Wearing a backpack for multiple hours a day can lead to shoulder and back pain. Choosing the right backpack, purse, or shoulder bag can help to limit the back pain you experience in adulthood and old age. Not all backpacks are created equal, but many of them can be adjusted or worn differently to help keep your spine in the proper position. 

1- Buy The Right Size Backpack

Choosing a backpack that is the right size for your body will help limit back pain. Your backpack or your child’s backpack should never go 4 inches below your waistline. A true-to-size backpack will also evenly distribute the weight of items evenly depending on your height and weight. 

2- Don’t Overload Your Bag

Many people like to stuff multiple books into their backpacks and carry water bottles, pencil pouches, lunch boxes, and more. Overloading the bag will weigh it down and make the weight sit lower on your back. This can lead to neck pain and back pain. 

It is recommended that the contents of the backpack and the backpack itself be no more than 10% of the student’s body weight. Lighten the load by switching to digital versions of textbooks and having them all on one lightweight tablet. Avoid carrying a water bottle in one of the outside pockets and instead, carry it in your hands, or fill it up when you get to your location. Utilize lockers, cars, or another storage facility on campus to alleviate carrying all your items to each class. 

3- Pay Attention To How You Pick Up Your Bag

Many backpack wearers may not think much about how they lift their backpacks or how bending down to pick them up can impact their spine. Bending and lifting your back can cause inflammation or bulging discs in the future. You want to pick your backpack straight up and lift it with your legs.

4- Don’t Wear It With Just One Strap

By wearing a heavy backpack with just one strap, you disrupt the weight distribution and alter your posture. Choosing a backpack that looks good off the shoulder may make you feel cool, but down the road, you could be cursing yourself for your neck or back pain. Wearing a heavy load on just one shoulder can be painful, especially if your backpack straps are not wide enough or don’t have proper padding. Limit divots in your shoulders, neck pain, and lower back pain by wearing your backpack the way it was meant to be worn.

5- Consider A Backpack With Wheels

If you have to carry a heavy load, or you can’t find a well-fitting backpack for your child, consider choosing a backpack with wheels. Not only will this take the weight off your back and shoulders, but it may allow you to carry more. Wheel backpacks have come a long way, and you may be able to double them as a carry-on when traveling. 

6- Wear It High And Tight Against Your Back

Choosing a backpack that fits is only half the battle. Once you have found one with two-inch straps, a possible chest clip, and one that fits the size of your body, you need to wear it in the proper place. Backpacks should be worn high on your back (remember the bottom should hit no lower than your waistline) and should sit snuggly against your spine. Wearing your bag low and loose will lead to back pain, bad posture, and other health problems. 

Limit Back Pain With Health And Wellness Clinic

For adults, teens, or children that are experiencing back pain, Health And Wellness Clinic can provide relief. No matter the cause of your back pain, we have chiropractors who can help realign your spine and reduce inflammation.

Chiropractic treatment can be helpful in other areas of your life as well. Chiropractic can help improve posture, limit migraines, reduce the risk of surgery, and more. Our team at Health And Wellness Clinic wants to help you live your life pain-free. Gaining more motion, limiting pain, and giving you better posture will boost your physical health. Choosing a backpack that helps prevent back pain can be a good place to start, but other genetic dispositions may make back pain inevitable. 
Visit our office or fill out our contact form to learn if chiropractic with our office is right for you. We will answer any questions you have in a timely manner.

Cold water therapy or cold water immersion has been practiced in ancient civilizations for decades, but it is now emerging into modern medicine. While it has faced scrutiny from many scientists, studies have shown that the body’s natural healing process is heightened when cold immersion is integrated into your routine. Many wellness retreats, sports enthusiasts, and those looking for remission from chronic health conditions have found relief from cold water immersion. Below are just some of the benefits of cold water, ice baths, and cryotherapy. 

What Is Cold Exposure?

Any type of exposure to the cold or immersion in cold water is considered a form of cold therapy. It comes in a variety of forms such as ice baths, cold showers, cryotherapy, frozen lake swims, and polar plunges. 

Willing our bodies to be exposed to the stress of the cold helps us to better regulate our nervous system and in turn have a better reaction to stress. Managing stress is important for physical and mental health as it can lead to detrimental physical health problems. 

The body’s reaction to stress is similar to how it reacts to extreme cold. This looks like an elevated heart rate, feelings of panic, body contractions, or shallow breathing. Learning to relax and cope with these symptoms will help your body know how to handle them when in a high-stress situation. 

What Is Cryotherapy?

Cold therapy has been used to help aid in recovery, treat muscle spasms, and slow the aging process. The process of cryotherapy can help fight inflammation and improve your energy levels after injury or during serious illness. Cryotherapy is non-invasive and pain-free for patients who experience pain or tense muscles. 

Cryotherapy is also effective in limiting tissue breakdown, improving metabolism, faster recovery times, and more by just quickly cooling the skin and body’s internal temperature. Below is more about the individual benefits you can get from cold water immersion or cryotherapy. 

Improve Blood Circulation

Good blood circulation is a key indicator of health in a person. Proper blood flow allows you to have a healthy heart, and high energy, limit headaches and lower your risk for high blood pressure. Enhancing cardiovascular health can be accomplished by cold water therapy because blood is pumped to the vital organs to keep them warm. Once your body learns to self-regulate, you will increase your blood flow during daily life. 

Help Aid In Weight Loss

Cold water therapy can lead to brown fat cells and a hormone release of Irisin and FGF in your body which help to burn fat tissues and lead to weight loss. Some instances of cold water can lead to shivering which is your body’s way of producing heat and burning calories. Muscle contraction can help aid in the start of weight loss. 

Lessen Muscle Aches And Fatigue

Because cryotherapy and cold water immersion help limit inflammation, it also helps reduce muscle aches and fatigue. Cold water causes blood vessels to constrict and helps reduce swelling. This is a benefit that athletes utilize quite frequently to help enhance muscle recovery. Those who utilize ice baths or other forms of cold water immersion report less muscle soreness after exercising. 

Boost Immune System

This benefit should come as no shock considering all the other benefits we have discussed. Your immune system relies on a lot of elements to stay on top of its game. Cold exposure can help the body fight infections, which directly attack your immune system. Bacterial infections usually lead to inflammatory responses, which is where cold therapy can help limit the number of symptoms you experience. 

Increase Range Of Motion

Athletes use cold water immersion to help muscles and limit the discomfort their bodies can feel. This helps you to gain better motion and flexibility because your body is able to move with ease. Cryotherapy can help reduce the risk of injury and help people reach new physical milestones. 

Better flexibility can help improve your posture, limit back pain, and stand taller. So improving motion has multiple benefits all wrapped into one. 

Cryotherapy With Health And Wellness

Health And Wellness Clinic offers chiropractic care and cryotherapy for our patients. For those who want to avoid surgery and prescription medication, our noninvasive techniques are the best option. We have over 25 years of combined experience and can serve both our English and Spanish-speaking patients. 
Our clinic looks forward to serving new patients and building a healthier community. Visit our office to get started on a pain-free road today!

Seasonal allergies, food allergies, or allergic reactions to other substances can be frustrating and often life-threatening. Some patients may not think of chiropractic care and allergies together. Limiting the number of allergies you experience, helping the reactions to be less severe, or limiting symptoms can all be helped by chiropractic care. Working with a professional chiropractor can help your body heal naturally. Working with a chiropractor can prevent hospitalization or the need for multiple medications to manage your allergies. Below are some more benefits and information about chiropractic care and allergies. 

What Causes Allergies

Our immune systems see lots of different pathogens, bacteria, and other substances. One of the main jobs of your immune system is to remove anything that is harmful to your body. It does this by causing you to sneeze, cough, vomit, cry or teary eyes, or have other allergic reactions. Allergies are not caused necessarily by the substance itself, but by how your body interprets its threat. 

1- Strengthen Immune System

The biggest benefit of seeing any doctor, chiropractor, or healer is to help you feel better and improve your full body wellness. Taking action to improve your health is the biggest reason to seek treatment for diseases, injuries, or allergies. Chiropractic care has been used to help improve your immune system for many years. Aligning your spine helps to improve the communication of your nervous system which will help improve wellness. 

Even if chiropractic care doesn’t “cure” your allergies, helping you feel better overall will help you better manage your allergies when they flare up. 

2- Help Regulate Cortisol Levels

Cortisol is a hormone in your body that helps fight histamines that come with allergy season. This hormone comes from the adrenal gland and relies on your spine and brain being aligned properly. When the gland and brain can not communicate, the production of the hormone is out of balance. 

3- Limit Shortness Of Breath

Another common allergy or limitation is asthma. Those with asthma may also experience seasonal allergies on top of their limited breath. Chiropractic care can help improve the space your lungs have to expand which can limit asthma attacks. Treating allergies with chiropractic care can help you feel more balanced and help the symptoms become less frequent. 

Improving respiratory function can help with other seasonal allergies from pollen, grass, or even pet hair. When your body communicates well, it can help manage the allergens that may enter your body.

4- Relieve Excessive Stress

Excessive stress can cause multiple physical manifestations in the body, such as being sick or mimicking other severe health issues like heart palpitations. Limiting stress in your life can help keep your wellness up and improve how your body does react to certain viruses and pathogens. While your body will always do what it thinks is best to remove harmful substances, chiropractic care can help your spine, nervous system, joints, brain, and muscles all communicate effectively. 

The process of massage and spinal decompression can help limit stress that is put on your discs and joints. Limiting all kinds of stress on the body will help you feel better while exercising or just going about your day. Chiropractic care and allergies both work with inflammation in the body and proper chiropractic can limit tension. 

Chiropractic Care And Allergies With Health And Wellness Clinic

Chiropractics’ main goal is to help reopen blocked pathways and limit pain. Chiropractic care and allergies can go hand in hand in helping you deal with sickness and allergy symptoms. Pathways between the brain and spine need to be able to flow and communicate to keep your body as healthy as possible. 
Health And Wellness Clinic wants to help patients of all ages feel better.

Working with Utah residents is our passion and have strived to make our clinic a safe and inviting place. We treat allergies, headaches, whiplash, back pain, and other joint conditions. No matter what pain you experience or even if you are not experiencing pain, our team can help.