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Commitment is a sensitive subject for many: whether it be committing to a relationship, a job, or a new life experience, we all struggle, falter and succeed at different points in our life. However, one thing that is always worth the commitment, no matter the sacrifice, is the health of your body and mind. It’s not cliche to say this because far too few of us actually take this commitment seriously; as we get older, and we let our levels of activity fall off while we sit more than ever, the process of degeneration begins. While nutrition, mental health and other considerations such as injury or a degenerative condition all play a part, something we should never forsake is exercise, because it is a factor that is within our control.

When it comes to exercise, commitment is more important than intensity. While some people treat the gym as a kind of church, not everyone is born with the drive to dedicate hours out of their week to the gym. If you are one of these people, there is no problem, but you still need to be getting regular exercise to keep the excess pounds off, keep the pain at bay, keep your mind clear and to preserve the longevity of your one and only body. At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we believe in the power of the individual and we want to help you starting now! We help by:

Helping you develop a personal health strategy: If you are struggling with where to start, give our office a call. We can help you determine exactly what you want to reap from a fitness plan including a lower, healthier weight, a more balanced spine, a stronger more stable core and more conditioned muscles. 

Starting slow: let us help you recover lost range of motion and get you back to doing the basic calisthenics that every body is capable of. Chiropractic adjustment alleviates pressure from nerves allowing you to focus on working out pain free. 

Keeping you accountable: we are your biggest fans, but we also want to see you go forth and prosper with your health. Let us help you establish health and well-being as top priorities in your life today by calling our office to schedule an appointment. 

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C. 

Lower back pain is epidemic and on the rise in America for so many reasons: more jobs than ever require days spent deskbound with poor posture, book-ended by a commute and followed by hours spent sitting in unsupportive furniture watching television for relaxation. In short, we are sitting more than ever and setting ourselves up for failure, and the one entity suffering the most might be our lower backs. 

The lumbar region is home to a network of nerves which diverge from the spinal cord at this point and influence a variety of functions including the mechanics of hip and knee movement. The five vertebrae which make up the lumbar are the largest bones in the spine and for good reason because they bear the weight of the body and absorb the shocks and stress of daily life. 

Our ignorance and helplessness regarding lower back pain means that it is now one of the most common complaints at the doctor and is responsible for significant portions of lost productivity in the workplace. At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we believe that this whole faulty system begins with a lack of education and we are here to help.

• For someone starting with the advantage of a healthy lumbar, we help with prevention: muscle strengthening, attention to posture and proper body mechanics are the keys to keeping your lower back pain-free into old age. 
• For people with chronic lower back pain, we can help pinpoint the cause and being the rehabilitation process. Whether you need a chiropractic adjustment, a massage to improve circulation, or help learning corrective exercise, we are here for you. 

Your lower back is one of the unsung heroes in your body. Few people learn to appreciate their lower back until it starts causing them trouble. If chronic low back pain is a mainstay in your life, call our office today so we can start you on the way to healing today. 

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C. 

Breakfast is your best friend, whether you like it or not. Studies show that people stay alive longer, with less depression and likelihood for developing certain diseases when they have a morning munch. The logic is plain: it is called breakfast because you are breaking the fast from the night before. Just like your brain needs clean proteins and certain minerals before bed to sleep restfully, it also needs nutrients to make the transition from night to day, and to help you function productively with low levels of stress. An ideal breakfast should be balanced nutrition-wise and should be consumed within 2 hours of waking; this means that the coffee/croissant/cigarette diet may need to go if you want to start feeling your best. 

Breakfast benefits:

• Weight management. Fasting through breakfast leads you to crave more calories later in the day and thus you eat more when you are exerting yourself the least, leading to a realistic outcome of weight gain. 
• Satiate body’s energy needs. The brain may be able to get by with a coffee, but this leaves your body at a deficit. Every cell in your body needs to be nourished in order to make you feel your most productive. 
• Cognitive function. Likewise your brain needs consistent nutrition to function with low stress. The brain is a muscle and breakfast fortifies glucose levels in the body, allowing the brain to perform its essential functions, such as memory, more effectively.

Finally, eating breakfast is linked to living longer. When changing your morning meal habits, focus on quality and consistency. Think of your nutrition and state of mind as running fluid, parallel courses; just as you don’t want your mood or state of mind to be fluctuating through peaks and valleys, so you want your nutrition to be consistent, delivering the right amount of nutrients throughout the day. If you need someone to hold you accountable for achieving any health plan, give our office a call. We can help you start feeling great today.

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C.  

If consuming less calories is on your to-do list this fall, go about it in the smartest way possible. As with the cookie jar syndrome, what we can’t have we will inevitably crave and this means a greater likelihood for breaking any diet. In essence, we want to cut the calories but not the joy and satisfaction that we reap from a good meal. This is a difficult proposition: our diets are usually determined by myriad factors besides just the calories on the plate. Your mood, level of activity, and

• Eat breakfast: people who eat breakfast every day are found lower on the BMI scale and consume less calories per day than those who skip breakfast. This is because you will feel less hungry throughout the day and therefore you won’t seek out extra calories later that day to compensate. 
• Slow down: Mowing through food before your body even has the chance to process what is happening? This is a good way to eat more than you need to. Discipline yourself to fully chew each bite before moving on and enjoy the food. Chances are you will feel full faster and not need a second helping. 
• Use soup and salad as “ruffage.” These are not empty calories: the nutritional benefit that comes along with most soup and salad makes these calories valuable. The fact that they make you feel a little more full is just an added bonus. 
• Drink water: working on the same principle as above, but with zero calories. Water is important for regulating many functions in the body, but it also helps us feel just slightly fuller. 
• Smaller plates: I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, but portion control is important. Humans eat, on average, 93% of what is in front of them. 
• Finally, utilize protein. And it does not need to come with the excess fat. Eating lean proteins that are derived from beans, lean meats and low-fat dairy products can be a tasty way to get the protein your muscles need without the extra fat. 

Nutrition is one of the two most important elements of a successful weight plan. For people concerned with the longevity of your spine (your chiropractor included) maintaining a healthy weight is one of the best things you can do. 

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C. 

Stretching that increases both flexibility and strength is a win-win. Modern lifestyles seem to be about optimization: the streamlining of social lives into cell-phone applications, the search engine optimization and analytics of an internet driven culture, and workplace productivity pitting humans vs. machines. In this crazy world of efficiency, it almost makes the most sense to apply this notion to our health. Stretching has long been considered to be key in any plan that seeks to prevent injury and to preserve the longevity of muscles, joints and structures of the body. Resistance stretching is a relatively newer region of health that is taking the Olympic athletic world by storm.

Resistance stretching is a matter of optimization: by stretching you are increasing flexibility and by adding resistance, whether assisted by equipment or simply using your muscles, you are also strengthening. There are specific movements that can be done with little cost besides time, from your living room.

Stretches that also strengthen include: 

• Resisted neck twists
• Resisted hip flexion 
• Partner-resisted chest and upper back stretches
• Partner-resisted hamstring stretches

The minute-to-value ratio has never been so stacked in your favor: make all those minutes in front of the Netflix screen work for you instead of against you by devoting a few minutes during the show to serious stretching. At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we want you to take your health into your hands; we help you do this by providing you with the knowledge and demonstration of practical stretches that will preserve your flexibility and strength and boost your overall well-being. 

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C. 

Most injuries that cause back pain and stiffness are not forever. At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we know that there is no written-in-stone method for a successful recovery from a back injury; each injury is unique and will require its own formula integrating physical therapy, nutrition and exercise. However, when it comes to rehabbing a specific injury, there are things to be avoided in order to give yourself the best chance of success. Bed-rest is therefore not your friend; one thing that most injuries share in common is reacting well to regular activity. For all but the most severe back injuries, we try to get you moving with low-impact aerobic activity as soon as possible. Other things you can do: 

• Focus on core strength: keeping the stabilizing muscles conditioned is a great way to share the burden with those intervertebral discs in the lower back. 
• Watch out for muscle atrophy: A chief side-effect of injury is that it limits our proclivity for activity. Staying sedentary contributes to muscle and joint weakness, and actually hinders the speed of your recovery.
• Stay as flexible as possible: activities like swimming are great because they promote active-stretching: a one hour session in the pool helps preserve range of motion in nearly every joint. If you are not inclined toward water, we can show you land borne stretches that will provide the same benefit.  
• What to avoid: running, if possible, because of its jarring effect on joints. Being sedentary for too long; lumbar flexion and rotation activities; leg lifts and sit ups. 

At our office in Sacramento, we utilize modalities including chiropractic adjustment, spinal decompression and lumbar traction to help you heal. After an evaluation of the state of your spine and a discussion about your limitations and health aspirations, we can help you get on the road to your most optimal recovery.

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C. 

Sleep is integral to well-being. You can’t reasonably expect to feel your best or perform to your highest standard after a single night of sleeplessness, let alone chronic sleep deprivation that is the result of many more serious conditions. Sleep is linked to quality of life on so many levels because too little sleep can contribute to conditions including:

• Depression
• Chronic headaches
• Heart Disease
• Obesity

Chronic sleep deprivation takes a toll on our cognitive function and emotional center. Often, physical and mental stress overlap and to solve one, we must necessarily untangle it from the other; to sleep your best, you must feel your best. Trying to fall asleep with a pain in your neck or back can snowball into a fretful night spent tossing and turning to no avail.

At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we help by addressing problem areas including subluxation, trigger points and strained muscles that could be preventing you from accessing deep sleep. Massage therapy is particularly effective at opening up an injurious region to an influx of oxygen and healing nutrients. Along the way, endorphins, the body’s feel good chemical, are released helping you to achieve a more relaxed mental state. From the vantage point of a healthy back, we help you turn the tide against mental stress by coming up with lifestyle adjustments to account for sleep health. Even with pain, restful sleep can be achieved with a proactive approach; give our office in Sacramento a call to start making changes today. 

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C. 

Today, a topic ripped straight from the pages of the 21st century: the growing prevalence of neck injuries related to text messages. Rewind about 40 years ago and there is no way you could convince me the average human was concerned about a pocket computer creating problems for the average neck. Now, it is our reality: overuse of cell phones is creating premature degeneration of the spine. The problem involves looking down; before cell phones, the things that made us look down the most were books and the laptop computer. If we were not heeding the advice to read at eye level and arm’s length then, we certainly aren’t doing so now with cell phones.

Holding the cell phone in a manner that keeps your spine in neutral posture puts strain on the arms; it is much easier to hold the phone in your lap or at hip-level to conduct social media management. However, when we look down for prolonged periods of time, we are exponentially increasing the weight of the head in relation to the spine. The body responds by calling on all of the muscles involved with posture: from the core, to the shoulders, upper back and neck, most of your upper body has now taken on more stress. When this stress accumulates over prolonged periods of time, muscle strain is a natural outcome. From muscle strain it is a natural progression to painful muscle spasms and limitation in range of motion and flexibility. 

Unfortunately, the groups most at risk are the younger generations. Various studies indicate that people between the ages of 18 and 44 cannot go 2 hours without a cell phone at their side. As a culture, the price of progress is shifting spinal problems to a younger generation. At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we are hoping to raise awareness of this issue and get people to look up once in a while. Maybe it is not cool to hold your cell phone out in front of your face at a healthy distance, but is it cool to have back problems at age 18? We don’t think so, and to this end, we offer you our expertise and treatment in support of backs that face more challenges than ever in the fight to stay healthy. 

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C.

Cartilage is precious: the thin layer of tissue which cushions the ends of bones in a joint, is responsible for preventing your bones from grinding on each other. This cartilage can be compromised by a host of factors including injury, the wear and tear of age, and the more insidious auto-immune disorders which cause the body to attack its own healthy tissue. Of the more than 100 types of arthritis, there are two primary types: non-inflammatory and inflammatory.

Non-inflammatory arthritis, of which Osteoarthritis is the best known, is the type whereby years of wear and tear lead to degeneration of the cartilage and inflammation ensues. Don’t let the name fool you: inflammation is created as a byproduct of the degeneration process and can be every bit as painful as the kind produced in, “inflammatory arthritis.” This is why arthritis is thought of as a disease of the elderly, with some estimates stating that 1 in 2 Americans over the age of 65 suffer from some degree of arthritis pain. However, it is important to note that 2/3 of the total people with doctor-diagnosed arthritis are between 18 and 65. 

Inflammatory arthritis, best known as rheumatoid arthritis, is an autoimmune disease in which the body turns on its own tissue. As the cartilage degenerates, painful inflammation is created by the body which limits range of movement. This is most commonly felt in the wrists, hands and fingers. 

A happy life with arthritis is attainable. We offer the kind of support you need to enact a plan for management of your arthritis symptoms including chiropractic adjustment and the pursuit of simple lifestyle changes to the diet and level of activity that will ensure you can live with and beyond your pain.

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C. 

When it comes to diet in America, I think it is prudent to focus on how delicious, nutritious foods can be just as convenient and immediately gratifying as fast food. Foods like flax seeds and chia seeds are the new salmon and blueberries. They are foods that provide a full serving in 2 tablespoons but contain a range of health benefits that can boggle the brain. The verdict is in: super foods make your life simple. 

Here are some of the foods that you should look for next time you make a pass through the grocery store. 

• Chia seeds: omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, protein, calcium and magnesium. What could be better for a person with arthritis than something packed with anti-inflammatory and bone strengthening properties. 
• Hemp seeds: protein packed, containing all the essential amino acids necessary for growth and repair of muscle and also contain omega-3 and 6 fatty acids. 
• Seaweed: Before you protest, it can be cooked deliciously. And when you consider the health benefits, it becomes a no-brainer: seaweed is packed with omega-3s, and is full of minerals that are important for bone health including calcium and magnesium. 

I selected these three superfoods because they all contain health properties that can be combined with a chiropractic treatment plan. Nutrition is amazing because it offers you the variety to specifically tailor a diet to your needs. Any and all of these foods can be found in concentrated forms such as powders that can be thrown into any meal for a boost. Sometimes, all it takes is a conversation to unlock the thirst for the power of nutrition in a person’s life. At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we are here to initiate this conversation. 

Dr. Raymond Espinosa, D.C.