CHOICES NEWSLETTER

July 06, 2003

Welcome to CHOICES, Gutrich Chiropractic and Naprapathy's Newsletter

Keeping you up-to-date in the constantly changing and expanding field of complementary health care. Forward to a friend!

What’s All The Fuss About Holistic Care?

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and emotional well-being. It is not merely the absence of disease or infirmary”. The purpose of chiropractic care is not only the relief of the symptom(s), as important as this may be to the patient, but also to treat the patient in their full complexity. That is, to recognize that back pain, neck pain, shoulder, hip, or knee pain, allergies, indigestion, and a host of other conditions, involve many of the body’s systems the nerves, muscles, bones, ligaments, and all the body’s organs, including the mind and brain.

By focusing on all the body’s systems, we can put an end to pain and prevent future problems from occurring as well. To treat the “whole person” is to provide (w)holistic care.

Sinus Trouble: How We Can Help

sinus.jpg Do you wake up with a stuffy head or mucus in your throat? Do you feel as if you always have a cold? You may be suffering from Sinusitis - the most common condition in the 18-45 year old group. Sinusitis is caused by inhaled irritants and excessively hot, dry air in buildings and is often accompanied by throbbing headaches.

Traditional medicine tries to tackle the problem by prescribing anti-histamines and decongestants. Unfortunately, these methods are controversial; these drugs can cause drowsiness, high blood pressure, and can actually cause mucus to thicken and create “rebound stuffiness”. If your body is working properly, your resistance to irritants is high - a healthy body has properly draining sinuses.

By relieving stress on the nervous system, chiropractic helps the body function optimally, preventing sinusitis and the pain and unpleasantness associated with it.

Current Events

Chiropractic cervical adjustments have recently been criticized in the journal, Neurology. The May 13 Health story on a study of chiropractic and stroke did not approach the subject with a critical eye. The rare type of stroke discussed — the vertebral artery dissection — has been associated with many commonplace activities such as talking on the phone, swimming, stargazing, overhead work, hair shampooing and even sleeping.

A recent biomechanical study that measured the forces transmitted to the vertebral artery during cervical spine (neck) manipulation found that the forces transmitted to the artery during this procedure are less than one-ninth the force necessary to stretch or otherwise damage a normal vertebral artery. Based upon this study and other evidence, many experts believe that it is impossible for a competently performed neck adjustment to cause a vertebral artery dissection unless the artery already has a significant preexisting weakness. The odds of suffering a serious complication from a chiropractic neck treatment are about one in 2 million — the same as dying in a commercial airline crash. Even the most conservative conventional medical treatment for neck and back pain, prescription nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, is hundreds of times more likely to cause a serious reaction. Reprinted from The Washington Post, May 22, 2003.

About Us

Dr. Janet Gutrich and Dr. Chris Halliday are graduates from the National College of Chiropractic. Dr. Gutrich is also a Naprapath and a Nurse. Both Doctors have extensive knowledge of dietary counseling and nutrition, physical therapy and rehabilitation of all injuries. They are dedicated to achieving optimal health for their patients through a conservative approach of chiropractic care, nutrition, exercise and lifestyle counseling.

Dr. Yuan Jun Liu studied Acupuncture in China and is certified in the U.S. Her expertise has benefited pain-sufferers for nineteen years. Our highly-trained massage therapists, Wayne Hussy and Nina Belan, offer a wide range of therapeutic benefits that perfectly complement our mission at Gutrich Chiropractic; to optimize your health.

Together with our exceptional Office Manager, Mandy Gillis and Chiropractic Assistant, Stacey Gillis, we at Gutrich Chiropractic have offered the highest quality health care for over twenty years in the Chicago area.