Classical Music’s Effect on Health
I often have wondered if classical music effects our health. I had heard that playing the harp is good for the player’s health because one pulls the strings toward their body creating a vibrating frequency that promotes good health. We have all heard of the ‘Mozart Effect’. Well Elisabeth Thompson is a home schooled high school student and patient at my office. She wrote an intriguing paper on the effects of classical music on health that with her permission I post here.
Classical Music and Health
By Elisabeth Thompson
Classical music is timeless for a reason. The effects of playing or listening to it are widely unknown. Studies and experiments show listening and playing to classical music can help children’s brain development and overall health. Classical music doesn’t make anyone smarter, but based on the way it is used and enjoyed; it can create a better atmosphere for a young brain to prosper. Playing and listening to classical music gives people a calm environment, releases healthy hormones and affects memorization neural pathways. Continue reading
Gluten, Wheat and Inflammation
By Dr. Cynthia Horner
Is all this talk about gluten and being gluten free just hype, or is there something healthy about reducing gluten in your diet?
Gluten is a protein in the kernel of the head of the wheat plant. There is another protein that doesn’t get as much press gliadin. These proteins are also found in some other grains but not to the extent that they are found in wheat. Continue reading
Stress Effects on Focus and Learning
Focus, Memory and Learning
Stress has a specific effect on both focus and memory. Focus and memory are the beginning steps to studying and learning. Your body functions either in growth function or protection function. When your body is responding to danger, your growth function shuts down as protection function takes over making focus and memory difficult. Continue reading
Chiropractic Adjustment of an Infant
I am often met with surprise when people hear me say I adjust infants. “Why would an infant need to be adjusted?” is the question that usually follows. As surprising and unusual as it may seem, it makes perfect sense to have your infant checked by a pediatric chiropractor trained and experienced in chiropractic care for infants.
Today’s birthing practices are harder on infants than most realize. A mother lying on her back doesn’t have gravity to help her birth her baby. With the standard birth practices babies stay in the birth canal longer and need more intervention such as the doctor assisting by pulling the baby’s head, the use of forceps or vacuum distraction. Continue reading
Back Pain During Pregnancy
Back Pain During Pregnancy is a Common Complaint
By Dr. Cynthia Horner
Approximately 50% of pregnant women experience back pain. Pregnancy should be a time of joy and expectation. If you are experiencing back pain the joy of pregnancy is overcast with thoughts of how to get relief. Specific chiropractic adjustments by a chiropractor trained in the care of pregnant women can be the answer for relief of back pain. Knowing what causes back pain during pregnancy can help you avoid it completely or resolve it once it appears. Learning stretching exercises and adapting your postural habits are also helpful in avoiding or resolving back pain. Continue reading
Babies Need Touch
By Dr. Cynthia Horner
Babies learn about their world by touching objects, but they learn about people by the way we touch them.
We can live without sight, hearing, smell or taste, but without touch we die. Touch throughout life is not a luxury but a necessity. Touch starts not at birth but in utero.
Continue reading
Sugar and Your Health
By Dr. Cynthia Horner
I am often asked if sugar is really bad for kids. After all isn’t sugar a part of all children’s lives? Well the answer is, it is. Sugar can seriously affect your health. It can cause damaged blood vessels and high cholesterol as well as arthritic joints and degeneration of brain tissue. Processed sugar may taste good but it is an enemy of our bodies. All carbohydrates turn to sugar on our mouth or stomach. The food that starts out as sugar when eaten in excess creates problems for our bodies and our children’s bodies. For optimal health, it’s best to ask, “How much sugar does my body need?” Rather than, “How much can I eat without getting sick or fat?”
What is sugar?
Sugar cane was first used by people in the islands of the south Pacific, where it grew naturally. Their recorded use of sugar cane to enhance the flavor of food dates back to 20,000 BC. India was the first country to extract cane juice to make the first true sugar, which they called “gur” (loosely translated as “tasting sweet”). Today, sugar is made from cane or beets that are crushed and dissolved in water. The raw syrup is boiled down to a concentrate, to where some crystallizes; the remaining black/brown syrupy mixture is molasses. The crystals are processed several times and refined to increase the purity, resulting in the white crystals we know as table sugar. The whiteness is not due to bleaching. White table sugar is called sucrose.
The Importance of Crawling for an Infant
By Dr Cynthia Horner
All parents want their infants and children to progress as quickly as possible in their motor and intellectual development. Although each child has their own developmental timetable there are some stages of neurological development that are important such as crawling and the disappearance of what is termed primitive reflexes Each stage of movement molds the nervous system in a different way. Pushing a child to progress too quickly may cause them to skip a stage or not fully benefit from a stage of 
development.
Hot Flashes, Hormones, and Health
Dr. Cynthia Horner
What’s a Woman to Do?
Yes. I hear myself saying “is it hot in here, or is it me?” Although symptoms may vary; from foggy thinking, hot flashes and changes in general health, if you are female, you will go through menopause. Once you check in, you can’t check out. If you are not there
yet the best way to prepare for an easy passage is to be knowledgeable. It’s your body, it’s your life. Put all the information you can on the table and sort through, and pick out what make sense, what is good for you. Continue reading
Do You Really Need to Supplement Vitamin D?
by Dr. Cynthia Horner
The D Difference
The universal benefit from sunlight is its ability to activate the skin to produce vitamin D. There are three ways to get vitamin D, from food, from supplements and from the sun. Food supplies us with only small amounts of vitamin D therefore humans must count on the sun to allow their skin to produce vitamin D. Sun exposure has a positive effect on your health in that sun’s UVA and UVB rays are necessary for our bodies to make vitamin D.
Continue reading
