Most people don’t associate sleep with visiting a chiropractor, but there is a real relationship between these two worlds. In fact, chiropractors are often the solution to chronic sleep problems. If you can’t sleep, explore the reasons why a chiropractor in Woodstock might be your best solution.

1. Aligning the Spine
A chiropractor’s main job is to align the spine. They perform this service by adjusting the body and putting it into specific positions. This practice may seem extreme, but an aligned spine contributes to fewer restless nights.

Pain is ultimately the culprit for your lack of sleep. Misaligned spines create pain along any part of the back. You may not even realize that the spine isn’t in good shape until you experience a chiropractor’s services. If you aren’t in pain, sleep just comes naturally.

2. Improving Blood Flow
As the chiropractor aligns your spine, other tissues move into their natural positions. Tight muscles, strained tendons and other areas will suddenly feel loose and relaxed. In fact, these areas are now receiving better blood flow than before.

When you’re misaligned, certain blood vessels can be narrowed. Nutrients flowing within the bloodstream don’t have a chance to nourish your tissues. Better blood flow leads to a healthier body that sleeps well each night.

3. Suggesting Sleep Positions
Chiropractors are experts in anatomy. They understand how each bone, tendon and ligament contribute to a well-aligned body. As a result, they’ll know how your body should be positioned during rest for the best night’s sleep.

Ideally, sleeping on your back is the most natural position. Your chiropractor will usually tell patients that sleeping on the stomach is just a recipe for insomnia. However, the chiropractor will look at your individual situation in order to determine the smartest position. Everyone has unique needs when it comes to comfort.

4. Discussing Pillow and Mattress Selections
The materials that you rest your head and body on are playing a role in your sleep quality. Chiropractors are informal experts in this area because they provide advice about the best beds for their patients. The spine can only remain aligned if the person sleeps on firm pillows and mattresses.

Soft materials allow the spine to bend into unnatural positions after an alignment session. You end up misaligned again, which leads to pain and less sleep. Following your chiropractor’s suggestions about the proper pillows and mattresses will make a difference in your sleep quality.

Always research your chosen chiropractor before heading off to your first appointment. This professional should have the necessary background to align your spine. They can be your partner in quality rest for the rest of your life otherwise.

Tea, coffee’s older, more sage has survived the wave of trendy new drinks that we’ve seen come and gone. And yes, there have been exciting new twists on tea lately on its own is still a popular beverage – the most popular drink in the world, bar water of course.

But aside from being older than coffee, millions of drinkers have a reason why it’s their chosen cup of poison.

It’s two-fold effects benefits both the mind and body to achieve the state of Zen.

EGCG: For the body

Tea, regardless if it’s black, green, yellow, or white is loaded with polyphenol antioxidants that fight against free radicals.

Let’s take matcha green tea for example.

Its main polyphenol is EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) which was found out in a study that its concentration is three times greater than regular green tea. But how does this impact your health? What are free radicals anyway?

If you can still remember high school chemistry, atoms are surrounded by electrons that orbit in layers called shells. The inner shell has a required number of electrons per shell that needs to be met before going into the next layer.

When an atom has incomplete atoms in its outer shell, they go rogue and bond with other atoms (“oxidation”) to complete the needed electrons.

When certain parts of a cell are oxidized, it fails to function normally and when enough functions are impaired, the cell dies. These microscopic events can have serious ramifications to your health, from aging, cancer to Parkinson’s disease.

This is where antioxidants come in. Known as “free radical scavengers” they seek free radicals and neutralize them by donating an electron before it oxides other atoms. Once the shells are filled, it stabilizes and stops being toxic to cells.

The abundance of antioxidants can benefit your health in the following ways:

• Reduce the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, the whole lot of them: breast, colon, colorectal, skin, lung, esophageal, stomach, pancreatic, ovarian, liver, prostate, head and neck, and oral
• It may support heart health by alleviating the risk factors of heart disease – reducing blood pressure, cholesterol and the accumulation of plaque in the blood.
• Promotes weight loss, especially if taken in conjunction with the caffeine in tea.
• Recent research suggests that EGCG plays a role in improving neurological cell function and preventing degenerative brain disease. There’s also a link found between a higher intake of green tea and the reduced risk of age-related brain degeneration along with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

L-theanine: For the mind

What makes tea amazing is that it does so by doing much for your body, it does amazing things for the mind. The L-theanine amino acid is found in both green and black tea. It’s found in a limited amount of food, mostly tea and mushrooms.

By influencing nerve impulses in the brain, it causes the release of hormones that bring a sense of calm over you. It’s recommended that your drink tea if you want to improve your mental focus but specifically it improves the entirety of your mental health:

• You’ll sleep better. During the metabolism of l-theanine, it encourages your brain to produce more alpha waves and reduce beta waves, which keeps your head clear so it’s easier for you to relax and fall into sleep.
• Have you been offered a cup of warm tea to “help you relax”? There’s an actual scientific study conducted on this, the results of which lead the researchers to conclude that it’s not a placebo effect. Rather, l-theanine reduces a person’s resting heart rate to bring about the feeling of relaxation.
• Increased cognitive performance. L-theanine on its own can improve a person’s attention span and reaction time. Together with caffeine (which tea also possesses), it keeps you focused and alert which can lead to the improvement in number skills.
• Lose weight. The physical wellness bought by l-theanine is its ability to curb hunger and prolong the feeling of satiation. The result of eating less will lead to weight loss.

Contact us today at any of our office in Alpharetta | Atlanta | Decatur | Johns Creek | Mount Pleasant | Sandy Springs | Woodstock.