Elevate Your Health Colorado Meghan Dukes's blog

Beyond being everyone's favorite time of year for allergy complaints, the return of warmer weather and sandal season often brings increased moans and groans of foot pain. Longer days and higher temperatures have us all headed out the door to the zoo, art & music festivals or farmer's markets; almost all of which involve long periods of walking on concrete surfaces. Even if you haven't ever had Plantar Fasciitis yourself, chances are you've known someone who has.

Even though spring has just barely arrived, the seasonal switch this year is leaving many people feeling more like we're on the verge of summer. As great as all this sunshine feels, the warm days and less than sparse precipitation mixed with our regular spring-time high winds have pushed allergy season right up next to the end of cold and flu days this year. Though everyone experiences allergies differently, there is a common trend this time of year for the watery eyes and runny noses to take over even the most well-adjusted immune season.

The arrival of another Leap Year is a great time to take stock of all the things we can accomplish with an extra day, but also a great time to fine tune our fitness routines. With our New Year's goals (hopefully) well underway, and warmer weather approaching, why not take this time to add a little something extra to your program to shake things up.

One of the biggest culprits for back pain in adults is the 8+ hours most of us spend chained to our desks plugging away. From computers to tablets and smart phones, out digital age has harnessed us to stationary work environments with everything (and then some) at our finger tips. This prolonged inactivity can wreak havoc on our bones, joints and muscles and lead to even lower energy levels as the day goes on.

One of the most common questions I get from patients with lower back pain is "when can I go back to exercising?". Though this seems to be a legitimate concern, more often than not, the patients seem surprised by my answer. The truth is that is many cases, one of the best things you can do to speed up your recovery from lower back pain (as well as mid-back and neck pain) is exercise!

Every year people everywhere make a big effort to better themselves personally and set New Year’s resolutions.  Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to be their own worst enemies, setting unreasonably high goals that are nearly impossible to attain.

Even though we know this is supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year, time after time it seems to end up being one of the most stressful.  As much as we all love the fun and festivities of the season, from the shopping, to the entertaining and all that family time, the stress just creeps right in.

During the week of Thanksgiving I like to take a minute to appreciate how thankful I am that I get to do what I love everyday and help so many people.  Though every patient has their own story and personal reasons for seeking out the services of the Complementary Medicine Department, each one is a new reminder of how much our health matters.

Though it’s something that I hear quite a bit in both my practice and in everyday life, for some reason lately I’ve noticed an increase in the number of people mentioning to me that they “don’t believe in chiropractors”.  Beyond making the obvious correction that we are in fact real people (and not in cahoots with the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy) and that they probably mean that they don’t believe in “chiropractic”, it’s still an odd statement to have to react to.  As I’ve been thinking more about it; however, it occur

With Halloween right around the corner, many parents can worry about how to let their families enjoy the fun of the holiday without suffering some of the more unsavory after-effects of extreme candy consumption.  While we all know that “everything in moderation” is a great rule to live by, it’s sometimes hard to follow at times like this.  Well one of my patients came in the other day with one of the best ideas I’ve heard in a while.  She told me that she always has a hard time letting her kids be as indulgent as they want when it comes to their Hal