Hopefully you've never been forced to think about just how vital spine health is. Everyday activities like playing with your kids, shopping, standing, sitting, sneezing and even reaching to pick up a piece of paper can turn into major ordeals when your spine is out of sorts. Here are a few tips to keep your spine in tip-top shape:

• Lift with your legs; avoid bending over when lifting any object
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Stay hydrated
• Strengthen your core
• Stay fit with daily exercise; avoid sedentary lifestyles
• Visit Dr. Dukes for regular adjustments

Following these common-sense tools combined with regular adjustments is powerful preventive medicine. Call Dr. Dukes. Schedule your consultation and learn how chiropractic care can keep you living life on your terms. Call today (813) 752-2524.

  who seek headache treatments have mixed results at best. Patients frequently focus on seeking help through medication because they don’t realize that they have any other choice. The good news is that Dr. Dukes is extremely effective at reducing the intensity, severity, and frequency of various headache symptoms through non-invasive and drug-free treatment.

Specialists like Dr. Dukes address the root causes of many types of headaches. There are three common headache types that people experience: Tension, Migraine and Cervicogenic. A tension headache may feel like someone is “pressing a band” around your head. A migraine headache may create tension or pain in just one side of the head. However, migraines are often accompanied by nausea and light and sound sensitivity. Cervicogenic headaches are talked about less frequently than tension headaches and migraines and typically create pain in one or more spots in the face or head.

'Headaches' is a very broad term. It's important to focus clinically on the root cause. Repetitive stress, physical trauma, poor sitting, standing, or sleeping posture and unsupportive pillows are a few of the common causes allowing your upper thoracic and cervical spine vertebrae to shift out of alignment.

As providers of natural, proactive care, chiropractors like Dr. Dukes are in a unique position to relieve your headache pain.  Dr. Dukes will focus on several treatment objectives such as:

•     Reducing irritation in the nerves that are responsible for sending pain signals to the brain.
  
•     Restoring communication among elements of your nervous system.
•     Getting healthy, normalized blood flow going.
•     Strengthening muscles that provide support to your spine.

What makes chiropractic care such a powerful tool in treating headaches is the hyper-focus on the root cause of your pain.  When you're ready to feel your best and live life on your terms, call Dr. Dukes. Schedule your consultation and learn how chiropractic care can give you the relief you need today and the tools to minimize future pain. Call today (813) 752-2524.

Your mobility means so much more than walking. Learn how your spine can help—and hurt—your independence.

Seemingly simple acts of body movement, such as putting on your shoes, suddenly become painfully complicated when your spine isn't working properly. Your spine is what allows your body to maintain stability as you move.  

A healthy, strong spine is essential to your mobility, just as neck and back issues can take away your independence. It's easy to take mobility for granted.

What Is Mobility?

Simply put, mobility is your ability to move when and how you want. It’s not just about how well you can participate in sports or exercise — it's how easily you perform simple daily tasks, like putting on your clothes, gardening or preparing meals.  For most of us mobility declines with age but, how much it declines is a choice that most of us can influence. Mobility requires strength, balance, stamina, and coordination—all things that we can maintain as we age through wellness plans that include stretching, exercise and other healthy habits.

Mobility’s Multi-Faceted Effects on Health

What might start off as a minor inconvenience can spiral. The decline of your mobility sets off a domino effect of issues that affect your physical, mental and emotional health that is often associated with increased risk of depression and reduced quality of life. Back or neck pain causes many patients to no longer be able to enjoy thier favorite activities or cut time with friends or family short because they’re in too much pain.  Fortunately, mobility loss can be prevented—and, in some cases, reversed.

Safe, Effective Treatment Options

When you have back or neck pain, movement may be that last thing you want to think about. However, stretching, exercise, chiropractic care, physical theray and massage are essential for good spine health.  These non-invasive drug-free approaches are among the best things you can do for your long-term spine health and preservation of your mobility. In fact, the American College of Physicians recently released an update to its low back pain treatment guideline that recommends first using non-drug treatments, such as spinal manipulation,  for acute and chronic low back pain. A systematic review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association also supports the use of spinal manipulative therapy as a first-line treatment for acute low back pain.

Each of us will experience some mobility loss with age which is why it's so important to recognize that your body was made to move.  Live life to the fullest. Protect your mobility.  Call Dr. Dukes.  She'll listen to you, learn about your needs and goals. Then help you define a preventative wellness plan or find relief if you're already hurting.

Reach out to Dr. Dukes today! (813) 752-2524