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Health and Wellness
PAGE 62
DR. VINCENT SFERRA
DIRECTOROFPHYSICALREHABILITATION
86
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Call TODAY for a FREE consult!
‹ 54951 JVT
Better Health leads to a Better Life
Fatigue?
Back or Neck Pain?
Joint Pain?
Ankle or Foot Pain?
Sports Injuries?
Headaches?
Hormone
Replacement Therapy
(
Male & Female)
Nutritionally related
problems?
Our holistic approach, combined with traditional medicine creates
a unique and comprehensive healthcare facility, all in one location!
Conveniently located in the Branchburg Commons
PAIN, YOUR BODY’S
SELF DEFENSE
MECHANISM
By: Dr. Vincent Sferra
Pain! No one likes to be in pain, or see
someone suffering from pain, but pain
is your body’s way of letting you know
that something is wrong.
Pain = your body’s self defense
mechanism to protect itself
from harm.
Just think what would happen if you
didn’t feel pain! You might see a beau-
tiful glowing red log in a bonfire and
want to move closer to touch it. Your
body would protect itself by sending
you a painful signal, warning you that
the smoke and heat from the fire is
hot. If you didn’t feel this painful signal
you might reach into the fire and grab
the glowing red log to get a closer
look. Ignoring the painful smoke signal
warning from your body could create
tragic results!
Our brain is always sending us signals
that we need to respond to. Listening
to our body and taking good care of
ourselves is important so that we can
handle the issues creating the painful
warnings. Sometimes the signals are
hard to read and we don’t know what
to do about making them go away. A
runner continuing to push through
painful shin splints could end up with
stress fractures and would have been
better off resting. Fibromyalgia suffer-
ers often do not want to exercise
because of fatigue and pain. However,
if they do so, the prognosis is greatly
improved.
There are many options for dealing
with pain, masking it, managing it or
preventing it. Seeking medical advice
to act upon your pain correctly is criti-
cal. Masking pain with medication is a
short term fix. It can help reduce
inflammation and swelling to help you
move past the pain and start your
rehabilitation. If taking pain medica-
tion is the only thing you are doing,
you are not dealing with the underly-
ing cause of the pain, and could lead
to long term side effects if medications
are used for extended periods of time.
Managing pain with NMR’s holistic
approach will provide you with long
term pain management, by determin-
ing the cause of the pain and also
examining the person as a whole to
see if there are other health issues that
may be adding to the problem. (Treat-
ing a patient’s knee pain while turning
a blind eye to the fact that they are 50
lbs overweight, will not give them a
long term solution.) After taking into
consideration a patient’s daily nutri-
tion, exercise and stress load, a treat-
ment plan can be determined incorpo-
rating modalities such as; physical
rehabilitation, chiropractic care,
acupuncture, massage therapy or
nutritional counseling, for example.
Ideally we would like to prevent pain
from ever happening to us. Unfortu-
nately there are no guarantees on
what life has in store for us.We do not
know why some people are pained
with Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Osteo-
porosis or cancer, but managing your
weight, eating healthy, tempering your
stress and exercising will put you in the
best possible position for healthy
aging.
September is Pain Awareness Month,
a time to seek help or encourage a
loved one to educate themselves
on different treatment options
available to them.
Call us for a
complimentary
consultation
to see how NMR
can help you achieve
Better Health, Better Life.
908-252-0242
Dr. Sferra is the founder and Director of
Physical Rehabilitation at Natural Medicine
&
Rehabilitation. He is Board Certified in
Chiropractic Medicine, a Certified Clinical
Nutritionist and is CSCS certified by the
National Strength & Conditioning Associa-
tion. Dr. Sferra is the recipient of the “2005
Spirit of Somerset” award for his outstand-
ing contribution to Health and Wellness in
the community.
For more information visit
www.NMRNJ.com,
or call (908) 252-0242
Do you have painful swollen legs
or unsightly leg veins?
Get a free screening evaluation from a Board
Certified Vascular Surgeon and learn about the latest
state of the art treatments.
Call today for your
Free Screening Appointment
908-725-2400
FREE VEIN
SCREENING!
S
OMERSET
S
URGICAL
A
SSOCIATES
,
L
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L
.
C
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30
Rehill Ave., Suite 3400, Somerville, NJ
Obi J Imegwu, MD, FACS
www.somersetsurgicalassociates.com
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