The Importance of Good Sleep

Good sleep is just as important as exercising regularly or a healthy diet.  It is essential to your overall health and well-being.  Many people do not know that lack of sleep increases the risk of developing chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and type II diabetes.  It can also affect productivity, relationships and accident risk.  Here are a few tips to help increase and improve your sleep:

• Get enough sleep.  Most adults need 8 hours for optimum results.
• Consistency is king.  Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time each night.  Nap only when needed, as too much daytime sleep interferes with night sleep.
• Get physical.  Exercise during the day-but not just before going to sleep.
• Avoid consumption of caffeine, nicotine or alcohol in the late afternoon or evening.  Caffeine and nicotine stimulate the brain and elevate heart rate and blood pressure.  Alcohol causes drowsiness, but fragments your sleep later on.
• Monitor your meals.  Do not go to bed full or hungry.  Heavy digestion competes with quality sleep, but so does hunger.  Eat dinner several hours before bedtime and snack lightly if hungry at bedtime.  A balanced diet is best.
• Give your mind a break.  Relax an hour before bedtime with prayer or meditation, a bath or a good book.  Making a "to do" list for the following day can also help clear your mind before sleep.
• Create a comfortable sleeping environment by limiting the amount of light in the room, eliminating or masking noise, and maintaining a temperature of about 65 degrees.
• Sleep on your back or side, not on your stomach.  Stomach sleeping places more stress on your neck and lower back.

What is the Gonstead Difference?

The Gonstead System of Chiropractic is know as the Gold Standard within the chiropractic profession.  It is unique because it is thorough, precise and specific in both analyzing and adjusting the spine.  The Gonstead Technique focuses on the structural relationship of the spine and nervous system with its overall effect on health.  It underscores that a specific approach toward correcting spinal conditions will produce long-lasting and often permanent results that last well beyond the recommended treatment plan.  Gonstead practitioners address the entire spine when evaluating for the presence of a structural misalignment pattern (vertebral subluxation) which causes ill health. 

The Gonstead chiropractor conducts a thorough analysis of your spine using five criteria to detect the presence of the vertebral subluxation complex.
1. Instrumentation: The instrument of choice in the Gonstead System is the Nervoscope.  The Nervoscope detects uneven distributions of heat along the spine which can be indicative of infammation and nerve pressure.  This instrument is guided down the length of your back and feels like two fingers gliding down each side of your spine.
2. Static Palpation: This is simply the process of feeling (or palpating) your spine in a stationary (or static) position.  The Gonstead practitioner will feel for the presence of swelling (or edema), tenderness and any abnormal texture or tightness in the muscles and other tissues of your back.
3. Motion Palpation: This process involves feeling the spine while moving and bending it at various angles.  This enables the doctor to determine how easily or difficult each segment in your spine moves in different directions. 
4. X-ray Analysis: X-ray films enable the doctor to visualize the entire structure of your spine.  This is helpful in evaluating for any disease processes, fracture, posture, joint and disc integrity and vertebral misalignments.
5. Visualization: Visualization is a way to cross reference all the other findings.  Gonstead practitioners look for subtle changes in your posture and movement which could indicate any problems.

After a complete analysis, the Gonstead practitioner is ready to deliver any necessary adjustments.  The focus of the Gonstead adjustment is to be as specific, precise and accurate as possible, addressing only the problem areas (areas of subluxation).  Great care is taken to ensure a mechanically correct position and precise thrust to provide the most accurate and painless adjustment possible.  It is the goal of a Gonstead doctor to restore and maintain optimal health by locating and correcting any interference to the nervous system cause by structural misalignment patterns (vertebral subluxations).

For more information, visit our website at www.valleychiroassoc.com.