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630-513-7770
3755 E. Main St., Suite 185, St. Charles
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Follow These Tips for Raking Leaves
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The leaves have fallen (a little later this year), but before you reach for your rake, consider the possible consequences: upper or lower-back strain, neck strain and pain in the shoulders.
Just as playing football or golf can injure your body, the twisting, turning, bending, and reaching of mowing and raking can also cause injury if your body is not prepared. Like an athlete, if you leap into something without warming up or knowing how to do it, the chances of injury are greater.
Dr. Hertz offers these tips to help prevent the needless pain yard work may cause:
- Do stretching exercises, without bouncing, for 10 to 15 minutes spread over the course of your work. Do knee-to-chest pulls, trunk rotations, and side bends with hands above your head and fingers locked. Take a short walk to stimulate circulation. When finished with the yard work, repeat the stretching exercises.
- Stand as straight as possible, and keep your head up as you rake or mow.
- Wear supportive shoes. Good foot and arch support can stop some of the strain from affecting your back.
- When raking, use a "scissors" stance: right foot forward and left foot back for a few minutes, then reverse, putting your left foot forward and right foot back.
- Bend at the knees, not the waist, as you pick up piles of leaves or grass from the grass catcher. Make the piles small to decrease the possibility of back strain.
- When mowing, use your whole bodyweight to push the mower, rather than just your arms and back.
- If your mower has a pull cord, don't twist at the waist or yank the cord. Instead, bend at the knees and pull in one smooth motion.
- Drink lots of water.
- To avoid blisters, try wearing gloves. If you have asthma or allergies, wear a mask.
- Try ergonomic tools, too. They're engineered to protect you when used properly.
- If you do feel soreness or stiffness in your back, use ice to soothe the discomfort. If there's no improvement in two or three days, visit Dr. Hertz.
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Does Your Child Suffer from Chronic Ear Infections? Chiropractic May Help
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 Ear problems can be excruciatingly painful, especially in children. With 10 million new cases every year, ear infections (otitis media) are the most common illness affecting babies and young children and the number one reason for visits to the pediatrician-accounting for more than 35 percent of all pediatric visits.
Almost half of all children will have at least one middle ear infection before they're a year old, and two-thirds of them will have had at least one such infection by age 3. The symptoms can include ear pain, fever, and irritability. Otitis media can be either bacterial or viral in origin, and frequently results from another illness such as a cold. For many children, it can become a chronic problem, requiring treatment year after year, and putting the child at risk of permanent hearing damage and associated speech and developmental problems.
Standard treatment for most cases of otitis media is with antibiotics, which can be effective if the culprit is bacterial (antibiotics, of course, do nothing to fight off viruses). But, according to many research studies, antibiotics are often not much more effective than the body's own immune system. And repeated doses of antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant bacteria that scoff at the drugs, while leaving the child screaming in pain.
Read the rest of the article here.
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Back Pain is the Single Leading Cause
of Disability Worldwide
|  Although chiropractors care for more than just back pain, many patients visit chiropractors looking for relief from this pervasive condition. In fact, 31 million Americans experience low-back pain at any given time. Here are some facts about back pain.  - Low back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, according to a Global Burden of Disease study.
- One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.
- Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work. In fact, back pain is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor's office, outnumbered only by upper-respiratory infections.
- Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic-meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.
- Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on back pain-and that's just for the more easily identified costs.
- Experts estimate that as many as 80% of the population will experience a back problem at some time in our lives.
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| Chiropractic Helps Keep Soldiers Fit for Duty |
An article on the official U.S. Army website credited the chiropractic clinic at Fort Rucker, Ala. for helping soldiers heal from injuries and discomforts sustained during their "everyday" work week. The base's chiropractic clinic attends to more than 200 active duty personnel a week, and prides itself on delivering timely and effective care. Fort Rucker is the primary flight training base for army aviation and is home to the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence.
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| Chiropractic Research |
A growing list of research studies and reviews demonstrate that the services
 provided by chiropractic physicians are both safe and effective. Following are excerpts and summaries from a few of the more recent studies. The evidence strongly supports the natural, whole-body and cost-effective approach of chiropractic care for a variety of conditions:
"Reduced odds of surgery were observed for...those whose first provider was a chiropractor. 42.7% of workers [with back injuries] who first saw a surgeon had surgery, in contrast to only 1.5% of those who saw a chiropractor." - Spine
"Acute and chronic chiropractic patients experienced better outcomes in pain, functional disability, and patient satisfaction; and important differences in pain and disability improvement for chronic patients." - Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics
"In a controlled trial, 183 patients with neck pain were randomly allocated to spinal mobilization, physiotherapy, or general practitioner care (counseling, education and drugs) in a 52-week study. The {results} showed that manual therapy resulted in faster recovery than physiotherapy and general practitioner care. Moreover, total costs of the manual therapy-treated patients were about one-third of the costs of physiotherapy or general practitioner care." - British Medical Journal
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Dr. Jacob M. Hertz
is a Cum Laude graduate of the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Following graduation, Dr. Hertz practiced as an Associate Chiropractor in Peoria and for four years successfully treated over 5,000 patients and their families with many different health conditions. He moved to St. Charles in 2010 to open his own practice.
He has been involved with chiropractic almost since he was born -- he was adjusted as an infant by his uncle, a chiropractor in Wisconsin where Dr. Hertz grew up. Dr. Hertz uses a number of gentle and safe chiropractic techniques for adjusting the spine including Diversified, Activator, and Drop Table. He is also Nationally Board Certified in Physiotherapy and uses exercise and rehabilitation to help patients heal faster and reach optimum health. St. Charles Pain & Wellness Center also offers nutritional aids for those who seek to supplement their diet and improve their health, which have proved successful in preventing unnecessary surgeries for many patients. |
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