Dr. Todd Hakanson, DC, MS

We have a natural treatment in our office that helps you overcome allergies and sensitivities to foods, pollens, pets, and other triggers. This is truly east meets west, using principles from acupuncture (no needles!), chiropractic, and applied kinesiology. A quick example: Shannon's all-time favorite food is enchiladas, but she hasn't been able to eat them in over a year because she developed a reaction. Every time corn or a derivative (corn syrup, starch, oil, etc.) would ...sneak into her food, she would end up vomiting pretty violently. Her body was treating this as if it were a poison, and reacting accordingly. After several treatments in our office, she is ecstatic after having enchiladas several times this week with no reaction whatsoever (she even had enchiladas for breakfast 3 days this week!) Using these techniques, we've helped patients overcome skin rashes, headaches, fatigue, sinus issues, and many others. To learn more, go to tbcchiropractic/allergies. Don't miss the testimonial from a board-certified medical allergist and immunologist at the bottom of the page.

I recently had a patient ask me about her tight hamstrings, and wondered what type of stretches she should do. She was surprised when I told her I don't recommend static stretching, and that tight muscles are often a sign of something else going on (i.e. protecting an injury, nutritional deficiencies, etc.) I mentioned that it is the nervous system that sets the tone of those muscles. When she pressed me on this, I had her bend forward and touch her toes with knees straight. ...She could only reach about halfway down her shins. I then had her do 10 rocks (ala Original Strength - see comments below), and then retry touching her toes. Her fingers touched the ground with straight legs. That's an incredible difference in the span of less than a minute! In fact, research just doesn't support static stretching for the prevention of injury (see article link in the comments below). The moral of the story is, proper movement, along with finding and correcting the source of muscular imbalances, will set the proper tone of your muscles naturally.

Is there a link between birth control and depression? Birth control pills aren’t just for birth control these days. Many women (including teenagers) are prescribed the pill to deal with a variety of issues, including acne, painful periods, endometriosis, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), the most common hormonal imbalance in women. But recent research is beginning to link the pill to depression, and even suicide attempts. The pill is just one form of hormonal birth co...ntrol, but similar methods are also implicated. A study involving over a million women concluded that there is up to 2.2 times the likelihood of a subsequent diagnosis of depression, depending on the type of hormonal birth control used (progestin-only pills carried the highest risk). Another study that just came out this month followed half a million women over 8 years. Compared with those who had never used hormonal contraceptives, there was nearly twice the risk of suicide attempts, and three times the risk of successful suicides, in women using hormonal methods. Not exactly what you’re looking for when you’re just trying to get rid of a little acne. Prescribing birth control off label is easy, but it doesn’t get at the underlying problem. Why are the hormones imbalanced in the first place? The functional medicine approach that I take is a natural way of determining why the hormones are out of whack, and then designing a treatment approach that works for individual patients. All this with no risk of depression!