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Dr. Tony: Well, hello everybody. Dr. Tony with the Essentials of Life Chiropractic. I'm here with Mathew Tropsha. We both just got off stage speaking at the ChiroLIFE Conference and it was absolutely amazing. This guy is incredible. I can't wait to share him with all of you because he is actually going to be joining our team this week. He's going to have a very special role, it's called new patient specialist. He's going to be helping people take that next step into care in our office. You want to say a couple words to everybody? Mathew Tropsha: Yes. As stoked as you are, I'm even more stoked because I'm going to be part of the best clinic on planet Earth, Essentials of Life Chiropractic. I cannot wait to help make your experience even more awesome, and I'm looking forward to getting started!

In the last couple weeks, we talked about the structure of the spine and pelvis, and the nervous system that travels through the spine and pelvis, ultimately controlling all the healing and function of your body. This week, we get to talk about the role of chiropractic in all that. In this office, chiropractic comes down to two basic things. The first one is keeping all the bones in the spine and pelvis properly aligned. With proper alignment, you can structurally withstand the physical stresses that your body encounters every day. Also, proper alignment keeps these nerve pathways nice and clear, meaning that your brain is able to communicate as fully as possible with all parts of your body to direct the healing and function of that body. Now, the really cool thing is we also have a scanner here that can measure how clear that nervous system is or where there is interference so that it can help direct our adjustments in the proper way, and we can take the best care possible with every single person here at this office. Be Well -Dr. Tony

Now that you know about spine and pelvis, the nervous system and chiropractic, let's learn ways to help make sure that you can maintain proper alignment in your spine. So, the first thing is good posture. So, let's do this while you're seated, a lot of us have seated jobs, so let's make sure we do this properly. When you have a seat, make sure your feet are flat on the ground, 90 degree angle from your knees here, 90 degree angle at your hips. When you're here at a desk, make sure this is at 90 degrees as well. You should never be like this, should never be like this. So, make sure your monitor is right in front of you. Now, if you find yourself doing this over time, which a lot of us do, let's go through a quick stretch that you can do either right here at your desk, you could do it against the wall, or in your car, to help make sure that you keep those muscles working in the right direction that you need them to. So, let's do the chin tuck stretch. So, you can use your finger or not, but make sure to bring your head horizontally back so your ears are over your shoulders. Hold this for a good 20 to 30 seconds, and release. Now, do that three times throughout the day, and that'll help make sure that those muscles in the front are starting to contract as they should, and to stretch these out in the back as well. That's all I got for you today. We'll see you soon. Be Well -Dr. Lisa

Our nervous system is one of the most important systems in our body, and we can tell that by just how much of it is going to be protected and encased in bone of our spine and our pelvis. For a video on that, you should definitely check out doctor [inaudible 00:00:15] from last week. She did a great job describing some of the function and how that's working with and for you. But let's think about your nerves, like your information superhighway between your body and your brain. So it's going to be responsible for receiving the information like touch, and smell, and sound through the nerves and most of them through your spinal cord, up and into your brain. And then your brain then responsible for sending that communication back out into the rest of your organs and your muscles to tell them what to do based on that information. And so each one of these segments of your spine is going to be responsible for relaying different nerves to different areas of your body. And when they're all working well together, your body can function as a whole. And this is not just with our muscles, but it can be with our glands and our body too, and our organs. And so you can feel this function through the stress response in the body. And so if you say you get cut off in your vehicle and you feel your heart rate increase and you feel your hands get a little bit clammy, that's your nervous system helping your organs and your tissues respond to the stress. And so your nervous system is helping your body adapt and work with your environment each and every moment of the day. Be Well -Dr. Daniel

Hi everyone! As kids head back to school and start fall sports, we wanted to share some healthy snack options for after school, before practice, just in between meals. Some options that we love: Fresh fruits Veggies MadeGood granola bites SkinnyPop popcorn Beef sticks Protein shakes Cheese and crackers We always say that the closer to the earth, the better. So things like those fruits and veggies, unprocessed snacks, anything that you can find that your kiddo loves, that's going to give them a good source of that protein. Fats and carbs are great. Good luck to everyone as you head back to school and as you get started with those new fall schedules. -Dr. Lucy

It is back to school time, everybody. And so we are working on helping all of these kids not only stay healthy, but keep all of that knowledge absorbing into the brain here. And so one of the most important parts of that, and a lot of you parents are already doing things with this or have been working on this, is taking care of a good sleep schedule and good sleep hygiene. Having good sleep is going to be one of the most important pieces in the puzzle of taking that information from short-term to long-term memory. So taking advantage of all of that that we're doing at school. But also making sure that our body and our brains recover so that we don't have such a short fuse the next day. And so one of the easiest ways to do this, and I promise you it will make a difference tonight if you put it into play, is helping to control the light in your environment, in the space of either your bedroom or the time when we're working on getting calmed down and getting ready for bed. So that's going to be your screens, that's going to be the overhead lighting, that's going to be any light that's coming in from outside. If we can control the light and how much of it is hitting the eyes, and especially what type with those devices, that is going to make a big difference for your child's sleep schedule throughout the start of the school year and through the whole thing. If you have any questions, contact our office. -Dr. Daniel

Whether you're a weekend warrior or you're an athlete, one of the best ways to make sure that you're getting the most out of your body is to be training, is to be pushing yourself. But one of the things that we don't talk enough about is making sure that your recovery is really, really efficient. Chiropractic is one of the best ways to not only help out with those aches and pains and strains that come up through your training and through your sport, but then also to make sure that we are getting deep into our rest, letting our bodies recover and bounce back for the next day and come back for more, better, stronger, and making all that training and effort pay off in the long run. Contact our office if you have any questions.

Hey everyone, back to school time again, and it's time for your annual backpack check. So I'm going to give you three tips for backpack safety. So number one is make sure to get the right backpack size for your child. So if you have a kindergartner, they're going to have a smaller backpack. If you have a college student, they're going to be a little bigger, similar to this or even bigger. Also, make sure that they have nice padding on the side and making sure that it's not going to go flat after a couple weeks, and nice padding right here on the back as well. Number two is that we want to make sure that the backpack when you're wearing it is not at the very most 15% of your body weight. How to figure that out? Get on the scale, weigh yourself and check out what 15% of that is, and whatever's in the backpack should be more than that weight, so make sure to test that out throughout the school year. Another thing too with that, if you have heavy items like a laptop, make sure to put it closest to the back, not in these pockets on the outside. And then lastly, number three, is how to not wear a backpack, one shoulder. I know it looks cool, but it's not cool for your body. So let's make sure, you show your child how you're supposed to wear it, two straps and make sure you tighten them up. Now, we don't want the backpack to sink down past the butt because then it's just going to drag her down. So we want it up and supported, we want it right at that hip level. And that's all the tips I have for you. Have a great school year!

Talking with Dr. Tony and his wife, Ashley, about 15 years of chiropractic care in the Andover community. Dr. Tony: This week, we are celebrating 15 amazing years of serving this wonderful community, and a lot of people have been asking where it all started. Ashley: Well, in August of 2009, Dr. Tony and I started Essentials of Life Chiropractic in a strip mall down Hanson Boulevard, across from the YMCA. We had 1,300 square feet, three adjusting rooms, a doctor's office, a scan room, and a very small lobby with a corner with kids' toys for them to play in. And we were there in that space for six years. Dr. Tony: And then in October 2015, we were blessed to move into this wonderful space down on Bunker Lake Boulevard. It's almost four times the size of that original office. We have eight adjusting rooms, three scan rooms, a dedicated workshop room,. And as you can see behind us, an amazing chiro kids castle. That was actually the first thing we designed in this entire space. Ashley: Yeah. We just want to take this time to say thank you to everyone in this community, everyone who has been a part of this mission and the vision, our staff, our current staff, anyone who's ever been here working for us, all of our patients, they're so amazing. We just look forward every week to seeing you and your families walk through the doors, and to all of our community partners that just help us bring health and wellness to this community, and to help the families here. Reach out to our team if you would like to join our community here at ELC! -Dr. Tony and Ashley

So I was asked a really good question at the office actually a couple of times this week, and the question is, when is the best time to stretch ? Now, the best time to stretch for the short answer is after your workout . Yes, it's good to get a good warm up at the beginning of your workout, but you don't have to go full on stretching then. The best time to do stretching is after your workout. So whether it's a sport or gardening, which is something I do a lot during the summer, it's best to stretch afterwards. Now, dependent on what you do, obviously the stretch is going to be different. So make sure to ask one of our docs here at the office which stretches are going to be best for you, dependent on what you do during the summer. Contact our office if you have any questions. -Dr. Lisa

One question we get from a lot of parents and athletes is, "What's a more natural alternative to Gatorades, Powerades, things like that?" Which is a great question because those things have a ton of artificial colors, flavors, tons of sugars, sweeteners in them, and our bodies just do not need that stuff. So a healthy alternative, a natural alternative to those things is actually Coconut Water . It has only one ingredient, coconut. It's got a lot of electrolytes in it. It has some vitamins in it. Actually some antioxidants in it as well. It's a great way to stay hydrated for games, for practices, for workouts, especially in the summer months too. So don't forget Coconut Water, a fantastic natural alternative to Gatorade and Powerade. -Dr. Tony

We all know how important sleep can be to the recoverability of our body and our overall health and wellness. And that's actually one of the most common questions that I get, other than I have this specific pain in my body, what should I do about it? And the answer is not so dissimilar. Adjusting and chiropractic care can really help improve not only the quality of your sleep , helping you wake up feeling more rested, but then also in turn help the recoverability of your body as a whole and improve your overall health and wellness in the long run. If you have any questions, reach out to our team. -Dr. Daniel