Des Moines Chiropractic Newsletter - July, 2015

Compass Chiropractic July, 2015 E-Newsletter

  

Cutest Pet Contest!

Email a picture of your cutest pet to compasschiro@gmail.com by July 31 and they'll be included in our contest for in-office voting to begin August 3!  A few of our staff's cuties are below!

Sandy's pups


Amy's big girl, Reece


Anne's pups


Anne's Puchi


Anne's Pancake


Anne's Foster-Cat Belle


Anne's Teacake


Anne's Eskimo


Dr. Krohse's best bud, George

Congratulations to Dr. Krohse on his engagement to Val on June 20!

Surprise trip to Anna Maria Island, FL & a walk on the beach...


She said yes!




 

Champions maximize their performance and maintain their health with chiropractic!

 

Sandy Recommends Lenten Rose (a Perennial Plant for Shady Spots)

After a long, cold winter, I look forward to watching the early spring plants emerging from the ground and the one I anticipate the most is the hellebore orientalis -- commonly known as "Lenten rose".  This lovely perennial is an evergreen, late-winter, early-spring flowering member of the buttercup family.  It gets its name because it usually is blooming during Lent.  It actually is one of the very first perennials to emerge from the ground and I often see it peeking up through the snow in late winter/early spring.  It's a very hardy plant that can sustain cold temperatures and is categorized as suitable to grow in Zones 4-9 and can actually survive in some of the northern Zone 3 winters. 

 

This plant does well in shade and as you can see in the photos -- I grow it in the front of some of my shade-growing flower beds -- right in front of some of the taller, larger hosta plants.  Though my Lenten rose have ivory blooms, there are variations of the plant that bloom in pink, rose and magenta.  It's a slow grower -- so be patient but it is hardy and both drought and deer-resistant.  I've grown it for years and have never experienced any problems with bugs or critters.  One of the many reasons I love this plant is that, in addition to being low maintenance and hardy,  it blooms early and the blooms linger on for many weeks.  The two photos shown were taken in mid-June and the blooms are still very beautiful.

Amy Recommends Live Horse Racing at Prairie Meadows

This month I'm recommending live horse racing at Prairie Meadows. This all ages event is a fun way to spend an afternoon or evening with family and friends this summer! Thoroughbreds race Thursday thru Sunday and Quarter Horses race Friday thru Sunday. Post times and event information can be found at prairiemeadows.com.

Prairie Meadows has family fun events in conjunction with some of the race days as well. Last summer we took Hattie (then 6 months old) to the family fun day and they had horses to take pictures with as well as sponsors such as Blue Bunny Ice Cream and the Des Moines Mounted Police.

If you caught a glimpse of  the Triple Crown Thoroughbred Races, commonly known as the "Triple Crown", which consists of the Kentucky Derby (May), Preakness Stakes (May), and Belmont Stakes (June) it was tough not to become interested in whether or not history would be made.  In fact, it was as American Pharoah won the Triple Crown breaking the 37 year streak of no horse winning all three races!  Keen Ice, an Iowa owned horse, was hoping to spoil American Pharoah's triple crown moment, but came in third at the Belmont Stakes.  Who knows, you may get to see a "champion in the making" right here in the Des Moines area!

At Prairie Meadows the minimum bet is $2 so it's fun entertainment without breaking the bank. There are many ways to bet on horse racing and I'm not an expert, but I've won a few races just by choosing a horse with an interesting name, or choosing the horse sporting my favorite number! Of course you can look at the odds, the horse's bloodline, track condition, etc when placing your bets. Each horse has its own unique history and story to tell. It's so exciting watching these beautiful, strong, athletic horses run.

Anne Recommends PostSecret.com

Most of us are open to adding yet another on-line distraction to our already excessively-engaged lives, right?  Well, PostSecret.com is one I came across years ago, before it became an international sensation, before it had the nearly one billion hits it has today, and before it could boast earning five Bloggies.

For those of you who haven’t already scoped it out, the PostSecret phenomenon began with a story told like this… The place: Washington, D.C.  The year: 2004.  The person: Frank Warren, who dispenses 3000 self-addressed postcards, asking strangers to return them anonymously with a secret they’ve never shared before.  (I imagine he didn’t anticipate his mailbox crammed daily with up to 200 secrets from all over the world.)

Soon after passing out those initial 3000 cards, Warren turned his project into a website, displaying a line-up of fresh disclosures each Sunday.  Each week that I peruse Postsecret, I’m as intrigued with the wide-ranging postcards as I am the assorted secrets.  Sometimes, heart-breaking words are scribbled onto obviously store-bought, pre-made cards, but other times, a liberating message is divulged in the midst of intimate hand-made “artwork”.  Plain graphics might be the only adornment for a startling truth, yet some amusing revelations are offered on precise or sloppily-created collages.  “For many readers, PostSecret is a deliciously addictive fusion of old tech (snail mail) and new tech (the Internet) that produces something never seen before,” observed USA Today in 2006.  “Just a year after its launch, (it) is a smash hit…the third-most-popular blog in the blogoshphere of nearly 30 million blogs.”

Since then, PostSecret evolved from a blog to a “happening”, cultivating not only the typical Facebook and Twitter pages, YouTube channel, and chatroom, but also developing into a “Community” where over 80,000 users have registered to participate in on-line discussion forums.  The founder, himself, is occupied by tours as far away as Australia, where his “PostSecret Live” multi-media presentations land him at college campuses, museums, and art performance centers.  Contributing secrets might have been passed over for the website or banned from Warren’s six published books (including the #1 New York Times bestseller, “PostSecret Confessions on Life, Death, and God”.)  Currently, PostSecret collections are used to construct a traveling exhibit through the International Arts & Artists organization in Washington, D.C.

Warren has mentioned how printed exposures have been mailed to him on creative objects: a baseball, rollerskate wheel, deflated balloon, dollar bill, mask- even a banana- and clothing.  Despite his unexpected global accomplishments and esteem, Warren’s interviews and talks present him as an unassuming guy who approaches his mailbox like an excited child opening their holiday gifts, and someone who is deeply moved by the PostSecret experience.  Some of the declarations stuffed into Warren’s mailbox and scanned into his blog are sent from people in apparent personal tragedies, and Warren has noted the responsibility he feels for the significant trust he receives from both his authors and his readers.  Ever since the beginning of PostSecret’s story, the blog has incorporated numerous crisis resources, and book proceeds have benefited non-profit agencies such as the National Suicide Hotline.

“I don’t think of PostSecret as being a sole voice sharing a secret on a postcard,“ Warren admits.  “I think of it as this wonderful dialogue between all of us, and through individual secrets, we can kind of see our full stories play out.”

Since PostSecret, many other websites have been  brought to life mimicking Warren’s ground-breaking confessional concept, but to check out the original invention, go to PostSecret.com, or release a secret to 13345 Copper Ridge Rd, Germantown Maryland 20874

Dr. Krohse Recommends the Lumo Lift

As a chiropractor, I get to see firsthand how poor posture directly causes so much neck pain and so many headaches for people.  When talking with teens, I tell them I want them to look like the “cockiest kid in the room” with their chest out and standing and sitting as tall as possible.  Even while I give this instruction to so many, I acknowledge that it is very hard to maintain great posture while sitting for extended amounts of time.

For that reason, I was interested when a patient shared she had bought a Lumo Lift.  This small sensor works like an activity tracker and constantly monitors the position of your upper chest.  Any time you slouch, it gently vibrates reminding you to sit or stand with good posture again.

The patient I talked with had used the Lift for a few months and reported that it definitely helped her maintain better posture at work.  Check out getting a Lift for yourself and constantly work to be the “cockiest-looking person in the room.”  Your neck will be happier as a result!