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Dr. Lisa: Hey everyone, Dr. Lisa here from Essentials of Life Chiropractic, and welcome to our insights and inspiration about gratefulness and having gratitude for others. This is Kurt, one of my patients who've been with me for a while, and we're very thankful for patients like Kurt. And then also, if you guys didn't know, he's also an Andover firefighter, so you should all be thanking him for his service. Thank you- Kurt: You're welcome. Dr. Lisa: ... for all that you do. And all of you should be thankful, because he is the one who likes to bring the fire truck every year for our Trunk or Treat. Kurt: Yeah. Dr. Lisa: Yeah. It's fun, all the kids love it. So something that Kurt... Well, tell us, Kurt, why did you start coming in? Tell us a little bit about yourself, why you started coming in and why you continue to keep coming. Kurt: Great. Well, about five years ago or so, I was lifting weights, doing things that I thought were right, and I was not. I did some poor form on a lot of different things, ended up with two bulging discs in my back. It was bad. Went to the doctor, did all the normal things that people do, got the pain pills, got the muscle relaxers, did the therapy. Nothing was helping. So I had a friend suggest Dr. Lisa, say, "Come on in here, check it out." Walked in the door and you took care of me. Dr. Lisa: I did. Kurt: So without her, I wouldn't have been able to, I guess, continue being a firefighter. They were talking about fusing discs in my back, which I think would've probably ended that. Dr. Lisa: You're right. Kurt: Yeah. So ever since, we've been hanging out at least once a week, we were on a plan to keep me healthy. Dr. Lisa: We're on a plan, yeah. Kurt: And I keep bringing everybody else in here that I can. Dr. Lisa: All right. Well, thank you, Kurt for coming in- sharing your story. And stay tuned for more insights and inspirations. Be Well Dr. Lisa

Dr. D: So Dr. D here in the office tonight at ELC. And this month has been all about gratitude here in the office. We have the lovely leaves falling up on that window up there with everything all of our folks are grateful for. And this is Eric. He has been with us since 2019. So clearly he and his family love coming into the office, love the care that we give. And so we'd love to hear from Eric. What do you feel most thankful for that Chiropractic has provided for you and your family? Eric: I'm thankful for the opportunity. Somebody gave me the gift to come in here and to help my mobility with work, in life with my kids, with my family, to be able to get out and stay active and moving in the way I want to. Dr. D: That's awesome. And we loved being able to celebrate you too here at the gala. It's one of the things that we do to celebrate all of our folks that have been in the office and have been with us as long as they have been, including Eric. So it's been such a lovely journey to have you guys in the office. So appreciate you taking the time with us here tonight, Eric. Thank you. Eric: Thank you.

Dr. Tony here with Essentials of life Chiropractic. I wanted to show you a very important stretch that can help correct something called forward head posture along with chiropractic care. So forward head posture is just like the name sounds, the head forward from where it should be. Now this comes from, sometimes this gets the name tech neck, people on phones or tablets or on a computer all day long, and people walk around like this, and the problem isn't just that it looks really bad. The problem is that it's affecting a lot of stuff underneath everything, like the spine, the muscles, tendons, ligaments and, most importantly, the nervous system which travels through the spine and controls all the healing and function of your body and it adds extra stress onto that. In fact, we have a scanner here that can calculate how much extra stress is added to the spine. It's called posture screen mobile. Here's a picture of it right here. And yet what it actually will measure is how much added stress you are putting on your neck and upper back just because of a forward head carriage. The general rule of thumb is for every inch forward, it adds an extra 10 pounds to your neck and shoulders. Now here's the stretch. It's very simple. It's called a chin tuck exercise. You stand against the wall, tuck your chin, hold the head straight back, keep the arms relaxed. One way you'll know you're doing it right is if you see that double chin. You hold this for about 30 seconds. Do it two to three times a day. That's the chin tuck exercise to help correct for forward head posture. Be Well Dr. Tony

It is Dr. D here and we're back with another common stretch that I recommend to a lot of my patients, especially those that spend a lot of time sitting at a desk, working at a computer. Maybe you spend a lot of time driving throughout the day and you got some upper back, neck tension, low, and maybe even across the shoulders. This is a nice easy one that you can either perform with a mattress here, or you can use on an exercise ball. Today I'm going to show you it on the edge of a mattress so that ease of access for the most people here. So one of the most important things as I'm demoing this, I want you to feel like your neck is fully supported at all times. I only really want the very back part of your head to be the thing that is falling off the edge of the mattress. So please don't feel like your neck is really bent during the stretch. So we'll get into it here. You're going to sit on the edge of the bed here so that you can position your head so that we're going off the corner of the mattress. And this is going to be important here in a second. So when we're positioning ourselves, we're going to go ahead and find just the back part of the head again, falling off the edge of the mattress here. And with us now positioned at the corner of the mattress, we can then take our arms and drape them off either side of that mattress and really feel a nice big open stretch through your chest. And we'll be able to relax here for however long feels comfortable. One of the things that folks might tend to notice as they're doing this stretch that I want you to make sure that if you notice this, you can go ahead and stop and we'll pick it up again the next time, is if you do feel like your fingers start to get a little bit tingly, or if you have any sensations change in your arms, please do discontinue this stretch. Chat with your doc about it, that might be a little bit too long or a little bit much for your particular body. So please do this safely, but this is going to be a great stretch for you to employ for your body if you feel like you got a lot of tension that builds up in that upper back, lower neck, at the end of the day, especially from being hunched over doing a lot of the things that we do on our technology. So give that one a try, check in with your docs and let them know what you think. Be Well Dr. Daniel

Hey everyone. This October, we are going to be giving you lots of different spinal tips, mostly stretches and exercises to help you throughout the day. Today, we're going to be talking about the hip flexors. This is going to be really good for any of those who have low back pain, hip pain, really great for athletes, and even those who sit at a desk all day long. Your hip flexor attaches to all of the segments in the low back and then goes through the hips and attaches to your leg. This is a really big muscle, so if there's any imbalance, you might feel that in your back. So again, let's go through a stretch that can help you with this. So first, what you're going to want to do is find a wall, stagger your feet. So this one, the right foot is forward. So what you want to do first is tuck that tailbone under. You might already start to feel it in the front of your left hip. But then next, we're going to bend that right leg, and then bring that left arm up, reach up. And then as long as there's no pain, you can reach over to the opposite side. Now, this is a really great stretch for right in the front of the hip here. Now, make sure to hold 20 to 30 seconds, switch sides, do the same thing on the other side, and then do that two to three times throughout the day. Now, if you're someone who has really tight calves and maybe you feel more in your calf than in your hip, then guess what, you can do this on your knees. So again, tuck, forward, arm up and over. And then obviously, 20 to 30 seconds and switch sides. So hopefully this helps you throughout the day and do this every day, and you'll notice your hips and your low back should be feeling better. Be Well Dr. Lisa

Hey, everyone. Today we're going to go through a stretch that's going to help with low back pain, knee pain, pelvic pain, hip pain, couple different things. So this one is the hamstring. Here it is. So you can see where it's attaching. So you can see where you might have some knee pain, maybe hip pain, pelvic pain, low back pain. So let's do some stretches to help make sure that back can start dissipating over time and to help your body heal faster. So I'm going to show you three different ways to stretch the hamstring. So the first one is the one that I teach most of my patients right away with low back pain. And basically you'll use a step or something that you can put your foot up on. So what you're going to do is put your foot up on wherever it's going to be. You can do this on the floor as well, but you're going to go right there. And then what you're going to do is bend from the hip. So you're not going to bend from the back, you're going to bend from the hip forward and just a little bit where you're going to feel a stretch right in the back of the leg. So you don't have to reach down, touch your toe, it's really just the bend from the hip is all you need. Now all you're going to do is hold this for 20 to 30 seconds, three times throughout the day, and then you're all set. Of course, you're going to want to switch sides so that you are even from side-to-side. So that's one way to stretch it. The other one is if you go onto the floor, you just do like a figure four here. Make sure this leg is straight in front of you. Make sure it's not to the side. Same thing from when you were standing, make sure it's straight in front of you. And then what you're going to do is, again, bend from the hip forward. And you can reach, you don't have to, but just bend forward and you'll feel that stretch in the back of the leg. So that's another way to stretch the hamstring. Another one, and I'm just going to move the camera here, is against the wall. So if you remember that hip flexor stretch I did couple weeks ago, this one's going to go really good hand in hand with that one. So with this one... Let me move that. So if you did the hip flexor stretch, what you're going to do is transfer your weight back, flex that foot in the front, and bend from the hip forward. So with this one, whatever leg is the straight one, the back of the leg is where you're going to feel that. So just make sure your back is nice and straight when you're doing this and you're bending from the hip. And, again, both of those, make sure you do both sides. All right, hope that's helpful. Make sure to do your stretches. We'll see you next time. Be Well Dr. Lisa

If you're having lower back discomfort or pain across the top of the hips or the pelvis, whether it's on one side or both sides, it's very likely that the muscles in the area are not able to help support your spine in the way that they need to. Some of this can be due to restriction of the joint function itself, and some of it is going to be related to just conditioning over time. If you have to spend a lot of time throughout your day seated, or if you spend a lot of time with a loaded spine for whatever reason, the muscles of your lower back need to work in tandem with the other muscles in the area. And so if we're not getting help from those other muscles, your lower back can bear the brunt of that. So I'm going to show you a quick, easy exercise that we can do to help engage those stability muscles and help improve the sharing of the load between your lower back and some of the other muscles that should be helping out. So we're going to lay down here on the table, but you can do this one on the floor. Ideally not on a mattress because it just has a little bit too much cushion or padding in there, so something with a little bit of feedback for your body here. We're going to lay on our back with our knees bent, and our spine here is going to have a little bit of space, a little bit of an arch in the lower back. That's going to be a key thing we're going to want to focus on during this exercise. The first movement here is to flatten your spine and push it into the table here. That's going to cause some rotation of your hips, but what I want you to focus mostly on is your belly button working down towards the floor and feeling your spine press into the floor From here, once the spine is pressed into the floor, we are going to engage and squeeze our glutes, and lift up off the floor about an inch. That's all we need to get that good contraction going. Then we're going to allow that to slowly release out, maintaining the pressure into the floor with my low spine, and then relaxing that pressure from there. That's one full rep. Let's take it through it together here. Belly button towards the floor. Get a little bit of that rock in the pelvis. Now we're going to squeeze those glute muscles, lift about an inch, then relax the glutes, return down, and relax the lower spine. So this is one that you can do daily or regularly to not only help alleviate some symptoms that you are feeling currently, but also help build and work towards your body feeling better stabilized throughout the day and thus having less pain in that lower back. Be Well Dr. Daniel

Well, it's that time of year again. Cold and flu season is right around the corner, and I want to give you five things to keep your immune system nice and strong so you can be prepared for it. Number one, keep your nervous system nice and clear with regular chiropractic adjustments because your nervous system controls your immune system. Number two, be sure to get plenty of sleep every single night. Adults, we need at least seven hours of sleep every night. Kids need at least nine. It's important because sleep is where you immune system repairs. Number three, stay active. Activity stimulates the immune system and continues to circulate blood, which carries oxygen and nutrients, which helps with the immune response in your body. Number four, make sure you drink plenty of water. Keeping the body nice and hydrated will help strengthen the immune system. Number five, consider supplementing with vitamin D, elderberry syrup, and zinc. That's three very powerful supplements that can help strengthen your immune system. So there you go, five ways to strengthen the immune system and get ready for the upcoming cold flu season. Be Well, Dr. Tony

We have had many testimonials over the years from adults and school-aged children alike, telling us that they experience better focus and better mental clarity, and oftentimes they wonder how does that work? Well, here's my explanation for that. Your brain is the master control center of your entire body. It controls not just your thoughts, but also all the healing and function that happens in every cell, muscle, and tissue in your body. And that happens through the nervous system, which is basically your brain, spinal cord, and nerves. So if your nervous system is carrying a lot of extra stress on it, which by the way, these scanners that we have in our office can detect and show us exactly where that is and direct where our adjustments will go, and our adjustments are designed to clear out those neural spinal pathways, when you clear off all the extra stress from the nervous system, it frees up your brain to be able to do things like focus, memory, attention, along with all the other healing and function that has to do in the body. Be Well Dr. Tony

Hey, everyone. Welcome to our top three rules for backpack safety. Now, most of you have already started school or it's your first week, so let's make sure we start the school year right with some backpack safety tips. Number one, making sure you wear wearing both straps. So as my lovely assistant is doing, she's wearing both straps here. Show them what you should not be doing. Yes, that's right, one strap, because what happens? And then you get a little uneven up here, neck pain, shoulder pain. You get it. So number two, now, you might see some kids nowadays... having their bags sagging down past their hips. You don't want that because, again, that's going to hold them down, can hurt their low back, the mid back. So what we want to do is tighten up these straps here so that the backpack is right above the hips here. So make sure to watch that in your child. The next thing is make sure they're not carrying around a whole lot of weight. The rule of thumb is 10% of their body weight. So if your child weighs 100 pounds, no more than 10 pounds. 80 pounds, no more than eight pounds. You get the point. But make sure they're not carrying more than that because it can really irritate their neck, their upper back, their shoulders, and they will feel it by the end of the day. Have a great time with the rest of the school year and we'll see you soon. Be Well, Dr. Lisa

The fall sports season is in full effect here, and at Essentials of Life, we are all about making sure that our families and our young athletes are staying healthy, and in this season, performing their best on the field and staying safe. And so even if you are one of those young athletes or weekend warriors that feels like your body is working pretty well for you, I have a movement screen that can potentially show us where some limitations are hanging out that might lead to some challenges down the road here. So let's get right into it. I have a length of PVC pipe here, but you can definitely use a broomstick, a mop, or anything that you got around the house that you can hold up over your head. So we're going to grab this stick here. I'm going to step back into the room so that you can see me fully here. We're going to hold this stick up over our head here, and we're going to perform an overhead squat. So feet about shoulder width apart, arms staying straight up over our head here, and then we're squatting down until we get to the bottom and coming back up. Now, we're going to be able to see some limitations here if we're tilting one side or the other, if we feel like we're rotating, or if we feel like we're starting to fall forward or not able to get all the way down deep into that squat. So even if, like I said, you are feeling good, you feel like your body is rocking and moving well, if you're not able to perform this comfortably, or if you feel like you're moving funny or losing balance, that can be an indicator of an imbalance that may come back to show up as an injury throughout the season. So this is a great time to come on in, get your movement screen done, get a scan done here in the office, and make sure that not only you can perform your best throughout the season here, but you stay feeling good too. Be Well Dr. Daniel

Hey everyone! If you’ve ever walked through our doors, you’ve probably noticed something right away — we see a lot of babies and kids  here in the office. And if you’re anything like most parents, your first thought might be, “Wait… kids need chiropractic care?” It’s one of the most common questions I get — and honestly, I love answering it. Because once you understand why  we see so many kids, it all makes perfect sense. So today, I want to share what pediatric chiropractic care is really all about, what it looks like (spoiler alert: it’s incredibly gentle), and why more parents are choosing this path for their children — starting from birth. Birth Is a Big Deal (Even a “Perfect” One) Let’s start at the beginning. Literally. Birth — whether vaginal or cesarean — is one of the most physically intense  experiences a baby will ever go through. Think about it: babies are tucked up in a curled position for months, then pushed, pulled, twisted, and squeezed during delivery. Even in a “textbook” birth, their little bodies go through a LOT. Now imagine what happens when birth includes interventions like: Forceps or vacuum extraction Inductions C-sections Long labors or super fast ones Breech positioning All of those things can create stress and tension in the spine and nervous system . And because the nervous system controls everything  (digestion, sleep, muscle tone, immune function), when it’s out of balance, we start to see little signs — like trouble nursing, colic, reflux, sleep struggles, or even just a really fussy baby. That’s where we come in. What Does a Baby Adjustment Even Look Like? This is the part most parents are surprised by — because the word “adjustment” can sound intense if you’ve never seen one done on a baby. But here’s the truth: adjusting a baby is NOTHING like adjusting an adult. There’s no cracking. No popping. No pushing. What we do is more like a gentle pressure — the kind you’d use to check the ripeness of a peach. That’s it. Sometimes we hold a spot for 10–20 seconds, helping release tension. Other times, we use soft stretches or rocking motions. Babies often completely relax, yawn, or even fall asleep  during their adjustments. It’s that calming. And kids? As they grow, the adjustments grow with them. They’re still very gentle, and we always tailor our care based on age, size, and what that child needs. Why Would a Baby or Child Need to Be Adjusted? This is a big one. Just like adults, kids have nervous systems  — and they’re actually developing and growing even faster than ours. That’s why it’s so important to keep things moving well and functioning smoothly. Here are a few common reasons parents bring their children in: Trouble nursing (latch issues, favoring one side, etc.) Reflux or excessive spitting up Torticollis or flat spots on the head Colic or excessive crying Chronic ear infections Constipation Trouble sleeping or settling Developmental delays Sensory challenges And then there are the kids who are doing “fine” — but their parents want to give them the best possible start. I love that. Chiropractic isn’t just about addressing problems — it’s about setting kids up for thriving . Growing Bodies, Growing Nervous Systems From the moment they’re born, kids are constantly moving, growing, and adapting. Think about how often babies are in car seats, learning to crawl, bumping their heads, or taking tumbles while learning to walk. Then they grow into kids who are sitting at desks, carrying backpacks, playing sports, or using screens. All of that creates stress on their little bodies. And because kids are so adaptable, they often don’t feel  that stress the way adults do — but it still affects how their bodies function. When we adjust children regularly, we help: Support proper posture and alignment Enhance immune system function Improve sleep and digestion Support emotional regulation and focus Keep the nervous system calm and balanced It’s like brushing your teeth — a little bit of regular care can prevent bigger issues later. What to Expect If You Bring Your Child In If you’re thinking about bringing your child in, know this: we make it fun. Our office is kid-friendly, with books and toys and space to move around. We take our time, answer your questions, and always make sure both you and your child feel comfortable. You’ll never be rushed. We’ll talk about birth history, milestones, and what’s going on now. And from there, we’ll build a care plan that’s unique to your  child. No pressure. No cookie-cutter routines. Just real support that meets you where you are. Final Thoughts So yes — we see a lot of babies and kids. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. Because childhood is the foundation of health. And when we help kids thrive early on, we give them the tools to stay strong, resilient, and well as they grow. If you’ve been curious about pediatric chiropractic care, or if something in this post made you think, “Hmm, that sounds like my kid,”  — we’re here. Reach out anytime. We’d love to walk this journey with you. Be well,   Dr. Lisa