Hometown Family Wellness Center
Experienced Chiropractor in Freehold
An amazing research quote says that chiropractic care can actually prevent arthritis. Did you know that “If joint immobility is not corrected within two weeks, osteoarthritis becomes permanent”…or that “Permanent changes cannot be reversed”…AND even more importantly that “Restoring mobility to the joint will prevent it (arthritis) from progressing?” Source: Clinical Biomechanics reported as far back as 1987 (issue 2:223-229)
Watch for more details:
Dr. Russell Brokstein, chiropractor in Freehold, NJ, played competitive soccer for 28 years, and values the edge chiropractic gave to his playing days toward the end of his soccer career. “It helped me keep up with players half my age and in many instances prevented injuries by keeping me more flexible, having a better range of motion, and quicker healing capacity. I wish I had been introduced to chiropractic at a younger age to experience the benefits all those years playing”
Dr. Brokstein helps athletes of all ages in the Freehold, Howell, Marlboro, Manalapan and Colts Neck area by providing chiropractic and sports medicine techniques so they can benefit this “drug free” and “secret weapon” that many college and professional athletes are taking advantage of. Now there is further research that shows chiropractic can improve overall athletic performance. Professional teams and athletes are hiring chiropractors for this reason. Watch the video where Dr. Brokstein talks more about this topic:
Home stretching is an important part of all treatment plans. Dr. Russell Brokstein shows basic stretching in this part 1 of 2 for reducing neck, shoulder and upper back pain, stress and tension. Doing home stretching can also be used in prevention of future injuries from occurring.
Every day I hear patients explain to me that they have pain and they don’t know how it happened. Many medical doctors explain to their patients that they have arthritis that has formed in their spine and other joints. The patient is concerned with how it got there, but most doctors say it’s part of aging.
As a chiropractor in Freehold, NJ, it is important for the public to be educated on how this happens. Seeing people from all over Monmouth County, NJ in the towns of Marlboro, Howell, Colts Neck, Jackson, Morganville, Freehold and Manalapan, NJ, they always ask: Is it from the stress of their work? From playing golf for 20 years? Sitting at desks in school for years on end slouching? Or maybe the car accident many years ago?
The answer is.. it is more likely to be from the accumulative affects of all of these stresses to the body. From the time you are born, the medical doctors pulls and twists your neck and shoulders to deliver you. Then as an infant you start to learn how to walk… how many times do you think you fell? Do you have brothers or sisters? If so, did you wrestle or trip each other as a joke? As you get older you sit in classrooms with bad postures or carry backpacks that are too heavy for the spine. Did you play any sports and take a hard fall or tackle? Think of the trauma of just a little fender bender. Do you carry a pocket book or briefcase on a daily basis? Have you ever missed that last step or curb?
I think you get the point that every little thing builds up in your body, causing the joints to misalign. So, the real question with arthritis and spinal degeneration is not what you did, but what you haven’t done! Joints wear down faster when they are not aligned properly… they are stuck and not moving well. That’s why it is important to be under chiropractic care to get the joints aligned properly and keep them moving.
A great analogy to consider is your car: As you drive your car, your wheels become misaligned especially if you hit a pothole or a curb while parking. If you keep driving with them misaligned, the car starts to pull to one side, the tires wear out unevenly, and other parts of the car start to break down. You don’t keep driving like that if you want your car to last long enough. Also, every 3 months or 3500 miles or so we are informed to take the car in for maintenance, oil, lube and filter. Neglecting your car for this maintenance, you will build up expenses to fix things and the car won’t last as long as you want, your fuel efficiency decreases, you will have to keep replacing tires, etc.
Some research shows that arthritis starts to form after a joint is misaligned for as little as 2 weeks. Just like a cavity in the teeth, if it isn’t caught early enough it will progressively get worse. You know that waiting to fix these things costs a lot more money than if you had just prevented it from happening.
Blaming the activities in your life for arthritis is like blaming the sidewalk for scuffing your shoes. Everything wears down naturally as we use them, including your spine. If you focus more on prevention with regular maintenance chiropractic care, you can help slow down arthritis and other forms of wear and tear. Most people get this concept when it comes to their teeth: their teeth don’t hurt, but they get their teeth examined one to 2 times a year and cleaned, brush their teeth daily and floss to prevent decay. If you didn’t do this, teeth would decay as part of normal aging too! But it can be prevented with proper care.
Well your spine is a dynamic system that protects the most important system of your body.. your nervous system! Your nervous system controls all functions of your body. Many activities, stress and nutritional choices affect your spine and nervous system! Your teeth can always be replaced, but your spine and nervous system CANNOT!
In our office we take a different approach to your health than any other health professional in the area! As a chiropractor, we make sure your spine is aligned and properly balanced so your nervous system functions optimally. On top of that, Dr. Brokstein, DC also analyzes your body for stress, adrenal function and the toxicity of your body. We are the ONLY doctor in Monmouth County, NJ to have state of the art FDA cleared biofeedback to analyze your body for over 160,000 sensitivities and stressors. We educate our patients on healthy eating, weight loss and exercise. Prevention NOW is more cost affective and helps avoid harmful drugs that at best just cover up symptoms and surgery. Don’t wait and get your spine and health checked today!
Protecting your feet is an important step in stabilizing your spine, body and health!
Every day you walk or stand on your feet for extended periods, yet you most likely overlook the importance of your feet and the support they receive. Every step you take immediately sends forces to the ankles, calves, knees, 
and hips that will extend all the way through your spine.
When you exercise with running, jogging and jumping the impact increases significantly. A BBC News article states, “…champion male sprinters can hit the ground with a force that’s around 2.5 times their body weight (most people manage around two times).” Read the entire article: Will we ever… run 100M in under nine seconds?
More injuries are likely with the additional forces placed upon the feet during exercise especially when they are not supported properly. The feet need proper footwear for different activity levels because our feet are the initial point of contact for most exercises.
Lets take a look at some activities:
Running – A great deal of stress is placed on the body every time you stride and the foot makes impact with the ground. Whether you land on the balls of your toes or heel strike first, the impact on your feet while running is increased with the amount and frequency of impact. The entire foot needs to be supported for these different types of gait, providing stability of the 3 ligaments that make up the arch of the foot and the shifting balance of the foot. Proper support will ease the impact you experience that puts pressure on the feet, ankles, knees, hips, other joints and discs in the spine as you add up the miles you jog or run. The correct support in your footwear reduces the stress on the body and soreness you can experience from exercise.
Exercise in the Gym – Many people go to the gym and more are getting into high intensity interval training and crossfit as they are total body workouts. These new crazes hitting the fitness world involve quickly shifting the body, rapid jump movements and pivoting. Your body relies on the feet for optimal balance, stability and posture, especially to ensure correct form and injury prevention. The feet are stressed at many angles from these forms of activity, so your sneakers need to provide stability of your feet. If you are involved in this type of exercise, you have to make sure your sneakers aren’t too soft or cushioned as it won’t provide even support and will reduce the stability you are given.
Not only are your feet different from everybody else in size and structure of the arch but your two feet are different from each other. Then take into account how different your activity level is from every other person, it is important to get the right fit for EVERY situation.
Athletes and weekend warriors can control posture and stability during their workouts by combining the proper footwear with individually designed Stabilizing Orthotics. This not only helps prevent injuries, but optimizes your overall performance.
If you take care of your feet, it will help take care of other parts of your body and help to avoid common exercise injuries. It’s a chain reaction when your feet are not properly supported. View the picture to the right to see what happens when your feet are not balanced. The arches start to drop at just 5 years of age and one side will usually drop more than the other. This is just like driving a car with misaligned wheels: the tires wear out unevenly, the car will most likely pull to one side, parts start wearing out, fuel efficiency drops, expenses to fix and repair damages increase.
Over time, just imagine how much stress is building on all the joints above your feet. Then add the impact of exercise and it exponentially increases, causing the joints to wear down more quickly, degeneration, foot pain, knee pain, hip pain, low back pain and even leads to neck pain.
In our Freehold Chiropractic office, Hometown Family Wellness Center, we utilize chiropractic adjustments of the spine as well as the extremities (ankle, feet, knees and hips) and Foot Leveler’s Spinal Pelvic Stabilizers to help bring your body back to its natural state of alignment. Using state of the art technology, we scan your feet to show you the imbalances of your feet and how severe your risks to injury are due to pronation of the feet, then the scan is used to build your custom fitted pelvic stabilizers. This not only helps support your feet and prevent injuries, but it helps our patients hold their adjustments longer by stabilizing the foundation of the body. Our goal is to correct the underlying cause of your pain and instability as quickly as possible and help prevent future problems down the road. For further information about Freehold NJ Chiropractor, go to www.chiropractorfreehold.com or call our office at 732-780-0044 for a consultation and complimentary foot scan.