simple, just ask yourself what was I thinking when my issue started and the issue could be anything not just pain. Traditional treatment can still help you feel better but, if you are looking for full resolution or you want to get to the cause then the stress must be dealt with.

What are my options?

I would like to note here that many manual therapies can release emotions in the body by the work that they do. But, sometimes just bodywork alone will not resolve the stress completely.

 Chiropractic

Just because traditional chiropractic might not be helping does not mean that chiropractic cannot help. There are several chiropractic techniques that could be extremely valuable. Seeking out chiropractors who do these techniques can help. Also these are not the only techniques

BEST Bio-Energetic Synchronization Technique

BEST is a powerful technique that balances the energies of the body and clears emotions and thought patterns. It also advocates the use of alkalizing therapies and proactive lifestyle changes to regain your health.

NET Neuro Emotional Technique

NET is a technique using the spine and acupuncture to find the imbalances created by the negative thought patterns or emotions. This is a great technique to find hidden stress in your life.

NSA Network Spinal Analysis

The principle in NSA is very different than other techniques and that is why I love this technique. While most techniques weed out the bad, the focus of NSA is on expanding the good. This can be a very relaxing and energizing technique to experience.

EFT Emotional Freedom Techniques and similar

Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT uses acupressure points to balance the energies of the body creating harmony. This technique can be learned and you can do this at home. EFT is very portable and you can use this to overcome many different types of stress and emotions that you may experience. Many people find relief with this technique especially for those who experience pain.

These techniques can be found at DuChene Natural Health Center as well as other centers that could be close to you. Please look these up and if you think this information applies to you then contact someone to see if you can be helped by these techniques.

Sources of headaches

There is most likely more than one source to your headache

The number one reason why I see success where I do is because I understand one simple principle. There is most likely more than one cause for your problem. I have seen many tough headache problems and all of them had several complicating factors causing the problem.

Migraine or non migraine headaches

From my experience many people are self diagnosed as having migraine headaches. Migraine is used as a synonym for a really bad headache. And I agree migraine headaches are really really bad headaches but not all bad headaches are migraine.

A migraine headache has a prodrome or initiating neurological signs for example seeing flashing lights. They will also  have a sensitivity to sound and to light. I have also seen this sensitivity to sound and light from people suffering with brain inflammation.

Common sources of bad headaches uncommonly checked

neck trigger points

SCM

the SCM is a muscle in the side of the neck. It runs from where your collar bone starts to the bone behind your ear. From what I have seen this is the number one missed cause or contributor to almost any type of headache.

SCM pain pattern

These headaches are over the eye, behind the eye or in a big arc over the ear. You can have these on both sides at the same time and you can have variations of these pain patterns. The most common cause of this is poor posture.

lymphatic congestion

Your lymphatics are channels through the body that move a liquid called lymph. You may be familiar with your lymph nodes and notice they are sore and tender when you have an infection or cold. So, part of their function can be immune in nature. When your lymphatic system slows down the lymph begins to solidify and can cause referral pain

lymphatic congestion pain pattern

The referral pain pattern would start at the upper portion of the neck and usually feels like it shoots through your head many times to the opposite side. Causes of lymphatic congestion here would be things like allergies or digestive problems.

Hypoglycemia

Think of hypoglycemia as jumping up and down of your blood sugar. Hypoglycemia is also responsible for irritability if you have not eaten for a long period of time and many times these people wake up often in the middle of the night.

Your brain is very sensitive to blood sugar problems. So the dysfunctions and pain patterns can be all over the place. The one thing that is consistent is what relieves it. With these types of headaches usually eating something will relieve these types of headaches.

Many times these headaches can be the hardest to overcome because it requires a lifestyle change. Part of that is eating food on a regular basis and those who have an on the go lifestyle have the biggest challenge with that.

Resources for resolution

Trigger points and posture

Any massage therapist should be able to help you with the trigger points causing headaches. If you want resolution of the cause of these headaches you will need massage, rehab/exercise and chiropractic. That is usually the best course of care for bad posture.

Lymphatic congestion, allergies, digestive problems

If your headaches are from things you are allergic to then stop eating them. I know many people who refuse to stop eating things they are allergic to because they like them too much. Lymphatic massage can relieve the pain from lymphatic referral but, for long term resolution finding the allergy or fixing the digestive problem is the best bet. I have never used lymphatic drainage for this so I don’t know if that would work. The Iaso tea product is one that we have used very successfully for most digestive complaints.

Hypoglycemia, blood sugar problems

Eating on a frequent basis and eating foods that nourish your body will help with light forms of hypoglycemia. If you do this and get slight results then having the support of a nutritionist, naturopath or chiropractor that works with nutrition could get you the results you want.

I can help

These are a couple of the common things I see in my clinic for hard to fix headache problems. By no means is this the whole list. But, these are the main couple that show up the most often. I am in the Dallas area and work hands on with these types of cases as well as consult over the phone.

EFT has the potential of being the most powerful thing you could learn for your health. You can eliminate pain right now. You can have better digestion now. You can feel better now. If you choose.

Each person responds differently based upon what they want to achieve and how they were taught to use EFT. This training will give you the inner workings of EFT. I call this inner working method the Introspective EFT™ process.

Introspective EFT™ process

Using this process you will be able to figure out the core issue behind what you are tapping on. This makes the tapping more effective and more efficient. The results will be bigger, more sweeping,last longer and take significantly less time to tap.

If you are willing to learn and willing to make changes then this class is for you.

What are we going to cover?

Triggers

These elicit a subconscious reaction. Learn how to find them and use them to find things you did not know were there.

Core issues

The main thing that is going on behind your symptoms. This is what most people who do EFT want to find but are not really taught how to get to them.

Subconscious reaction

This is the pre programing that you acquired as early as in the womb. These programs account for many hidden drives and actions that you take.

EFT

The process of using Acupuncture points to balance the energy of the body eliminating emotional stress and anything that it is causing.

Introspective EFT™ process

The process of going beyond the surface emotions and problems to target core issues and learn about yourself.

Introspective EFT™ walk through

My focus of any class that I do is to make sure you can do what I am teaching. For those who want to participate, we will be walking you through the Introspective EFT™ process. This part of the program will tie it all together for you.

28th of April at DuChene Natural Health Center

Starting at: 10:00 ending around 5:00

Cost: 65$ if paid before 25th 100$ at the door

Seating limited to first 10 people

Contact Dr. DuChene at (254) 214 – 2354 or

Email drjoseph@duchenenaturalhealth.com to register

 For those not in the Dallas area and still wanting a class Dr. DuChene can come to you for a class. Please contact him about setting up a class.

Each Chiropractor that you talk to will have a different reason for telling you what the best position to sleep in is. I developed this line of thinking in Chiropractic College by asking questions and observing why people do what they do.

Sleeping position

I do not think that there is a perfect sleeping position that everyone should have. What I found is that your optimal sleeping position is one that provides your spine the support it needs. I have seen this for both the upper cervical spine and the low back.

If you sleep in a position that causes compromise of your back or neck. It will cause pain signals and wake you up in the middle of the night.

If you sleep in a position that supports your back or neck you will sleep better.

Sacro Occipital Technique: SOT Chiropractic

While in Chiropractic College I learned SOT and found it to be extremely powerful. I started using this as a great way to offer a low force adjustment to the low back and pelvis. I have seen results with this technique where other low back adjustments did not do much.

While studying this technique I had a client make a comment to me about his sleeping pattern. I noticed that his sleeping pattern matched his subluxation pattern or misalignment pattern. From there I started asking all patients who had low back, si pain or pelvic pain what position they slept in and all of them avoided a position that provoked the low back misalignment.

Upper cervical spine

This is a very vital portion of the spine. An adjustment at any part of the spine can affect the entire body. But, there is a stronger effect in the upper cervical spine than other parts of the spine.

People who sleep from this pattern could find support of the neck by sleeping on their side. You may find that your pillow has to be just right so that you can relax and go to sleep.

I have found that getting adjusted and having a good cervical support pillow makes all the difference.

SOT Low back category system

In SOT they describe three different subluxations or misalignments of the low back and pelvis. To answer the above question two of these categories are very important. For the most part you will settle into one of these categories and that could be your pattern because you grew into that category.

Each category has certain characteristics that will cause you to sleep the way that you sleep.

SOT Category 3

This is a misalignment in the low back that causes pain and tightness in the low back. This subluxation pattern is aggravated by laying on your back and relieved by laying face down.

What I found is that many of these people either will not sleep on their back or quickly move from sleeping on their back. These people will most commonly sleep on their side or face down.

SOT Category 2

This is a misalignment in the low back that causes pain and tightness in the pelvis and si joints. This subluxation pattern is aggravated by laying on face down and relieved by laying on your back.

What I found is that many of these people sleeping face down will aggravate their misalignment. These people will most commonly sleep on their side or on their back.

There is no perfect sleep position. There is only your perfect sleep position.

I have come across many people who have had no or small results doing EFT the way it is taught. I see confusion on what to say, when to say it and the just plane basics of EFT. I want to change this because EFT can work for everyone. It can help you overcome emotions that are having an impact on your physiology.

Two main things that you need to know:

1. The problem and the manifestation are usually separate

2. There is no magic phrase, emotions are different per person

The manifestation and the problem are separate.

Using an analogy: When having a heart attack many people have pain down their left arm.  The problem is in the heart and the manifestation is in the left arm. So, no matter how much we do for te left arm we will not fix the problem.

Many people who do EFT are working on the manifestation and not the problem. They are working on the weight problem, pain, addiction or whatever and not looking at the core issue or cause of the problem.

There is no problem with tapping on the manifestation. You can get some symptomatic relief by tapping on the manifestation. The problem is that for some people there is no distinction between the manifestation and the core issue or problem.

There is no magic phrase, emotions are different per person

At seminars or online in forums you will get people who share the success they had by doing the EFT process. The next thing you normally see is someone asking “what did you say for weight loss or whatever else the result is?” There is no magic phrase to lose weight, get rid of pain or manifest success and money. But, EFT can help you lose wight, get rid of pain and manifest success and money.

There is a reason, core issue, why the problem, weight loss, pain, is there. That core issue is different from person to person. EFT worked for that person to begin with because they either hit the core issue while doing the process or got close enough to it. There is a technique in EFT called borrowing benefits and yes, you can get a benefit by tapping on someone else’s core issues but, the result will most likely be different.

Introspective EFT

Introspective EFT is a tapping process that I put together to give you a road map on how to find your core issues making EFT significantly more effective. It can take minutes to do EFT if you do it on the right thing at the right time. Find can find one of our Introspective EFT classes in the Dallas area or you can contact us to set one up in your town.

This program is for those who have experience in muscle testing and those who have no training. I find that our approach to learning this skill has helped people of all experience levels. Muscle testing can be a very useful tool so come and learn how to do it right.

Muscle testing is used for many different reasons. I use this as a Chiropractor to find associated symptoms and what is causing them. I am teaching this to everyone so that you can bring this amazing communication method home and apply this to your skills.

Some things we will go over

• One point muscle testing
• Two point muscle testing
• Basic allergy testing (food, airborne/environmental, contact, EMF)
• Energy nutrition testing for supplements,  homeopathics, essential oils, herbs, or any other product
• Neuro/biochemical nutrition testing
• Two muscle groups
• Self muscle testing
• What makes up a good muscle test
• Common problems that decrease reliability of muscle testing
• What to use muscle testing for
• How the body works
• How to bring emotions into muscle testing for techniques like EFT

This is a 3 hour workshop with hands on.

I am having two classes on the 31st. I choose to do this to be flexible in the schedule. Both classes cover the same material. I have the first from 9-12 and the second class from 1-4. Pick the class that best fits your schedule.

Feel free to bring things you think you are allergic to muscle test.

Cost: $65 if registered and paid on/before the 28th, $100 at the door

IMPORTANT: We only have 10 spots open for each class.

To register email DrJoe@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com  or call (254) 214-2354

Far too many people still believe that Chiropractic care isn’t necessary unless they’re suffering excruciating headache or low back pain. The millions who do receive regular adjustments and have a natural, healthy lifestyle know that Chiropractic can resolve their back pain, and more may also be learning about the potential non-musculoskeletal benefits.

According to a recent study featured in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, nearly one in four Chiropractic patients experience some form of improvement otherthan less back pain or fewer headaches.

Here are the most common improvements.

Chiro Offers More

SOURCE: http://www.cascadewellnessclinic.com/benefits.html, quoting from the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics.