Powersource Chiropractic will be preforming Backpack Safety Screenings for San Luis Obispo students Tuesday, August 23 from 1-3pm. Please call to schedule.

We all want our children to do well in school. We make sure they bring home their books and do their homework at night. We make sure they have their books packed away in their backpacks and ready to be taken to classes the next day. However, what we may be overlooking is a threat to our children's spine more sinister than any fall off the swing set or sports injury.

Recently scientists have begun to examine the effects of carrying heavy backpacks full of books. What they have discovered is that carrying heavy backpacks may pose a serious threat to your child's spinal development. A team of researchers at Auburn University has studied 421 students and found that backpacks carried with one strap promoted lateral spinal bending and shoulder elevation. Additionally, they noted carrying a backpack with both straps promoted significant forward lean of head and trunk. You may have seen this postural condition, commonly known as the “Hunch Back”, in your child already.

The scientists stated that the average backpack represented 17% of the child's body weight. If we apply this standard to adults, it would be the equivalent of the average 150 pound adult carrying a 26-pound backpack!! The researchers went on to conclude that the daily physical stresses associated with carrying a backpack on one shoulder significantly alters the posture and gait of the youth. The authors of the study also stated that the effects of weight bearing induced stress is a serious issue when considering children and youths who are experiencing physical growth and motor development.  I know that none of us want our children to be subject to such issues, especially going to or from school.

If your child does use a backpack to carry books there are things that they can do to reduce the physical stress associated with carrying backpacks:

1. Make sure that the weight of the book-bag does not exceed more than 15% of the child's total body weight. This is especially important for children in grades 1-4. A simple weight scale can help you determine this percentage.

2. Avoid using backpacks or athletic bags that have only one strap.

4. Use the waist belt at all times.   

5. Use of a roller bag is preferred, as long as there are not a lot of stairs in the school.

Finally, it is important to have your child’s spine evaluated to make sure it is in good working alignment. Setting a weight-bearing backpack on an already misaligned spine can cause risk of injury. Simply call your local chiropractor and set up a spinal evaluation that includes your child’s percentage of backpack to body weight measurements.   

It’s back again – that dull steady pain that starts at the back of your head and moves forward, making you feel as though your head is being squeezed in a vice. Sometimes it lasts for a half hour, other times it may last for weeks on end. Tension headaches, also known as stress headaches, affect nearly 40% of all adults and teenagers, making them the most common type of headache. Headaches are known to affect over 45 million Americans and literally rob them of the life that they and their family deserve.

The great news is that researchers are discovering that chiropractic care often decreases the frequency and length of headaches as well as reducing the need for pain relievers.

Tension headache causes include stress, hormones, depression, fatigue, dehydration, holding your head in the same position for long periods of time (i.e., working at a computer, performing research using a microscope, and other types of “close” work), anxiety, TMJ, and spinal conditions, such as degenerative disc disease or arthritis.

So what do you do when you experience this type of headache? Do you pop a few pain relievers and go to bed? Grin and bear it? Take a prescription pain pill? Do you realize that these so-called solutions to your pain only address the symptom (the pain) and not the cause of your headaches? Do you realize that chronic pill popping can actually cause more headaches (known as the “rebound effect)? Are these “solutions” really working for you?

Headaches are one of the most common condition for which patients seek help in our practice. Why? Because chiropractic has shown impressive results in reducing both the number and the duration of tension headaches.

Tension headaches are often the result of muscle tension in the neck, and chiropractors are trained to locate and correct this muscle tension which can wreak havoc on your nervous system, causing problems throughout your body. Following an appropriate examination, chiropractic care can begin to take the pressure off the joints and nerves that cause the “tension” in the first place.

If you or someone you know is tired of “solutions” for tension headaches that do nothing more than treat symptoms, let your chiropractor know. Dr. Dubrul has many patient testimonials that praise the safety and success of chiropractic care in our practice.

To schedule a complementary consultation with Dr. Dubrul, please click here or call 805-781-9155.

San Luis Obispo, CA (July 7, 2011) – On June 13^th Dr. Scott Dubrul of Powersource Chiropractic opened his doors to Cal Poly Kinesiology major Ryan Fessel for a ten-week period of hands-on, career-oriented practical experience in the chiropractic profession.

Throughout its history, Cal Poly has emphasized hands-on education, where bridges are regularly made between general principles and practical applications. In keeping with this philosophy, Powersource Chiropractic has presented Ryan Fessel a fieldwork program which provides him with supervised, professional training in a setting that is appropriate for Ryan’s future interests and career goals.

Ryan has been studying Kinesiology for the past two years at Cal Poly and has decided to pursue a doctorate in Chiropractic following his graduation from Cal Poly.

“I’ve had very positive experiences in Chiropractic.” says Ryan. “I am excited to learn how to best serve patients as well as run my own practice some day.”

 Dr. Dubrul has been successful in his practice over the last 19 years. He runs a wellness practice focused on taking care of a patient’s diet, lifestyle and movement patterns from birth throughout life.

 “I am energized to have Ryan as a part of my practice. I hope to offer him experiences in my practice that will help guide him for success in his future. Being one of his mentors and clinical teachers allows me to serve as a good role model and thus improve my own role as a chiropractor as well.” says Dr. Scott Dubrul.

 Powersource will provide Ryan with a variety of experiences relating not only to patient contact and management, but also administrative procedures including budget and finance, publicity and public relations, operations and personal management.

Scott Dubrul, DC has been in private practice in the San Luis Obispo area for more than 18 years. Dr. Dubrul’s chiropractic clinic is designated to guiding a patient from pain relief to optimal function. Since 1993, he’s been encouraging patients to examine their internal motivations to achieve overall wellness. Through an objective examination, he educates patients and provides tools to make improvements. For more information about how Dr. Dubrul can help you achieve better overall health and wellness, please visit www.powersourcechiropractic.com or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I am sure most of you reading this know the rest of the title... “Took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.”

The roads by which I speak of are the pathways that lead to sickness and the pathways that lead to wellness. If you are like most Americans, you probably have some idea of what you ‘should’ be doing to be healthy. Doing it, however, is often a different story.

Let’s take a look at getting yourself on the road to wellness in a way that is easy to implement and achieve.

First and foremost, it is important to have an operating definition of wellness. Wellness is simply your body functioning the best it possibly can at any given moment of your life. There is a simple four-part tagline, which was taught to me by my mentor, James Chestnut D.C., that gives you the basics of how to achieve overall wellness.

So here it is: In order to be well, you must eat well, move well, think well and rest well. That is it. Simple so far isn’t it? So then why isn’t everyone doing it? Why are so many people that we know marching down the road to sickness, disease and suffering? Do they just want to be sick? I highly doubt it.

Most of us have tried to change roads only to find it too difficult. Then we are left feeling like failures and doomed to say, “I tried that wellness stuff. It just didn’t work for me!” Unfortunately, the problem doesn’t lay on the road itself but rather the path taken to get there.

The first principle to understand in moving on your path to wellness is the principle of add first. Simply put, you start on your road by adding healthy eating, moving, etc. without taking anything away from yourself. What do I mean by this? I mean that before you begin to remove the bad stuff from your life, you could add the good stuff first. For instance, rather than removing ice cream from your diet, you could begin to add more vegetables.  This way you begin providing your body with the tools it needs to thrive, without feeling that you are “giving up” or “cheating yourself” out of the things you enjoy.

The first addition I recommend for all of my patients is to add water throughout the day. Add until you reach one half your body weight in ounces per day. This is a simple first step that makes it easy to succeed. The name of the game in changing roads is setting up a system where you succeed early and often. I know that if you add more water, which is absolutely essential for life and optimal health, you will be starting on the road of wellness.

So that’s it for your first lesson in getting on the pathway of wellness.  You can now begin on the path to a body and mind that will help you take the road less traveled. This will make all the difference in getting not only what you want, but becoming who you want to be.  To schedule a complementary wellness consult with me, click here or call 805-781-9155.

With summer approaching fast, many of you are getting ready for those long awaited summer vacations.  So, what can you do to stay healthy so you can enjoy your summer vacation?

The first thing I advise is to make sure you get enough sun every day.

I imagine you may be a bit surprised by my answer.

“I thought I was supposed to stay out of the sun, or use as much sun screen as possible to avoid getting skin cancer” said Jody at patient of mine.

While spending hours in the sun can cause damage, here is the ONE reason you NEED to get 15 to 30 minutes full body sun exposure daily and here is why:

The sun gives your body the energy to synthesize Vitamin D.

Vitamin D is essential for optimal health. It is made into a hormone that targets over 2000 genes in the human body and research is clear that vitamin D is critically important for the development, growth, and maintenance of a healthy body, from gestation until death. The fact is that sunlight is essential in the synthesis of Vitamin D.

The research shows that the benefits of Vitamin D include:

1.       Enhanced Immunity to specific invaders like bacteria and viruses

2.        Controls your inflammatory response

3.       Reduces the chance of multiple sclerosis and some cancers.

4.       Prevents High Blood Pressure

5.       Prevents some muscle pain

“Now, this doesn’t give you the go ahead to spend hours sunbathing without protection” I told Jody. “But it is vital to get the sun you need in order to get the Vitamin D your body requires to keep you healthy.”

Then Jody asked a great question.

“If I don’t get Vitamin D from the sun, what foods can I eat to supplement?”

The answer is Cod Liver, which I am sure probably makes some of you gag as it did Jody!

“Yuck! Is there any other way I can get it besides that?” said Jody.

Yes there is. You can supplement with Vitamin D3.

Since the amount of Vitamin D that is synthesized from the 30 minutes of sun exposure is 10,000 international units(IU), it makes sense to me to supplement with Vitamin D on the days you don’t get the power of the sun!

Remember that your body is the only one you have and will ever have - the more you give it exactly what it needs to function at 100%, the closer to 100% it will function.

Now, go out and sensibly enjoy the power of the sun!

Odds are that either you or someone you know has been in either a rear-end or side collision accident. In such an accident, the neck is usually “whipped” back and forth or side to side. This injury is called “Whiplash.” If you have been in even one you may consider minor, you may have been injured worse than you thought thus not receiving the treatment you needed to fully heal.   

Most cases of whiplash occur at 6 to 12 miles an hour, which doesn’t seem like a very bad collision. The problem is that crash testing conducted at UCLA show that the involved person’s head was subjected to 2.5 times the acceleration. So you can see that the force of the accident need not be extreme to create a big “whip” on the neck.

Once the injury has occurred there will be a strain on the muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones in the neck. More times than not there is swelling, pain and muscle spasms. This usually prompts a physician to prescribe an anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxants and pain relievers. The patient is often told to rest, letting their body heal on its own. This is especially true in “minor” cases.

In most instances, this approach will work to relieve the symptoms, leaving the patient to think that you have healed up just fine and dandy. But is this actually the truth?

Research is clear that during the initial healing process, which occurs over 6 to 8 weeks, the body lays down scar tissue in an irregular pattern, different from the original tissue. The reason for this is because the body is working as fast as it can to “patch” the area up. This tissue is shown to be stiffer and less functional. Add to this the fact that anti-inflammatory drugs create weaker tissue and you have a recipe for feeling better but being weaker. Maybe this is why reoccurrence of the pain and dysfunction is common.

So, with the above knowledge, what can you do to heal as strong as possible?

You need to do the following:

1.       Initially, it is important to manage the inflammation naturally. Ice is the best way to take down the swelling without negatively affecting the healing process. This should be done in the first 24 to 72 hours.

2.       Get under the care of a Chiropractor. This specific treatment focuses on treating the dysfunction caused by the accident. Most, if not all whiplash cases are multi-factorial. The spine needs to be examined for good, working alignment. Tests need to be completed to evaluate the state of the ligaments and muscles surrounding their neck and spine. If applicable, more than one type of provider may be needed to aid in the overall approach.

3.       As you begin to heal and feel better, it will be vital to begin strengthening the muscles. Muscles can lose 3 to 7% of their strength per day, yet it may only be gained back at 0.5 to 1% per day. The quicker the strengthening starts the quicker it is regained.

4.       Follow through with the treatment recommended even if you are feeling better. Remember that improving function is the key to long term pain relief and proper healing!

I certainly hope this information empowers you and can help you or a loved one if the need arises!

Scott Dubrul, DC

As residents of San Luis Obispo, many of us are forced to alter our summer activities because of so many allergens in the circulating air.  For some of us allergies mean not being able to enjoy a certain outdoor-part of our lives.  Many of my chiropractic patients have reported that yard work, playing golf, or taking a walk have been compromised because for allergy sufferers it can mean misery.

While anti-histamines (both prescription and non-prescription) have helped to reduce the severity of some allergy symptoms, these are not without side-effects. An allergy is a heightened sensitivity to a foreign substance (called an allergen) that causes the body's defense system (the immune system) to overreact when defending itself.

Normally, the immune system would only react if a harmful substance, such as bacteria, attacks the body. For people with allergies, their immune system is working too hard, and it reacts even when relatively harmless substances, such as pollen, are present. The severity of an allergic reaction can vary from mild discomfort to life threatening situations.

For this reason, natural alternatives to anti-histamine medication should be pursued.  Because allergies are caused by an improper immune response, reducing allergies requires improving the health of the immune system.  There are several ways to help accomplish this:

1. Nutrition is vitally important for a properly functioning immune system.  Without the essential nutrients, the body cannot produce the cells need for immune function, and allergies are a good example of a sputtering immune system.  Eat more fruits and vegetables.  Drink more water.  Get more complex carbohydrates and essential fatty acids into your diet by eating whole grains and fresh fish.  It is important to note that even food can be a source of allergies.  If you find this to be the case, consider supplementing your improved diet with vitamins and minerals.

2. Exercise is also helpful is boosting immune function.  The activity of aerobic exercise helps to stimulate proper immune cells (Igg), and suppress histamine-producing immune cells (Ige).

3. One of the best ways to improve immune system function is to improve nervous system function.  Because the nervous system regulates the immune system, a properly functioning nervous system is better able to coordinated immune cell activity.  Chiropractic adjustments have helped many allergy sufferers by improving the health of the nervous system. 

By improving your overall health through diet, exercise, and chiropractic adjustments a healthier you may mean an allergy-free you!

As a practicing chiropractor in San Luis, patients initially see me for their pain. But what is chiropractic's role in regulating our nervous system? How can aligning spinal bones affect brain messages?

The brain governs the thousands of functions that keep a body healthy and functioning properly. When the bones are not aligned properly the healing messages do not get from the brain to the corresponding part of the body in an efficient manner. The brain contains 100 billion active neurons that store information and transmits this information to other cells and all parts of the body by way of electrical and chemical impulses that travel along the nervous system.

“All nerves in the body connect to the brain by way of the spinal column.  If the bones of the spine are out of alignment, putting pressure on the nervous system, this disrupts vital communication between your brain and all the other parts of your body”, Dr. Dubrul explains. 

By keeping the spinal vertebrae in alignment, the spinal column can no longer interfere with proper nervous system function. Chiropractic adjustments are specific for each patient and the activator instrument is designed to reposition the spinal bone in order to remove spinal column pressure and restore proper body function.

This correction allows the body to resume unrestricted flow of brain messages to the affected part of the body and begin the natural self-healing process.

At Powersource Chiropractic, we have seen many conditions that have responded to chiropractic care including headaches, neck pain, lower back pain, knee pain and sciatica or hip pain. ADD and ADHD, depression, reflux, TMJ, arthritis, numbness, carpel tunnel and scoliosis have also been seen to improve with specific chiropractic care.

How is vertebral misalignment and nerve pressure determined? If medically necessary, precise X-rays are taken to help develop a formula for correction. There are also several signs: head tilt, restricted head movement, low shoulder, abnormal spinal curvature, pelvic distortion, bilateral body weight differences, raised hip and short leg syndromes. The treatment can be provided almost immediately.  To find out whether chiropractic care can help you, call 805-781-9155 or schedule your complementay consultation appointment here.