While I was watering the bushes around the clinic one summer weekend morning a man rode up on a bike and asked what it would cost for a spinal alignment. I needed to educate him on the process for spinal correction. It is different than taking your car in to a shop and twenty minutes later have your car aligned.

Since 80% of all patients seeking care have some type of health insurance, todays chiropractors need to be able to provide records of patient exams, treatments, goals and outcomes when asked for by insurance companies or Medicare.

For people wanting to become a patient of ours, there are on line intake forms you can fill out at haaswellness.com which will save you time filling them out in our office.

Once the staff and doctor have reviewed the forms, the staff can start with the preliminary exam followed by the doctors exam which may include x-rays.

If the patient is in acute pain, some form of therapy will be given that day. This is followed by a report on the tests and recommendations the second visit.

The treatment schedule can vary widely depending on the age and severity of the condition and if there might be any complicating factors such as degeneration, arthritis, birth defects, obesity or diabetes.

Treatment usually begins with passive care for a short period of time ( this is where the doctor and staff do the work) once the inflammation subsides, the patient enters the active stage of care and this involves rehab in the office or exercises at home to help balance the spinal muscles and improve mobility.

The last phase of treatment is supportive, maintenance or wellness checkups.

This is where we are looking to improve on structural balance. It is different than taking your car to a garage for an alignment. It would be nice if you could go to a gym and work out once and be physically fit. However, it doesn't work that way. It takes time and repetition for your spine to improve in function and balance. But the rewards are being healthier and more productive in your life.

Come in and visit with our staff on what you can do to become a patient of ours. We would love to work with you.

Dr. Richard Haas DC, FACO

The Healthiest State Initiative which was endorsed by Governor Terry Branstad explains how we can set a goal to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation in just five years.

Haas Chiropractic Clinic has been promoting these concepts for years and it's nice to see the private and public sectors get on board with these wellness concepts. In America today, 75% of our health care dollars are spent on chronic degenerative diseases that are preventable. We just need momentum to increase awareness for Iowans to make daily healthy decisions.

According to the 2010 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Iowa ranked as the 19th healthiest state. This was based on six sub-indexes which are: Life Evaluation, Physical Health, Emotional Health, Healthy Behavior, Work environment and Basis access (healthy food, water anad shelter).

Along with getting Iowans to start walking which there is a "Start Somewhere walk" on October 7th, other initiatives such as Dan Buettner's Blue Zone Project will be started to help Iowans to live healthier and hopefully longer and more productive lives.

His top nine common characteristics of all the worlds long-lived people are to move naturally where walking is the best activity for longevity. The second is have a reason to get up in the morning, to have a purpose. #3 is reduce inflammation by reducing stress (meditation and prayer) also I would add reducing inflammatory foods (sugars, artificial sweeteners, fried foods and grains). #4 stop eating when you are 80% full and avoid over eating. #5 eat mostly a plant based diet with small portions of meat. #6 1-2 glasses of red wine a day which has anti-oxident properties which may help if you can tollerate alcohol. #7 have a strong thriving family adds years to life expectancy. #8 be connected to your church. People who go to church weekly live an extra 4-14 yrs. according to his studies. #9 expand your social circle to include healthy-minded, supportive people that will lift you up emotionally.

Seventy-five percent of our health status is a result of the daily decisions we make. There are two web sites associated with the Healtiest State Initiative that I would like to share with you. They are very helpful to increase awareness of lifestyles and eating habits that can influence your health. They are BlueZones.com and ChooseMyPlate.gov. I encourage our readers to check these web sites out.

Haas Chiropractic has been assisting patients with eating habits for years and on the diet surveys we accumulate at our office, it is common to see patients miss meals, eat just processed foods, drink little water and eat very few fruits and vegetables. We need to eat a plate of food that has the colors of the rainbow, not just brown food which is common in the mid-west region.

When determining your menu plan we recommend first to think of nourishment. It is the nourishment aspect of your meal that contains the vitamins and minerals needed for the thousands of metabolic reactions to occur in the body. So when formulating your plate of food, choose two fruits and vegetables. That may be one fruit and one vegetable or two vegetables. Preferrably, organic whole foods.

Protein should be 25-35% lean meats. Carbohydrates which is your main source of energy would be 40 to 60%. Fats would be anywhere from 15-25%. Choose healthy fats such as raw olive oil, coconut butter, avocados, seeds and nuts. Fats contain many nutrients such as vitamins A,D,E, and K.

Finally, when choosing your produce, fats, carbohydrates and proteins to consume, we suggest you take it one step further and make sure it's "clean". The more you get back to basic, whole foods, the better off you'll be. You want to choose "clean" foods. Choose fewer foods from a box or bag. These are what we call "processed foods".  Try to minimize food intake that has artificial sweeteners, nitrite or nitrates, canned foods and drinks, MSG, deep fried breaded foods, Trans fats, refined carbohydrates (white sugar, white flour, high fructose corn syrup), chlorine and flouride.

Dr. Richard Haas D.C., F.A.C.O.

Over the last fourty years Chiropractic techniques have evolved and have become more comfortable for the patient. I remember fourty years ago going to the dentist and how proceedures have changed, I still don't like my teeth worked on, but the proceedures now are much more comfortable for the patient than they used to be.

The same is true for chiropractic treatments. One of the reasons is the use of manually assisted adjusting instruments, and the most popular of the light adjusting instruments is called Activator Technique which was founded in 1967 by Arlan Fuhr D.C.. Since that time, 51% of chiropractic practices use some form of this mechanical force manual assisted instrument. This is regarded as a softer chiropractic technique.

The instrument is called an activator. It is a small hand held spring loaded instrument that delivers a small impulse to the spine or extremity. The energy is .3 Joules at a speed of 3 mili-seconds which allows the doctor to make an adjustment before the body has a chance to tense up and resist the correction. This proceedure is very comfortable to the patient.

Activator Methods International has published more than 105 abstracts and manuscripts on the Activator Method with the support of the National Institute of Chiropractic Research with additional research efforts that have been funded by the National Institutes of Health. Activator technique is also recognized and covered by Medicare.

Both Dr. Dave and myself are certified in the Activator Technique and we use the instrument adjusting in combination with other chiropractic techniques to taylor the right type of treatment to meet the patients needs.

Many conditions that have responded well to Activator Methods Technique are: Carpal Tunnel, Disc problems, Headaches, Low Back Pain, Neck Pain, Foot Pain, Whiplash and Wellness Care.

If you would like more information, do not hesitate to give our office a call at 424-6531.

Dr. Richard W. Haas D.C., F.A.C.O.

There are two types of injuries we treat at our office and they are acute injuries which usually involve an accident like whiplash resulting in immediate trauma and the second type of injury is chronic which can have equally dammaging effects but it just occurs over a longer period of time. For example, carpal tunnel in the wrists, chronic tendonitis and disc or joint degeneration take time to develop.

I am going to spend some time talking about acute injuries and some of the steps we take at Haas Chiropractic Clinic to treat these conditions.

There are four stages of tissue healing. The first stage is active swelling. This is when the patient experiences trauma to their neck or back and swelling occurs for twelve to seventy-two hours. Generally, we see loss of spinal motion and pain increases. Treatment may involve light adjustments to the spine, rest and supporting the injured areas with a back brace or splint. The goals of care are to minimize pain and swelling by using ice, compression and in some cases elevation.

The second stage is called passive congestion. This is where fluid is trapped in the tissues and restricts motion, causes pain and delays healing. This second stage begins by the second to fourth day following injury. Our job here is to remove fluid, offer pain relief and begin to restore motion. This is privided by chiropractic adjustments which helps to restore motion, block pain, relax tight muscles and accelerate healing. We use hot and cold packs to remove fluid, begin controlled motion exercises and use physiotherapy such as electrical stimmulation or ultrasound.

The third stage is repair. This stage begins five days after the injury and is where scar tissue is made for up to six weeks.

Lack of motion in joints causes excess scar tissue in dense patterns which also disrupts normal function and causes excess scarring, chronic stiffness, chronic pain and increased risk fo re-injury.

That is why Chiropractic care should continue throughout the repair stage, Remember, it takes longer for tissues to heal and normal function to be restored than it takes for pain relief. Pain relief is not the only goal. If motion is restored and maintained to the neck and back, tissues and joints heal in a much more functional way.

The fourth stage of tissue healing is called remodeling. This is where connective tissue remodels for better strength and flexibility. This may take anywhere from three to fourteen weeks depending on the severity of the injury. Rehabilitation is used at our office during this stage.

To summarize the role Chiropractic has in managing injuries, would be that Chiropractic can help improve and maintain motion and flexibility, this allows for better restored and maintained body functions. Chiropractic helps reduce chronic pain, and reduces the risk of re-injury and degeneration for the joints and discs of the spine.

 Both Dr. Dave and myself evaluate patients that seek our care and develop a treatment plan to fit their needs in relation th the four stages of tissue healing. Call our office at 424-6531 for more information.

Dr. Rick Haas DC, FACO

If you have neck pain, numbness or tingling in your shoulders, arms or hands or feel the same types of symptoms in your low back, hips, down your leg and to your feet, spinal disc disease may be a contributing factor to your symptoms.

Dr. Dave and I treat people that have these conditions daily in our office.

To better describe this condition, it is where the discs of the spine most commonly in the lower neck or lower back begin to degenerate over time. I notice this on spinal x-rays where the degenerative disc thins out and commonly the vertebrae above and below the degenerative disc develops calcium deposits to help stabilize the unstable areas of the spine.

The body of the vertebrae and disc support 90% of the body weight, and the spinal joints 10%.

However, when the discs loose their height, weight bearing will change to 50/50, which more weight is transferred to the spinal joints. This can cause increased wear and tear and can lead to osteoarthritis which causes pain as well as loss of mobility.

When this happens, and by the way, it is as common as cavities in the teeth, it may cause narrowing of the opening between the vertebrae where the spinal nerve passes. This allows the spinal nerve to get compressed or pinched. If this happens in the lower neck, the patient feels arm and hand pain. If this occurs in the lower back, the patient feels low back, leg and foot pain.

Another type of disc disease is when the cartilage around the disc weakens by small cracks and create a herniation of the disc which may cause simmilar symptoms. Usually an MRI would need to be performed to verify suspicions.

The causes of spinal disc disease are usually multi-faceted and I will give you a few examples.

Prolonged sitting causes increased pressure on the discs of the spine, lifting or pulling heavy objects, repetitive bending or twisting of the back, and exposure to constant vibration such as driving can cause damage. Being in poor physical condition, overweight, and loss of flexibility can add to increased stress on spinal discs.

Obviously, severe spinal strains to the neck and back which might include whiplash injuries or falls can contribute to spinal disc disease. Lastly, smoking causes not only heart and lung disease, but causes a breakdown of collagen which is the connective tissue that keeps the discs as well as your skin healthy. Smoking increases spinal disc disease by seven times the rate of the normal aging process.

The treatment is prevention. You cannot unfry an egg once it is fried. Once degenerative disc disease is present, you cannot make it new again. So you need to pracitce healthy lifestyles.

First, exercise regularly, keep your weight under control, don't smoke and practice good posture and lifting habits.

If you do experience pain similar to what I have described, call our office. We will examine your condition and make the appropriate recommendations to help you get back on the right track to better health. Not everyone requires the same treatment. People are different and have conditions that require individualized care. Age, lifestyle, condition of degeneration and congenital varients all make a difference in the type and length of treatment given. Most people we see get to feeling better with chiropractic care when dealing with spinal disc disease.

Dr. Richard W. Haas DC, FACO