immune system

Best Time to Start Chiropractic Care

When many people first visit our office they’re in shock at the average age of our patients. Most people are expecting to walk into an office full of older people with back and neck pain, but not expecting to walk into an office of young, healthy people. We do take care of many people that are in the baby boomer generation but most of our patients choose to be “proactive” and are in their 20’s to 40’s. So, perhaps you wondering about the best time to start chiropractic care? We will discuss the topic in this article!

Starting BEFORE the Pain

Speaking of our patient base, this younger generation chooses to get adjusted and see a chiropractor BEFORE pain happens and a problem becomes worse. Many of our patients have seen the suffering their parents and grandparents have gone through with drugs and surgery and want to prevent that route at all costs.

When it comes to any disease, including osteoarthritis of the spine, the process can be stalled with proper care. Similar to taking care of your teeth before they rot or eating clean before you become overweight, many people younger people in Atlanta tend to take care of their spine early before it becomes too spine.

What’s A Good Time to Start Seeing A Chiropractor?

The human spine was designed to last. When kept in proper biomechanics, the spine can go strong for 120 years. Unfortunately, the spine often shifts out of alignment and stays this way for years since people do not seek chiropractic care. Only a trained corrective chiropractor can retrain the spine to go back to normal once it reaches this level.

To give you a comparison, I like to use the example of a care and it’s alignment. The longer you go without taking it to a mechanic for an alignment, the faster your tires wear out and the sooner you find yourself breaking out the wallet to replace them.

Unfortunately, with the human spine, once it wears out then there is little that can be done to reverse course. It’s essential to make sure you’re in alignment before it becomes too late. This not only prevents wear and tear to the vertebrae but also keeps the body functioning optimally. When the spine is in its proper alignment the brain and spine communicate more effectively with little pressure.

Get Involved

Did you start chiropractic care young? Leave a comment below with age you, or your children, started chiropractic care!

Is Chiropractic Safe

Is Chiropractic Safe

One of the most common questions people around Atlanta ask when visiting my office is “Is Chiropractic Safe?”. Maybe they have seen too many horror movies depicting chiropractic negatively, perhaps even heard a story from someone who has never been to a chiropractor. I’m not only able tell you chiropractic is extremely safe but also can show the proof in the numbers.

Chiropractic Versus…

We all know that doctors need to carry malpractice insurance to cover being sued for improper care. I posted my annual premium for my malpractice insurance on this page. Malpractice insurance is based on how many claims get submitted every year from that profession, as you can see mine is a measly $1,200.

To give you an idea of how low that is compared to other professions in other big cities. Ob-Gyn’s in New York pay over $200,000 PER YEAR, surgeons from Miami pay $190,000, and internists from Miami pay $47,000.

These numbers go to show how safe chiropractic as it is a drugless and non-invasive profession designed to get the body working at 100%. The only side effect from chiropractic is better health as it is a completely non-invasive and drugless profession.

In fact, in 2007 Spine magazine performed a study on 19,700 people to track the safety of chiropractic. Following 50,000 adjustments on the subjects there were no serious adverse effects which translated to the risk at being 1 per 10,000 per this study.

Get Involved

I hope that this article gives you better insight on the safety of chiropractic. I would love to hear some concerns from the general public, as sometimes the fear of seeing a chiropractor can stall someone from getting healthy and living their life to the fullest potential. Leave comments below!

Difference Between Physical Therapists and Chiropractors

Difference Between Physical Therapists and Chiropractors

Many people come to our office with either back, neck, shoulder, or hip pain thinking they either need to see a chiropractor or physical therapist, but they use the terms interchangeably. The fact is that Chiropractors and Physical Therapists (PT’s) are so different in their practices; it would be the same as if someone had tooth pain and they were thinking of going to a dentist or cardiologist. These professions, like chiropractic and PT, learn different information and each have its own specialty. I’m writing this article so you know you’ll know what’s the difference between physical therapists and chiropractors.

Let me first preface that if you ever go to a chiropractor or PT who negates the other profession, please walk away. This person is usually not in the best interest of the patient and their results but more interested in the dogma between the two professions.

History of the Two Professions

Physical therapy was founded in 1916 when the polio outbreak occurred and people needed a profession to re-educate the muscles. The field then grew significantly during WW1, as many people in the army were getting injured and needed to rehabilitate their muscles and soft tissue…which is when PT is the best!

Chiropractic was founded in 1895 when DD Palmer, a magnetic healer, adjusted his janitor, Harvey Lillard’s neck, which restored his hearing. DD felt Harvey’s neck, and on the top vertebrae which controls eyesight, headaches, and hearing he noticed it was sticking out. He then adjusted this vertebra back into place, and Harvey noticed his hearing slowly coming back. The profession began to grow rapidly as chiropractors began seeing people with many different problems including vision, cancer, heart disease, and other issues related to the nervous system.

The Difference

If I ever had surgery on my shoulder for a tear or other issue, there is a high likelihood I would see a PT to re-educate the muscle and stretch out the joint. The PT would also teach me exercises and other trainings I could do at home to maximize the recovery. Physical therapy is great for tendonitis, sprained ankles, or for a post-op recovery on any joint. PT’s are the experts in this department, and nobody can argue with that especially because their techniques such as ultrasound, dry needling, and specific stretching techniques, are so successful.

When it comes to the spine however, chiropractors are the experts. They detect and correct subluxations in the spine, which are misalignments that can cause nerve pressure. Sadly, with computers and slouched posture only a few chiropractors like myself focus on corrective chiropractic. This type of chiropractic detects the cause of the problem and works to bring the spine back to alignment through many objective tools such as x-rays, postural assessments, range of motion, and stress scans.

The Problem

The problem is that some people see a PT for spinal issues, and others see chiropractors for physical therapy problems. If you see a PT for spinal problems, so they can work on your muscles, BUT structurally your spine is completely out of alignment based on x-rays, than you are working on muscles on top of a weak spine. Unfortunately, this could make the spine worse as you age because the biomechanics are not properly aligned, which would cause the body to wear out faster. There is no problem seeing the two together and having each professional communicate with one another, but the key is going to the provider who can help with the problem at hand.

PT’s are in the medical realm and great for injuries and problems. Chiropractors are in the holistic and preventative realm and are good for the effects of everyday life, such as sitting in front of a computer, traveling frequently, sleeping improperly, scoliosis, or regular tune-ups for preventative care.

Closing Thoughts

We work with many PT’s who will help support the musculature along the spine as we perform our corrective care work. If you are confused about which provider you should see, please comment on this post or call our office so you can be sent to the correct healthcare professional, keeping in mind that sometimes it may be both.

Truth or Myth: Do I Have to Visit the Chiropractor Forver

Truth or Myth: Do I Have to Visit the Chiropractor Forever

When I am out in public meeting people for the first time, one of the common responses to my profession is “Well, I don’t go to a chiropractor because once I go I have to go the rest of my life,” or “I don’t want to get addicted”. Will you get addicted or have to visit a chiropractor forever? I’ll dive deeper into the topic for this blog post.

Before we get started, it’s important to step back from the context of what people are saying and really dissect these aforementioned comments. I would agree that before I began to really value my life and truly live healthily I thought these same thoughts. However, I have shifted my mindset to living more proactively, so comments like these don’t make any sense to me.

For example, people say they do not want to get addicted to chiropractic but if we look at the rest of their life we will find other addictions or things they do regularly. The goal of chiropractic is to empower individuals to make the healthiest decisions for their bodies and minds. This proactive way of living leads to a higher quality of life, so inevitably, many people desire for the best weakness, which includes chiropractic care. Therefore, these individuals are taking a strong interest in their health rather than developing an “addiction”.

Should we wait until we have problems before caring for things, which is the common U.S. American way of thinking, or should we be proactive and continually take measures to live proactively?

Some people associate chiropractic with medical doctors thinking that we need to go when there is a problem. Chiropractic is about living proactively to eating healthy, working out, and getting massages. These actions are positive for a persons life where taking medicine to treat or mask symptoms is a negative. This is because, in fact, medicine ends up making people’s body sicker as years progress while chiropractic makes the body healthier and stronger as years move along.

Look at your life, and note the positive and negative things you spend time doing. Make two columns, and begin to figure out ways to convert the negatives into positives.

As an example, here is what my list looks like:

Positive

  • Workout
  • Get adjusted
  • Take supplements
  • Acupuncture checkups
  • Take restful vacations
  • Meditate

Negative

  • Not enough time with friends
  • Too much time wasted on internet on weekends

Reflecting on my list, I want to change those negatives into positives by hanging out with friends and having valuable relationships. Further, I want to read and write more blog posts instead of wasting my time on the internet. I wrote an article in 2012 called “I am an addict”, which I encourage you to read.

So What’s the Goal?

The goal in our office is not to see you three times a week or even twice a week for the rest of your life but instead:

  1. Correct your spine
  2. Maintain the spine with whatever frequency you need based on your age, lifestyle, and spinal structure

Remember one key point, when God created you, he created only one of you. You have one life in this amazing body with friends, family, and other people who love you. Do you want to do everything possible to maximize this life and make it your greatest while feeling and looking your best possible self? We are here to help you accomplish this goal. Please feel free to contact our office or comment below, we always love hearing from those in our community!

Do Chiropractors Take Insurance

When it comes to dealing with insurance companies, many people have misconceptions about what they cover. A common misunderstanding is that insurance cards can be used like credit cards to pay for all health related expenses. This, unfortunately, is not true. In this article I will dig deeper into one of the top 3 questions that all chiropractors hear from patients…”Do Chiropractors Take Insurance?”

Proactive vs. Reactive Coverage

I wish I could say that insurance paid for proactive living, such as gym memberships, supplements, mobile thermography, organic food, massage therapy, acupuncture, or any other procedure that would be deemed proactive. I honestly believe our country would be a wealthier place not only from the financial side but as well as the happier side if insurance covered those procedures.

Currently, insurance will pay for medical procedures including drugs, early detection tests, shots, or surgery. However, most of the time, these courses of action can be prevented by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It is not coincidental that people who eat paleolithic diet, workout in short bursts of 15 minutes, get adjusted as part of a lifestyle, regularly get 6-8 hours of sleep each night, and are passionate about their lives rarely get sick or see medical doctors. People who take these healthy measures are actually utilizing “healthcare”, whereas insurance companies cover what I call “sick-care”. It is not because they do not believe in the medical doctor, but they have the similar viewpoint as me and understand we live in a sick-care world.

I am concerned about the motivations behind the astronomical spending on “sick care”. There is big money in these procedures, and many big businesses will not thrive by paying for preventive care or TRUE healthcare.

So, Do Chiropractors Take Insurance?

By now you are wondering when I’ll cover your question, here it comes. If someone is coming to a chiropractic office for maintenance care, or preventative care, then they must pay out of pocket. Insurance will only cover chiropractic if the person is experiencing pain or limited functioning (i.e for medical necessity). Too often, many insurance companies will constantly review chiropractors’ notes to see if clients are going for preventative or reactive care. From my experience, they are more likely to cover reactive care versus preventative.

If you have been to a corrective chiropractor then you know pain is only a small percentage of the issue, and the PROBLEM is where we want to focus. For example, if front view of the spine is twisted, and the curves on the side view are lost then, we know there is a structural problem. Unfortunately, many insurance companies will only cover care once there is PAIN but NOT necessarily when there is a problem, which is why they limit the number of visits a person can utilize per year at a chiropractic office. At my office in Atlanta we specialize in corrective chiropractic care, 10-20 visits in a years period will simply scratch the surface of the work we need to achieve optimal results for our patients.

In a future blog post I will discuss the different phases of care to help explain why it takes time with proactive care.

Become Proactive, Stop Waiting For Reactive Care

A person who is overweight and pre-diabetic wants to live a healthier lifestyle. The insurance company will not pay for functional nutrition counseling, healthy food, gym memberships, or other resources to lose weight before becoming diabetic. However, once this individual becomes diabetic, insurance kicks in to gear and pays for all medicine and other garbage techniques used to keep Type II diabetes which ironically is almost 100% reversible. Further, if this person has heart problems the insurance company will not pay for fish oil, personal trainers, or other supplements, but they will be happy to pay for statin or blood pressure drugs, which run in the hundreds of dollars for people without insurance.

If we want to get serious about our health, then we must become proactive and realize ALL the possible things we can do to maintain a healthy life; they are investments in our futures. Insurance may not cover these procedures, BUT they are the tools that will keep us from using those plastic insurance cards with poor benefits. As deductibles continually skyrocket, co-pays increase, and premiums grow at exponential rates, the best advice I can give anyone is to look at proactive care as deposits in one’s health bank account. A person’s goal should be to NOT use the insurance card, as it is only good for when procedures are medically necessary.

Final Thoughts

I hope this article helps you better understand insurance companies relationship towards proactive care and why chiropractors do take insurance, but only when reactive. I tell all my patients that we need to begin working with the body rather than against it to ensure it is functioning at its optimum level. If you believe the same, please feel free to share this article and/or post a comment with your story below.

Best Way to Pay for Chiropractic Care

When most people seek chiropractic care they are usually expecting one adjustment to immediately correct their bodies. This reactive thinking has gotten our culture into a lot of trouble. In order for us to create massive change and make an impact, chiropractic care, like anything, takes time for lasting results. Whether it is building a business, getting more musculature, losing weight, reducing inflammation in the body, getting into a relationship, or becoming a master of an art, all processes require time.

With that said, it is everyone’s goal to maximize their hard earned money. It’s no coincidence that some of the more common questions we receive in the office are relating to saving money and the best way to pay for chiropractic care.

Best Payment Method

You can apply for a tax free program called a Health Savings Account (HSA). The people who qualify for these accounts have a minimum deductible of $1,250 and a maximum out of pocket of $6,250. If you do not know these two numbers for your insurance plan, then be sure to know them before applying for this tax savings account.

If qualify for care then your next step is to find a bank that has an HSA program.

The maximum amount in 2013 an individual can contribute to the account is $3,250, and $6,450 for a family. If you put $3,000 in the account and only use $2,000 that year, then the $1,000 difference stays in the account for following years because it never expires unlike, Flexible Spending Accounts. Another benefit to creating an account is you own the HSA, so if you find a new job or switch companies, the HSA will always be there.

If your company does not have HSA’s, I strongly recommend setting up an account and using it for your chiropractic services and other healthcare expenses. Whether you are paying monthly or up front for services, the most cost effective decision is to use an HSA card.

Best Way to Pay For Chiropractic Care

The chart to the right is taken from Wells Fargo’s HSA page and demonstrates how much money you could potentially save if you contributed $3,000 year to your account and used $500 in qualified medical expenses; your savings per year would be $2,500. With an annual return of 6%, this is what the account would look like after 5, 10, 15, and 20 years assuming a 28% federal tax bracket.

Final Thoughts

I hope that you find this suggestion for, what I believe to be, the best payment method for chiropractic care helpful. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions or if you’re already using an HSA account to pay for your care!

If you ask a random person on the street what a chiropractor does the most common response you will hear is “they help with back or neck pain”. Unfortunately, many people have become accustomed to using this response, which has pigeonholed my profession to focusing solely on the back and neck. Removing pain from a persons life is the smallest outcome a chiropractor produces based on the grand scale of how many physiological changes that are happening as the spine is corrected.

By the time someone feels pain usually a problem has been underlying for many years and has now begun to manifest as symptoms. This mentality is far from the typical thought process of the average American as we only think there is a problem when we are symptomatic. If this was true, then people would feel their heart hurting years before their heart attack or feel cancer cells replicating in their body once the cancer hits phase 1. Unfortunately for both those examples most people do not feel the problem until it is too late whether it is at the heart attack or in phase 4 cancer.

The focus of a corrective chiropractor is to find the problem early and get the problem corrected before it becomes painful. Sadly some people are in pain by the time they come to a corrective chiropractor but this only means the timing of care may be longer. The first phase of correction is eliminating the pain, and the second phase is correcting the problem, which is why getting checked by a corrective chiropractor is crucial as soon as possible. Therefore, you can see if the spine has lost its natural curves before it is too late.

The picture on the right represents a normal neck and shows a beautiful C-shaped curve. Most healthcare providers call this curve the ‘arc of life’ as it sends down millions of impulses and signals through the spine every day to communicate with the rest of the body. When kept in this position, this curve can function at 100% and clearly communicate with the body. From hours in front of the computer, old sports injuries, car accidents over 8 mph, poor postural patterns at work, sleeping improperly, and many other normalbiomechanical issues, we lose these natural curves and let them go through the phases of degeneration. The chart below represents the different phases and what would happen to someone if he/she did not see a corrective chiropractor. What most people think of as ‘due to old age’ or ‘genetics’ can be corrected or prevented based on taking proactive measures towards your health.

The first step is to call a corrective chiropractor and schedule a structural examination. If you live in Atlanta, we would be happy to evaluate you. During our time together, our team will determine how we can help and get you the best results.

The second step is scheduling your Report of Findings. At this time, you will review your x-rays with Dr. Cohen and see if you qualify for our care. If so, we will determine the length, time commitment, and costs of your personalized careplan. There are no hidden expenses and you would know all the numbers before beginning any care at our facility.

The third step is to enjoy the process. Our Community Wellness Advisor, Jessica, and Dr. Cohen are on a mission to change lives through living a proactive life, so please use them as resources to maximizing your care and health.

Below are examples of how we can correct the spine using the tools we have in our practice Atlanta:

                                PRE                                                                            POST

MegPre          MegPost

                                PRE                                                                            POST

lcleepre          lcleepost 

 

                                PRE                                                                            POST

 

HeinPre            HeinScoli

 

 

                                PRE                                                                            POST

 JessPre JessPost

woman sleeping

Before I go in to discussing techniques to better sleep it is more important you get that almost all symptoms derive from the stress response.

The stress response is our bodies way of adapting to a situation and it should be a natural response that is a good thing. Unfortunately in our society most people live their life under stress whether it’s physical, chemical, or emotional stresses. In the wild, when you have animals being chased by their predators the animal which is the prey will be going through the stress response (fight or flight) while it is being chased. This is great as certain physiological responses will happen:

1) Blood pressure rises (you want to hurry and get away from someone chasing you)
2) Cholesterol increases
3) Blood sugar increases (your body needs more sugar when being chased)
4) Serotonin decreases (nobody cares about being happy under stress)
5) Decrease memory (remember cramming in college and not remember everything)
6) Digestion slows down (your body does not care about digesting food in times of stress)
7) Decrease immunity – (immunity will increase after fight or flight to help with the healing response)
8) Decrease sex drive (nobody cares about having sex under times of stress)
9) Melatonin decreases (you don’t want to sleep under stress)

These are many of the physiological stresses that occur while in fight or flight and chronically they lead to the MD drugging us for one of those symptoms. High blood pressure? Pills for that. Depression? More pills for that Diabetes? Drugs for that.

And what really frustrates me about almost all of these is that is that they can be helped naturally without the use of drugs or surgery. If we do things for our body that go to the CAUSE and not just treat the EFFECTS then we can truly living a life of reaching our max human potential.

Hours to Sleep

Now that you get the stress response it is important to learn how to get your best nights sleep. In the hunter and gatherer days the animals would spend the summers hunting and gathering massive food so they can prepare their body for the dark winter months. I truly feel the reason why we have more light in the summer was for that reason which means waking up earlier and staying up later will be ok during these months.

ACTION STEP: Go to timeanddate.com and type in your city to get the time of sunrise and sunset. The goal would be to fall asleep within an hour of this time so your body follows the natural rhythm of the sun.

Foods to Eat Before Bed

*Cherries – lower glycemic index and naturally release melatonin
* Grass-fed beef – for people looking to gain muscle mass it is great to eat beef before bed as it is a slow digesting protein.
* Sweet potatoes
* Water
* Whey protein

Best Positions/Mattresses/Pillows

Best Pillow – Tempurpedic Side Pillow
Best Mattress – iComfort
Best Position to Sleep – On back with pill under leg/on side with pillow between leg

Supplements for Better Sleep

Min-Tran – Stands for Mineral Tranquilizer and calms the nervous system and helps the body relax. Taking 3 capsules a night before bed helps shut down the body if it is fight or flight. Cost – $6/bottle

Cataplex G – This vitamin is made predominantly of B vitamins and helps calm the nervous system. It also helps the body with repair to increase cellular function. Cost – $11

Techniques to Crash

4 x 4 Breathing – Before bed breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, breathe our for 4 seconds, and hold out for 4 seconds. Breathing helps to calm the nervous system which focuses on the cause.

Black Out – Turn the alarm clock around, put black tape on the cable tv light, and make sure there is no light in the room. Even the smallest light can block melatonin and not allow your body to sleep.

Listen to Sleep Meditation – One of my favorite things to do is go to YouTube.com and type in “guided sleep meditation”. Play this before you go to bed and I promise you be “lights out” before the meditation ends.

Remember, sleep is 1/3 of your life and people with poor sleep tend to have poor health. Follow these recommendations and keep increasing your bodys health potential and living the life of your dreams.

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i-am-an-addict

I am currently 32,000 ft in the air leaving the “Land of Smiles (Thailand) and just had the best 2 weeks of my life. On the plane where time seems to standstill I have been thinking about how excited I am to get back to Atlanta and get back on my routine. For the past 2 weeks on my honeymoon I have dropped from getting adjusted weekly to zero, to working out 6 days a week to none, eating 98% paleo to 20%, taking daily protein shakes and supplements to nothing, and the only thing I have maintained is massage, as for an hourlong Thai massage runs a whopping $7 or 200 Baht (for my new Thai subscribers).

Many people would tell me before my trip “Doc, I bet your excited to get off your diet and stop working out for a bit” or in some context let me know how good it is going to be for me to cheat. These statements could not be further from the truth on how I felt this trip! I always find it interesting that if you take someone who eats very clean and feed them junk food they don’t feel well or someone who eats a ton of junk and get them eating super clean they sometimes can’t tolerate it all at once. I didn’t get sick this trip but always felt full and could probably go the rest of my life without pad Thai or rice.

This whole thought process and the reason I am writing this is because I am 100% addicted to being healthy and living. My name is Austin Cohen and I am addicted to chiropractic adjustments, eating healthy, working out, and living my greatest life to reach my full potential. It may sound awkward that I am writing this but as a chiropractor I hear some of the most outlandish comments such as:

  • “”Once you get a chiropractic adjustment you have to get adjusted for the rest of your life.””
  • “Crossfit is like a cult of people where in order to get really good you have to workout here a lot and for a very long time”.
  • “I hear once you get a massage you will want to go the rest of your life”
  • “If I take fish oil or D3 do I have to take them the rest of my life”

These comments always confuse me because what is so wrong about being addicted to getting your spine properly lined up in its correct juxtaposition so the brain can send clear signals down your spine and out your nerves to all of your organs and organ systems at 100%. Is it a problem I am also addicted to my dentist and will go twice a year for the rest of my LIFE to make sure my teeth are clean there is no decay and my gums are healthy. What is wrong about working out at the SAME gym regularly and doing it for the rest of my life so I can be more functionally fit. What is wrong about living healthy the rest of my life and trying to find all the things out there nowadays that will allow me truly be healthy. I am bringing all of this up because watching the downward spiral of our country and the healthcare stats are really starting to fire me up. When did we become such a quick fix or want it now culture? Obviously if that model works so well we would be the healthiest and richest country in the world but if we look at the stats or even around us we know that is not true.

I ask and encourage all of you (yes, you!) to look at your addictions whether good or bad and how can you convert the bad ones to good ones. For example, some people are addicted to having an immobile spine with not 100% connection. Some people are addicted to eating junk foods such as grains, sugar, and processed dairy and other packaged foods. Some people are addicted to the television and couch and not getting proper exercise to keep their cardiovascular system working right.

My question of the week is: What addictions are in your life right now whether they are good or bad and how can you take the bad ones and convert them into healthy addictions?

Once you answer this then realize that you have an abundant amount of resources around you to help with this conversion. And guess what? It may not happen overnight but step by step and day by day you will begin to lose those unhealthy addictions. If you feel stuck then either post a comment below or go to facebook.com/draustincohen and join in on the discussion and ask away.

Kids and Chiropractic

Many times during the tour in the office for new patients I always get the “You take care of kids”? I then respond with “Well, could you imagine your health if you were living this lifestyle from birth or even getting adjusted since then”. They then say “I probably wouldn’t be in the situations I am in right now and be much healthier.” If you have not brought your kids to the office to get adjusted please bring them by not for your or my benefit but for THEIR benefit. The World we live in is filled with plenty of children not eating right, not moving properly, low self esteem, and not getting adjusted. Let’s change this and make our community a much better place to live.

Here is some amazing research to pass on to your friends and family to see if chiropractic can help them or their families: