Smoothie Prep

I love smoothies, they are filling and have lots of vitamins, minerals, fiber and when made with vegetable (and they should be made with vegetables) they help get your daily vegetable servings in. If you have a to go cup they are super convenient.
When recommending them as a solution to clients/patients the only negative I hear is about the prep. Like all things that contain real food a smoothie will require some prep.
I am always on the lookout for ways to make healthier eating an option and when I find ways to make real food more convenient I like to pass it on.

I prep my vegetables and fruits ahead by putting them in freezer bags, one item for each bag. When I saw a pin on Pinterest where individual bags were set up; I thought the idea was brilliant for those of us who need just those extra seconds in the morning or have kids old enough to operate a blender.

Still requires some work but all the work is on the up front and convenience all week long. Buying in family packs can and often is more cost effective. It’s a great idea … pass it on!

Get idea, pass it on!

Health Bytes – Get Up & Move

There is a growing scientific consensus that the more time you spend sitting the shorter and less healthy your life may be. One recent study correlated sitting time and TV viewing time with increased fibrinogen and C reactive protein; markers for cardiovascular risk. Other studies show increases in diabetes and other health problems.

Science is showing that the hour at the gym or the 3 mile run in the morning cannot compensate for the damage incurred by all that sitting. Not that we should give up our runs or workout routines, but rather we need to add in intermittent activity during the day.

From a chiropractic perspective;
If most of your sitting occurs at a desk at work, hunched forward over a keyboard or tilting your head to one side cradling a phone and/or both; you are staining the cervical vertebrae and causing imbalances in the spine and muscles. The bones of the spine get hung up, pinch off the nerve supply and blood flow to the surrounding tissue.
You may experience neck pain, stiffness, tingling in your hands or fingers, headaches or just discomfort.

People who sit a lot are at greater risk for herniated lumber disc. When we move around the soft discs between the vertebrae expand and contract like sponges taking up fresh blood, with nutrients and oxygen, pushing out waste product. When we sit for long periods of time we are reducing our blood flow and nerve supply to those disc.

Clearly movement is important, but these studies also show the importance of regular chiropractic care to insure that the bones of the spine are not hung up. If you are wondering how to get more movement in just ask Dr. Tom or attend one of his Back Classes. Your health depends on it.

A Year Long Holiday

One of the things we talk about frequently is the food that goes into your mouth. Food choices can drive inflammation or calm it down. We go for the calm it down choices because this helps with your chiropractic adjustments as well as overall health.
As a nutritionist I talk to people about how to make better choices and reduce overall intake. One of the road blocks that most people encounter that knocks them off their good health program is the party mentality that has invaded our society.
If you add up all of the special occasions that we Americans celebrate there is not a month that does not go by without a food fest. Think about it; Americans used to start with Thanksgiving and finish at Christmas but as decades have gone on we have turn common events into food parties. If you start at Thanksgiving in November you can move on to Christmas for December. We also have New Years in January, February is Valentine’s Day with its emphasis on chocolate moving on to March/ April with St. Patrick’s day (ohh, green food and beer) and Easter. Don’t forget somewhere in there is the Super Bowl with its bags of chips and bowls of dip.
May we have Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. June has Father’s Day; followed by July 4th. If you’re catholic or Italian or both there is August and the annual street fairs. September is Labor Day, October Halloween ending right back where we started.
Adding in birthdays and anniversaries you can eat your way through the whole year. It is not just the special day, but Christmas and kids birthdays are a good example of multiple party days. After all if you are small child you celebrate your birthday at school and at home, often twice once for your friends and once for your family. For adults there is the office parties, friends parties and the actual holiday.
This process interferes with the best of intentions and when people ask what should they do to maintain their program, the only thing I can say is don’t celebrate with food or more correctly the unhealthy foods that are normally offered.
Using our next major holiday as an example try some of these suggestion so that you and your family can stay on the road to good health. Put the emphasis on dying Easter eggs and the Easter egg hunt. Skip the jelly beans with their corn syrup and nasty food colorings instead have a small chocolate rabbit that is made from quality products. Don’t eat marshmallow peeps, we use them for games our favorite being peep smash. Skip the ham and lamb focus on asparagus and sweet spring greens, try a vegetarian meal.
Keep in mind as the year moves along the rules of good health apply no matter what day of the year it is and if you are struggling we are here to help, so give us a call.

Tis the Season

Tis the season – for mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, cookies, cakes, eggnog …. How do you stay committed to your nutrition plan during the holiday season with all those social events and edible gifts from friends and family.
You may not be able to completely control your food environment but that doesn’t mean your health goals need to be put away for the holidays. We have a few tips for the season that will help you from being completely derailed from your health goals.
First – don’t give up your exercise routine! Make sure that you include some level of exercise in your daily routine. The holidays are an opportunity for over eating and putting away healthy habits like exercise; by keeping to your routine you can offset some of the negative effects of the season. Exercise helps keep stress in check, help you sleep better as well as keeping those pounds in check.
Secondly, plan those treats! Deprivation will get you nowhere, trying to avoid the cookies your Mom makes only once year will only get you focused on the cookies. Have a cookie or two, in other words plan your indulgences.
Next – write it down! If you get lost in the holiday social calendar and added chores leading to mindless eating then keep a food journal. Writing it down as you are eating (even during the office Christmas party) keeps you accountable.
Lastly – relax! Sit back and enjoying your food; you know eat slowly and mindfully. This will keep you from second/third helpings of mashed potatoes or mindless cookie munching.

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Eat these foods for health

Americans have numerous health issues, the list sometimes too long to name; cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, autoimmune diseases to name a few. Then there are things the average American doesn’t associate with this list like infant mortality rates, and education levels where we rank so low some third world countries rank higher. So it may be odd when I say the most pressing health issue in the United States is vegetables, people do not eat enough of them or don’t eat them at all.
The American diet is mostly meat and some type of refined, processed foods. We eat a lot of sugar and drink a lot of sweetened liquids, but the one thing we do not eat is vegetables. As a society we don’t market them, subsidize them or make them the center of our plates.
It is no big secret that most of our illness, disease, aches and pains are related to our lifestyles, food taking up a large part of our health problem. Most nutritionist regardless of which end of the spectrum their philosophy lives on, vegan-ism at one end and high protein the other, everyone agrees vegetables should be the main stay of the human diet. Vegetables promote health and well being, both physically and mentally.
Chiropractic patients who are experiencing a lot of pain are asked to increase their vegetable intake and get rid of the sugar, junk food and liquid meals. At Barnes Chiropractic we do this because we know that these types of food promote inflammation, contribute to your pain and make it more difficult to fix your joint dysfunction.
Getting veggies into your diet doesn’t need to be a big deal, sautéed veggies in your morning omelet, salad at lunch and a side of broccoli at dinner are an good and easy place to start. Get in this habit and then add others like a kale smoothie in the a.m. and three vegetable rule at dinner. Get started on the road to good health today one lettuce leaf at a time.

Blood Sugar Regulation and the Nervous System

Hypoglycemia and Diabetes are common blood sugar regulation disorders affecting millions of men, women and children. Medication can quickly be prescribed to regulate the symptoms however there are other solutions which are safer and lasting.

Three non-drug solutions include neuro-regulation, food and, physical movement.

Neuro-regulation involves evaluating and removing restriction or disruption of the lines of communication between the brain and the pancreas. The pancreas is the main organ responsible for releasing a hormone named insulin affecting blood sugar levels. The pancreas receives instructions from the brain telling it when and when not to release insulin. If this communication is down, disrupted or interfered with, the pancreas will not operate properly. So it makes sense if you are having problems regulating your blood sugar to check here first. Chiropractic physicians are spinal specialists of choice to evaluate the spine for nerve interference. Using adjustments to the spine chiropractors remove nerve interference allowing the brain to communicate with the body properly and restore normal function.

Food can over stress the pancreas or help it work normally. It’s not complicated. The more we stress it the more it will break. If you want to support your pancreases normal function eat mostly vegetables. We suggest applying an 80/20 approach. 80 % vegetables and seasonal fruits, nuts and seeds and 20% animal protein. It’s a good start.

Avoid any and all foods that contain more than 5 ingredients on the label and words you don’t recognize.

Move it. Increasing our daily physical movement is a big help. It helps us burn the sugars we consume assisting in the blood sugar regulation process.

Preventing and managing blood sugar is not difficult, it just requires action on your part. See your chiropractor regularly, eat mostly vegetables and move it!

Dr. Thomas Barnes

Does Laser Spine Surgery Work?

Dr. Thomas Barnes and orthopedic medical surgeons agree that Laser surgery is not without risks and patients should become informed consumers. Dr. Barnes of Doylestown Fountainville PA area specializes in chiropractic, physical therapy modalities and therapeutic exercises that have been proven safe and effective for the treatment of many disorders including; neck pain, back pain, disc pain, headaches, arm, shoulder, wrist, leg, hip, knee and foot pain. In pain? Start at Barnes Chiropractic with safe, effective low risk approaches. Here’s why;

According to an article published by ONS Orthopaedic & Neurosurgery Specialists “Laser spine surgery has never been studied in a controlled clinical trial to determine its effectiveness. Marketing pitches for spine surgery performed with a laser often make bold promises of pain relief for chronic neck and back pain and a quick return to normal life; sometimes in a matter of days. What is often not clear from marketing hype is that laser spine surgery does actually involve surgery.  An incision is required to allow access to the spine.  A focused beam of light (laser) is then used only to remove the soft tissues over the spine.   Bone and ligament are then removed in order to free the nerve from compression using small instruments.  The laser in laser spine surgery actually plays a very minor role and the laser itself can result in serious complications.” http://onsmd.com/2012/02/07/does-laser-spine-surgery-work/.

Lasers are not new to surgery and have been used for decades. Instead of a knife to cut through tissue to get to the spine a laser is used. Once they get there the rest of the surgery is the same. All surgery is invasive. You may be able to debate this based on the size of scar you end up with. But don’t be fooled, the scar goes the whole way in. Here is the thing about scar tissue that most people don’t know. Scar tissue is less elastic than normal tissue; it doesn’t stretch well and breaks or tears easily. Because of its characteristics, the body does a really neat thing so you don’t hurt the tissue. It hypersensitizes the scar tissue with pain sensory nerve endings. This means it will hurt like heck if you stress or strain it and can even cause chronic pain. Medically this means more medications and injections, and more surgery to clean up the scar tissue, which makes more scar tissue. As you can see once you have had one surgery you are likely to have more.

Permanent Change:Once you have had spinal or joint surgery, permanent change has been made to your physical structure. In the spine stress is increased to surrounding joints. Common complicating conditions following surgery of the spine includes recurrent disc herniations and Failed Back Surgery Syndrome. The increase in spinal stress following surgery also causes the spine to be subluxated (knocked out of alignment) more frequently thus the need for more frequent chiropractic care.

The Most Minimally Invasive Approach? Heal yourself and give it time. Start with chiropractic care, start with a diet full of fresh vegetables and start with physical movement and exercise. These are the first 3 steps necessary to rebalance our health, reduce pain and start living again!

Start you’re healing and living at Barnes Chiropractic 215-489-2696.

Dr. Thomas Barnes

Amazing Results at Barnes Chiropractic, Doylestown, Fountainville PA

The following are short stories of seemingly amazing results from chiropractic spinal adjustments at Barnes Chiropractic Center. Spinal adjustments remove stress from the central nervous system allowing the body communicate and work more normally. Chiropractic adjustments give the body a chance to heal, sometimes with amazing results. Give your health a chance, Chiropractic!
Paralyzed Dog Walks after Chiropractic Adjustments!
One of our patients dog was struck by a car. The injury caused the dog to lose all use of its hind quarters and lost all control of its bowls as well as bladder control. A visit to the vet and x-rays soon revealed a broken bone called a compression fracture in the middle of the dogs back. The break was pinching the spinal cord causing the paralysis. The prognosis was dismal and the vet recommended putting the dog down. The patient asked if she could bring the dog to her chiropractor with the x-rays to have him treated. The vet agreed since there was no medical treatment available for this type of injury.
I am happy to say that following 3 treatments the patient stated her dog had regained full use of his bowels, bladder and legs. The chiropractic adjustments reduced the spinal cord pressured which allowed communication from the dog’s brain to reconnect with its lower body and restore function! Cool stuff!

Seizures’ Reduce!
A mother with 4 children had come into the office suffering from weekly migraine headaches. Her headaches resolved within a few weeks of starting care. She asked if I would be willing to evaluate and treat her 8 year old daughter. She told me her daughter was suffering from seizures which started in the second year of her life and had been increasing in frequency since that time. Medications helped control the severity of the seizures sometimes but the frequency was now up to several per day. Her medical doctors told her this was becoming life threatening but had no answers. I evaluated her and began adjusting her upper neck and spine. Following the first week her seizures reduced to 2-3 per day and within a month of care she was down to one seizure per week. The medical doctors reduced her medication and she started performing better in school and begin a semblance of a normal life. The chiropractic adjustments did not cure her seizures’ nor are adjustments given to cure any disorder. Chiropractic adjustments get pressure off the nervous system allowing the body to function more normally and neat things begin to happen! Cool Stuff!

Hives Gone!
A gentleman of 36 years old came into the office for a lower back pain complaint. During the evaluation I noticed he had hives over most of his body. He stated he had started to get them when he was a kid and the doctors told him it was something wrong with his immune system and he would have to live with it. He began his chiropractic treatments and within the month his lower back pain had resolved and interestingly enough his hives went away as well. What we know today is the nervous system controls the immune system. Cool Stuff!

Thyroid Function Returns!
24 year old Judy came into my office with neck pain and headaches. Her history revealed she had been on thyroid medication since she was 18 years old. At 16 years old she had gone thru a windshield during a car accident. Her x-rays showed the normal curve her neck was going completely backward. Judy started her chiropractic adjustments and became very ill during the second week of care. She was showing signs of hyperthyroidism. I referred her to her medical doctor for blood work to test her thyroid hormone levels. The tests revealed her thyroid gland was now functioning normally and the additional thyroid medication was making her sick. The nerves from the lower neck supply function to the thyroid gland. So believe it or not, her medical doctor’s explanation was that her thyroid problem was nerve related and the chiropractic treatments must have “got it working again somehow.” Cool Stuff!

Marathon Runners Disc Gets Fixed
A nationally ranked distance runner entered my office. She was experiencing severe pain in her lower back and down the back of her right leg. She was also having problems controlling the movement of her right foot. She saw the orthopedic specialists and the MRI showed a large disc herniation at L5-S1 pinching on the nerve. The medical doctors prescribed back surgery. The problem with this is this person had a friend who had back surgery for a similar condition, ended up fully disabled and had 3 additional surgeries. So for this athlete surgery was not an option. After performing a complete exam, structural x-rays we began chiropractic adjustments 3 times weekly. After 2 weeks her pain was 90% reduced and in 4 weeks her pain was gone and her foot was working normally. On week 6 she went for a new MRI which showed no signs of disc herniation. The disc had reabsorbed and healed. She was able to return to running and ran the Boston Marathon in her best time ever. Cool Stuff!

Ovarian Cyst Dissolves
A 34 year old mother of 2 entered my office and gave history revealing she had had one of her ovaries removed when she was 21 years old because of an ovarian cyst. Now she brought in a diagnostic ultrasound which showed a grapefruit size cyst obliterating her remaining ovary. Her gynecologist prescribed surgical removal. She still wanted another child and with the surgery that would not be possible. I performed an exam and structural x-rays which showed a moderate curve in her lumbar spine and a rotated pelvis. I referred her to Dr. Chris-Ann Barnes, PhD for nutritional work up who found dietary foods which were pro-inflammatory and toxic. A 3 month course of chiropractic care and lifestyle modification with new whole food application and supplementation was strictly adhered to. The patient experienced resolution of her pelvic and lower back pain. She had a follow up ultrasound performed which showed a normal size ovary, the cyst was gone! Cool Stuff!

Infertile Now Fertile
A 27 year old mother with headaches came into my office for help. Following the evaluation she was studying the nerve chart which showed nerves from the lower back supplying the ovaries. She asked if chiropractic could help fertility problems. She informed me her and her husband had been trying to have a child for over 5 years and had been through 2 top fertility clinics to no avail. They had given up. I informed her chiropractic care was not a cure for infertility but the misalignments in her spine could adversely affect the functions of those organs and that if her problem was nerve related, as the pressure came off her body would have a chance to functional normally again. Well, her headaches resolved and within 3 months she was pregnant. He husband also started care after being in a car accident. They now have 2 children. Cool Stuff!

We sense, adapt and respond to our environment over the central nervous system mainly the brain and spinal cord. Any impairment in this system from spinal problems interferes with our body to work properly. Remove the pressure from the nervous system with a chiropractic spinal adjustment, you work better and amazing things happen.
In Pain? Give yourself a chance.. Call Barnes Chiropractic and set your appointment today!

Dr. Thomas Barnes
Barnes Chiropractic and Nutrition Center, Doylestown Fountainville PA 215-489-2696

Lower Back Pain Treatment, Barnes Chiropractic Fountainville, Doylestown PA

Lower Back Pain Treatment,Barnes Chiropractic Fountainville, Doylestown PA

Journal of the American Medical Association Recommends Chiropractic for Lower Back Pain Treatment

The announcement was caught in a press release posted on the American Chiropractic Associations website http://www.acatoday.org/press_css.cfm?CID=5185 on 5/18/2013. The information released reinforces chiropractic’s long standing call for conservative measures as the first line of treatment for muscle and joint complaints and avoidance of higher risk medication, injections and surgery.

Back surgeries go wrong so many times that it has been given its own name Failed Back Surgery Syndrome, and its own diagnostic code 722.8. It causes a permanent change to your physical structure and there is no going back. Failures happen so often that medical back specialists are discouraging the use of surgery as a therapeutic technique for patients with back pain http://www.docguide.com/failed-back-syndrome-disturbing-statistics-presented-dg-dispatch-aapm . Research additionally reveals that chiropractic care provides more relief and faster results than commonly prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication for lower back pain http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23026869 .

Spinal needle injection therapy has become a popular alternative medical therapy following the failed back surgery syndrome rates. In this approach steroids are injected into the joints of the spine in an attempt to provide relief. If it works results are temporary. Complications includes weakening of the ligament and joint structure by inhibiting fibroblast formation. These are cells that are used in healing http://www.benthamscience.com/open/torehj/articles/V006/1TOREHJ.pdf.

Chiropractic health care has been around since 1895 which is before medicine started its organizational roots in 1910. Its safety cannot be equaled by medical surgeries, medications or injections. Chiropractic not only has proven results but studies also show chiropractic is safer and patients have higher levels of satisfaction with their chiropractic doctors, their treatments and their outcomes. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16904491

For spinal injury, joint and muscle pain the approaches we take at Barnes Chiropractic address the cause of your pain. We work with you to find non-drug, non-surgical solutions. If you’re in pain and live within the Doylestown, Fountainville areas in Bucks County PA, Call us at 215-489-2696. We are here to help you out of pain and back on the road to health.

Dr. Thomas Barnes 

Doylestown/Fountainville PA Auto Accident Information and Research

http://lnkd.in/dSwxUuX  This link has researched information from the Spine Institute of San Diego for those injured in car accidents. The Spine Institute is where I received my advanced training for treating whiplash and related vehicular injuries. You can check out my listing by clicking on the graduates tab, enter Barnes, Doylestown and 18902.
Early treatment intervention with chiropractic accelerates healing, reducing scar tissue formation and permanent pain. If you or someone you know has injuries related to a auto accident have them contact us at Barnes Chiropractic Doylestown/Fountainville PA 215-489-2696. Start feeling better today!