Category: Newsletter Library

Chiropractic Care Helps You Recover from Sports Injuries

Every day you’re not participating in your favorite sport may seem like an eternity if you’ve been injured. Chiropractic treatment can ease your pain and may even help you recover from your injuries faster than you expected.

Types of Injuries Chiropractors Treat

If you’re thinking about visiting a chiropractor, you’re in good company. College and professional sports teams throughout the country rely on chiropractors to help their athletes rebound from injuries and avoid new injuries when they return to the playing field. One-hundred percent of National Football League and Major League Baseball teams have chiropractors on staff, according to Palmer College of Chiropractic, while 72% of Professional Golf Association golfers receive treatments while on tour.

Chiropractors offer therapies that help athletes heal from many types of sports ailments, including:

• Back and Neck Pain
• Strains and Sprains
• Headaches
• Pinched Nerves
• Herniated Discs
• Shin Splints
• Golfer’s or Tennis Elbow
• Sciatica
• Stingers
• Dislocations
• Shoulder, Arm, and Hand Pain
• Groin Injuries
• Leg and Knee Injuries

How Chiropractic Treatment Can Help You

Sports injuries can be very complex. If you strained the muscles in your back when you fell or twisted an ankle, your muscle or ligament injuries may not be the only source of your pain. Your fall may have also caused the vertebrae in your spine to become misaligned. Misalignments, called “subluxations” by your chiropractor, not only trigger back or joint pain but can stress muscles and nerves and throw off the alignment of your hips, backs, neck, and legs.

Falls are one cause of subluxations, but they can also occur due to poor posture or spending too much time in one position. For example, the hunched-over position you use when you ride a bike may increase your risk of subluxations.

Spinal manipulation or mobilization, two types of hands-on therapy, ease vertebrae back into the optimal position, eliminating subluxations and reducing pain.

Every chiropractic treatment plan is unique and tailored to your injury. In addition to manipulation or mobilization, your chiropractor may recommend massage, soft tissue mobilization, trigger point therapy, flexion-distraction therapy, traction, electrical nerve stimulation treatments, or ultrasound therapy.

Chiropractic treatment offers many benefits, including:

• Less Pain. Chiropractic treatment reduces pain and triggers the production of endorphins that reduce pain naturally. Pain can be due in part to subluxations or tight muscles that press on nerves. Spinal manipulation, massage, flexion-distraction, and other treatments reduce pressure on spinal nerves and discs and may even decrease bulging if you have a herniated disc. Best of all, you can reduce your reliance on pain medication when you opt for chiropractic treatment.
• Quicker Healing. Your body reacts to injuries by increasing the production of white blood cells. The cells not only fight infection but also encourage healing. Unfortunately, some injuries can impair blood flow, making it difficult for white blood cells to reach the injured area. Chiropractic treatments improve blood flow and may even help speed healing.
• No More Tingling or Numbness. Pressure on nerves can cause tingling or numbness in your arms, legs, back, or buttocks, in addition to pain. Relieving pressure with chiropractic therapies can end these annoying symptoms.
• Better Range of Motion. Treatments loosen joints and muscles, improving your range of motion. Massage or soft tissue mobilization can also be used to break up scar tissue or adhesions that prevent your joints from moving freely.
• Improved Stability. Is your shoulder unstable after too many hockey injuries? Your chiropractor can develop a treatment plan to help you regain stability and avoid future injuries. Treatments can also help with instability due to ankle sprains. Ligaments stretch and tear when a sprain occurs, but that’s not the only problem that can happen with a sprain. If the bones in your ankle joint move out of alignment, your recovery may take longer. Adjusting the joint can help reduce healing time and help you avoid joint instability that can increase your risk of re-injury.
• Decreased Inflammation. Chiropractic treatments also relieve swelling and inflammation that can cause pain, stiffness, and restricted movement.
• Ease Spasms and Muscle Pain. Recovering from an injury isn’t easy if your muscles constantly spasm or still hurt days or weeks after you hurt yourself. Massage, soft tissue mobilization, ultrasound therapy, electrical stimulation, and other therapies can stop spasms and reduce tightness and pain in muscles.

Are you eager to get back to your favorite sport? Call us to schedule your chiropractic appointment.

Sources:

Palmer College of Chiropractic: Sports Chiropractic

National University of Health Sciences: Everything You Need to Know About Chiropractic Medicine for Athletes, 6/12/20

Cleveland Clinic: Chiropractic Adjustment

How Chronic Stress Can Cause Body Pain

Stress and anxiety aren’t just mental health issues. If you feel stressed or anxious much of the time, you may be more likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, acid reflux, or other conditions. Chronic stress can also affect your muscles and joints, causing pain and inflammation.

4 Painful Symptoms or Conditions Caused or Worsened by Stress

Fifty-five percent of Americans report feeling stressed during the day, according to the American Stress Institute. That’s no surprise considering how busy our lives are in the 21st century. Although stress is a part of life, it’s much more than just a nuisance. In fact, chronic stress can cause these symptoms and conditions:

• Headaches and Migraines. Have you noticed that the muscles in your neck, face, shoulders, and upper back tighten when you’re worried or stressed? If the muscles remain tight for a prolonged period of time, you may be more likely to develop tension headaches or migraines.
• Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction (TMJ). Tight jaw muscles can cause or worsen TMJ, a condition that affects the hinge joints on either side of your jaw. In addition to pain, TMJ can cause jaw stiffness, clicking or popping sounds when opening or closing your mouth, difficulty chewing, temporary jaw locking, and ear pain.
• Back and Neck Pain. Tight muscles can eventually pull on the vertebrae in your back, causing a subluxation, or spinal misalignment. Misalignments may also occur due to falls, lifting heavy items, or poor posture. Subluxations may weaken nearby muscles, making it easier to strain them. If bones or muscles press on nerves, you may experience pain that radiates to your arms or legs.
• Stomach Pain. Heartburn and stomach pain are common stress complaints. Thirty-five to 70 percent of people experience functional gastrointestinal disorders at some point in their lives, according to Harvard Health Publishing. Functional gastrointestinal disorders cause pain, bloating, and other symptoms yet aren’t related to any physical causes. If you already have gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or another ailment, stress can worsen your condition.

Chronic stress can cause inflammation throughout your body, irritate your nerves, and even affect blood circulation. When you’re stressed, your body increases its production of a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol, known as the “fight or flight” hormone, helps you prepare to face a challenge or run away from danger. Over time, your cortisol level can drop too low if you’re constantly stressed. A low cortisone level can decrease your pain threshold and make it more difficult to manage pain.

Your Chiropractor Can Ease Your Painful Symptoms and Help You Lower Your Stress Level

Prescription medications are certainly effective in reducing stress but may cause unpleasant side effects. If you’re looking for a drug-free way to control your stress, chiropractic offers the perfect solution.

Spinal manipulations, or adjustments, realign your spine, correcting subluxations. Realigning your spine also helps ease muscle tension and reduces pressure on nerves, ligaments, and tendons.

Improving blood flow, one of the benefits of chiropractic treatment, promotes healing of painful areas and may also help your brain reset itself after a stressful day.

Stomach pain, indigestion, and heartburn may occur if your nerve function is affected due to subluxations. Realigning your spine improves nerve function, which may help you reduce stress-related stomach pain.

Soft tissue mobilization and massage, two chiropractic therapies, loosen tight muscles and get rid of painful knots in your muscles. These therapies also trigger the production of serotonin and endorphin, two hormones that reduce stress and help you feel calm and relaxed.

If stress-related headaches and migraines are a common problem, regular chiropractic sessions can help you keep pain under control and reduce the number of headaches you experience every month.

Treatments are just as effective for back and neck pain caused by stress. In addition to performing spinal manipulations and other treatments, your chiropractor can also teach you exercises that will help you improve your posture and reduce the effects of stress on your body. He or she may also recommend stress relief techniques and dietary changes that will enhance your physical and mental health.

Sources:

American Stress Institute: 42 Worrying Workplace Stress Statistics, 3/25/19

Physical Therapy: Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain: A Psychoneuroendocrine Rationale for Stress Management in Pain Rehabilitation, 12/14

The American Institute of Stress: 50 Common Signs and Symptoms of Stress

U.S. News & World Report: Surprise: Chiropractors Can Treat These 5 Conditions, 11/30/15

Why You Need Chiropractic in 2021

Have you decided to renew your commitment to good health this year? Whether you’ve been visiting the chiropractor for years, or you’re considering making a first-time visit, chiropractic care can help you stay healthy and avoid aches and pains in 2021.

Are You Feeling Sore After the Holidays?

Holiday activities, as enjoyable as they may be, can strain your joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons. If your sciatica has been acting up after dragging your Christmas tree to the curb or your back hasn’t been quite the same since you fell off your snowboard, chiropractic treatments will help you recover from your injuries.

Even seemingly harmless activities, like putting away decorations or shoveling snow, can leave you in pain. In fact, your symptoms may be related to the subluxation of your vertebrae, the bumpy bones that make up your spine. Subluxations happen when the vertebrae become misaligned and may be caused by falls, poor posture, car accidents, poor lifting technique, sitting for long periods, or even stress.

When you’re feeling stressed, the muscles in your neck and back tend to become tight. If your muscles remain tense for a long period of time, the tension can pull your spine out of alignment.

Spinal manipulation, one of the hands-on treatments offered by your chiropractor, eases the vertebrae back into alignment, relieving pain, loosening tight muscles, and improving mobility and range of motion.

7 Ways Chiropractic Care Can Make 2021 Better

Visiting the chiropractor throughout the year offers these benefits:

• Fewer Aches and Pains. It’s always easier to prevent problems than it is to treat them, and aches and pains are no exception. During periodic chiropractic visits, your chiropractor can identify subluxations and correct them before they trigger pain, inflammation, and muscle tension. Misaligned vertebrae or tight muscles press on nerves, causing or increasing pain. Regular appointments help keep your spine aligned and your muscles and joints limber.
• Quicker Healing. Chiropractic treatments like spinal manipulation, soft tissue mobilization, and ultrasound therapy, improve blood flow to injured areas, speed healing, reduce muscle spasms, and promote healing.
• Less Stress. Massage therapy, one of the services offered by your chiropractor, provides the perfect way to treat stress naturally. If your life is hectic, you’ll want to add regular chiropractic visits to your calendar. Treatments decrease the production of the stress hormone cortisol while triggering your body to release serotonin and endorphins, natural chemicals that help you feel relaxed and happy.
• No More Sleepless Nights. Insomnia and poor sleep quality is a problem for many people. In fact, about 30 percent of Americans struggle with insomnia, according to the American Sleep Association. It’s no surprise that falling or staying asleep is difficult if you’re in pain or feeling stressed. Luckily, sleeping pills aren’t the only solution. Chiropractic offers a completely natural way to relieve pain and stress, helping you get a better night’s sleep.
• Better Control of Chronic Conditions. Chiropractic care may make it easier to manage your chronic health conditions. Treatments can help you avoid flare-ups of arthritis, sciatica, migraines, fibromyalgia, and other conditions. Visiting your chiropractor regularly might also help you manage other types of chronic conditions too, like asthma. Improving spinal alignment gives your lungs more room to expand and also decreases pressure on nerves, improving the function of the nerves that serve the lungs.
• No Need for Pain Medication. After chiropractic treatment, you may be able to throw away your pain medication, or at least take less of it. Pain medication only provides temporary relief of your symptoms. Once it wears off, the pain returns. Chiropractic care treats the source of your pain and helps your body heal naturally. Since even over-the-counter pain medications can have unpleasant side effects, finding a natural pain relief method can help you protect your health.

Are you ready to protect and improve your health with chiropractic care? Give us a call to arrange a convenient appointment.

Sources:

American Sleep Association: Sleep and Sleep Disorders Statistics

Palmer College of Chiropractic: Benefits of Chiropractic

American Chiropractic Association: What Research Shows About Chiropractic

Do You Know How to Lower Your Risk of Painful Winter Injuries?

Becoming a couch potato isn’t the only way to prevent aches and pains this winter. Making a few changes to your usual routine will reduce your risk of injury when participating in these winter activities.

Winter Sports

Skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, and ice hockey can take a toll on your body, particularly if you only hit the slopes or the rink occasionally. Falls and collisions can cause fractures, dislocations, and cuts, but those aren’t the only injuries you need to worry about. Back and neck pain, sprains, strains, spinal misalignments, and muscle spasms can happen even if a fall seems fairly minor.

How to Avoid Injuries: The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) recommends warming up with squats, lunges, and jumping jacks before you venture outside. Warming up improves flexibility, which can help you avoid ending the day with a heating pad on your back. Snow tubing, sledding, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing can be good choices if you prefer activities that are a little easier on the body.

Shoveling Snow

Snow may look light and fluffy, but the white stuff can be surprisingly heavy. In fact, each shovelful may weigh several pounds. The wetter the snow, the heavier the load. If weight lifting isn’t part of your usual workout routine, you may be more likely to experience muscle or joint pain. Twisting when you shovel can also strain muscles and joints and cause lower back pain.

How to Avoid Injuries: Follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advice and use a shovel with a longer shaft that allows you to keep your back straight. The CDC also notes that you can avoid twisting your body if you step in the direction that you’re throwing snow. Of course, if you experience chest pain or shortness of breath while shoveling, call 911 immediately.

Holiday Decorating

Putting up sparkling lights and other decorations is part of the fun of the holiday season. Unfortunately, the holidays won’t be quite as enjoyable if you fall off a ladder. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 200 decorating injuries happen every day during the holidays. Many of them involve falls.

How to Avoid Injuries: Use caution when standing on ladders to string lights or add decorations to your roof. Don’t stand on the top rung, ask someone to hold the ladder, and don’t reach too far when you’re on the ladder. Keep three of your four limbs on the ladder at all times to avoid losing your balance.

Walking

Even walking can become a risky activity during the winter. Patches of ice and puddles from melting snow make it easy to slip and fall.

How to Avoid Injuries: Wear shoes or boots with non-slip soles to improve traction. Add cleats around your boots if you’ll be hiking or walking in potentially slippery conditions. Use salt or ice melt to reduce icy spots on stairs, porches, driveways, and sidewalks. If you run for exercise, schedule your runs for the middle of the day when temperatures are higher, or work out on a treadmill instead.

Family Time

Does your family enjoy playing board games or building puzzles on cold winter evenings? Unfortunately, these activities can also lead to aches and pains after a few hours. Remaining in one position for too long can cause muscle fatigue and strain your spine, muscles, and ligaments.

How to Avoid Injuries: Take frequent breaks and pay attention to your posture to prevent injuries. When you sit, keep your knees at the same level as your hips or lower, while keeping your forearms parallel to the ground. The ACA recommends choosing a chair that adequately supports your back and using a footrest if your feet don’t touch the ground.

If you do experience injuries, aches, or pains, give us a call. Chiropractic treatment can relieve your pain naturally and help you recover from injuries more quickly. We offer a variety of helpful treatments, including spinal manipulation and mobilization, massage, soft tissue mobilization, and more. Contact our office to schedule an appointment.

Sources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Digging Out: 5 Ways to Prepare Your Health to Shovel Snow, 2/13/19

Newswise: Chiropractors Stress Injury Prevention by Warming Up Prior to Winter Activities, 2/3/17

American Chiropractic Association: Maintaining Good Posture

Consumer Product Safety Commission: Home Safe Home for the Holidays: CPSC and Interior Designer Sabrina Soto Share Holiday Safety Tips This Season, 11/20/19

How Cold Can Affect Chronic Conditions and Worsen Pain

Winter can be the most uncomfortable time of the year if you have a chronic condition. Fortunately, making a few changes to your winter routine and visiting your chiropractor regularly can help ease your winter pain.

Why Pain and Other Symptoms Are Worse When It’s Cold Outside

Arthritis, sciatica, fibromyalgia, and other conditions often seem to flare up during the coldest months of the year. Your pain may be worse due to several reasons, including:

• Less Movement: If you live in an area with cold winter temperatures, you probably spend much more time indoors when it starts to get cold outside. When your activity level drops, your muscles and joints become less flexible and may tighten up, triggering pain. If the weather outside isn’t ideal for exercising, walk a few miles on your treadmill, put on your favorite exercise video, or take a virtual exercise class. The more you move, the less you’ll have to worry about aches and pains.
• More Strain: When you do venture outside during the winter, chances are you’re doing things that can strain your muscles and joints. Skiing, tubing, snowboarding, or just playing in the snow can be responsible for aches and pains, particularly if you aren’t usually very active. Shoveling your driveway after a major snowstorm may also stress your joints, muscles, and tissues, causing pain for a day or two or even longer. Reduce strain by doing a few warm-up exercises before you hit the slopes, taking frequent breaks when you shovel snow, or using a snowblower to make the job easier on your body.
• Barometric Pressure and Weather Changes: A decrease in barometric pressure may be the reason that your pain is worse on a cold day. When the barometric pressure drops, your tissues, muscles, and tendons may expand. The expansion can increase pressure on your nerves and joints, triggering pain. Humidity may also be a factor in cold weather pain. In a study published in The Journal of Rheumatology in October 2015, European researchers noted that pain and stiffness increased in patients with osteoarthritis on cold days with high humidity.
• Excess Weight: Gaining weight may not be similar to other cold-weather symptoms, but many of us tend to add a few pounds during colder months due to reasons like holiday foods and treats, getting less fresh air, or avoiding exercising because of the temperatures outside. Even a few extra pounds can stress your spine and joints. Although you don’t have to give up your favorite holiday foods, eating one cookie instead of five and exercising regularly can help you avoid seasonal weight gain and pain.

How Your Chiropractor Can Help You Reduce Your Pain

A spinal misalignment may cause or worsen your pain. Misalignments can occur as a result of minor falls when you’re tubing or skiing or might happen if you spend hours outside shoveling snow. Do you enjoy snuggling up in a comfortable chair with a book when the weather is nasty outside? Remaining in the same position for hours at a time can stress your spine, causing your vertebrae to move out of alignment.

Misaligned vertebrae can be the source of both pain and stiffness and may limit your range of motion. Spinal manipulation, a treatment that uses quick, manual thrusts to realign your vertebrae, will relieve your pain.

When you already have a chronic condition, the slightest change in your activity level or the weather can turn a good day into a painful one. Visiting your chiropractor regularly can help you prevent pain and relieve it when it does threaten to ruin your day.

Your chiropractor offers a variety of treatments designed to reduce pain and keep your spine, joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons limber, including massage, hot and cold therapies, electrical stimulation, ultrasound therapy, soft tissue mobilization, and traction.

Would you like to avoid winter pain this year? Contact our office to schedule regular visits with the chiropractor.

Sources:

PubMed: The Journal of Rheumatology: The Influence of Weather Conditions on Joint Pain in Older People with Osteoarthritis: Results from the European Project on Osteoarthritis, 10/15

UChicago Medicine: It’s cold outside! Do your joints hurt?

WebMD: Does Weather Affect Joint Pain?

The Benefits of Chiropractic Care During the Holidays

Creating the perfect holiday celebration for your family takes plenty of work. After spending hours wrapping gifts and planning elaborate meals, you may feel anything but joyous. In fact, stress, aches, and pains are just as much a part of the holiday season as parties and shopping. Luckily, your chiropractor offers a variety of treatments that will ease your symptoms and help you enjoy the holidays.

Chiropractic Care Helps You Avoid Aches and Pains from Holiday Activities

Shopping sounds like a fairly low-risk activity, but that’s not always the case. When you spend hours shopping, whether you’re hitting the mall or searching online, you’re bound to experience a few negative physical effects.

Concrete floors are often concealed behind tile or carpeting at your favorite stores. Spending hours walking and standing on these floors can trigger back, neck, leg, shoulder, or muscle pain. If you spend hours hunched over your laptop, tablet, or phone doing a little online shopping, you may also experience neck, back, and shoulder pain.

Pain may be a result of subluxations that occur when the vertebrae in your spine become misaligned. Chiropractors often use spinal manipulation to realign your spine and correct subluxations. Quick, hands-on thrusts improve the alignment of the spine during this painless treatment.

Visiting the chiropractor before and after major shopping trips will help you avoid days of pain. Chiropractic treatments can also ease aches and pain caused by shoveling snow, spending long hours in a car or plane, slipping on an icy sidewalk, skiing, sled riding, ice skating, and other winter activities.

Chiropractic Treatment Provides a Natural Way to Treat Holiday Stress

If the holidays stress you out, you’re not alone. More than a third of people surveyed in a PBS News Hour/NPR/Marist survey reported feeling the same way.

Muscle tightening is one of the most obvious signs of stress. When you’re feeling overwhelmed or anxious, you may have noticed that the muscles in your neck, shoulders, or upper back feel rock hard.

Pain isn’t the only issue when your muscles tighten. Muscle tension can limit your range of motion and trigger painful tension headaches. Tight muscles can even pull your vertebrae out of alignment, causing subluxations.

Massage therapy, spinal manipulation and mobilization, soft tissue mobilization, ultrasound, and other therapies offered by your chiropractor ease the painful physical effects of stress. Massage also triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s “feel-good” chemicals. Endorphins help you feel calmer and less stressed.

Improved blood flow is an important benefit of chiropractic treatment. Blood flow improves healing and may also ease the “fight or flight” response that occurs when you feel stressed.

Staying Healthier During the Holidays Is Much Easier with Chiropractic Care

Aches and pains aren’t the only effects of misaligned vertebrae and tight joints or muscles. If these structures press against your nerves, your organs and immune system may not function optimally. Eliminating subluxation ensures that organs receive important signals from the nerves, help balance your immune system and reduce inflammation

Improved lymph fluid drainage is another beneficial effect of chiropractic treatments. The fluid removes toxins and wastes from your body. When drainage improves, it may be easier to fight colds and other illnesses.

Chiropractic Care May Help You Avoid Stomach Issues After Holiday Meals

It’s almost impossible to follow your usual diet during the holiday season. Parties, work potlucks, and family meals feature a tantalizing array of your favorite foods and treats. If you’re not used to eating rich, fatty, sugary, or fried foods, you may soon experience bloating, constipation, gas, and other uncomfortable symptoms.

These problems may also be traced to issues with the nerves that control the organs. Keeping your nerves balanced with chiropractic treatment will help you avoid uncomfortable digestive issues. Thanks to your treatments, you’ll be able to better handle the dietary challenges of the season.

Don’t let stress or aches and pains keep you from enjoying the holidays! Contact our office to schedule your chiropractic appointment.

Sources:

Industrial Safety & Hygiene News: Can You Stand It? Prolonged Standing Puts Millions at Risk, 3/18/16

PBS News Hour: Poll: How Stressed Are Americans This Holiday Season, 12/21/18

U.S. News & World Report: Surprise: Chiropractors Can Treat These 5 Conditions, 11/30/15

Have You Heard These Chiropractic Myths?

Chiropractic care offers a safe, effective way to treat pain and improve mobility, yet myths about this beneficial therapy continue to circulate. If you’ve been thinking about starting chiropractic treatment, you may have heard a few of these common myths.

Myth 1. Spinal Manipulation “Cracks” Your Bones

Your friends may have mentioned that their necks or backs were “cracked” during a visit to the chiropractor. Cracking certainly sounds alarming, but fortunately, that’s not what actually happens.

The cracking sound occurs during spinal manipulation, a treatment that realigns the vertebrae in your spine. Injuries, poor posture, or repetitive movements can misalign the vertebrae and cause joint pain, tight muscles, muscle spasms, reduced range of motion, and other issues.

During spinal manipulation, your chiropractor uses quick, hands-on movements or a handheld activator to realign the vertebrae. The cracking or popping sound that often accompanies manipulation happens when air pockets around the joints are disrupted. Although spinal manipulation is a little noisy, it’s a safe, painless way to reduce pain in joints and muscles and improve range of motion.

Myth 2. You’ll Need to See the Chiropractor Forever

Initially, you may need to see the chiropractor a few times a week. As your pain improves, you’ll schedule appointments less often. Depending on the severity of your issue, chiropractic treatment may last a few weeks or months.

When you recover, you can stop seeing the chiropractor if you want. If you’re like many people, you’ll probably want to schedule a few follow-up appointments during the year to prevent new problems from occurring.

Myth 3. Spinal Manipulation Is the Only Treatment Chiropractors Provide

Although spinal manipulation is the most well-known treatment, it’s not the only therapy you’ll receive when you visit a chiropractor. Chiropractors also offer these treatments:

• Heat and Ice. Applications of heat or ice decrease pain and swelling.
• Massage. Massages not only relieve stress but also reduce muscle pain and spasms, and increase flexibility and range of motion.
• Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation (TENS) Treatment. TENS uses a low-voltage electrical current to block pain signals.
• Soft tissue Mobilization. The treatment involves handheld instruments that gently stretch soft tissues and break apart scar tissue.
• Spinal Mobilization. Slow, gentle hands-on pressure repositions joints and eases pain.
• Ultrasound Treatment. Applying ultrasound waves to sore or injured areas relieves muscle tension, reduces swelling, and speeds healing.

Myth 4. There’s No Point in Seeing a Chiropractor If You Don’t Have Neck or Back Pain

Chiropractors treat many other conditions in addition to neck and back pain. They can help you reduce the frequency of tension or migraine headaches, ease allergy and asthma symptoms, decrease stress, help you sleep better, offer real relief for chronic pain, and treat a variety of conditions, including plantar fasciitis, bursitis, tendonitis, text neck, carpal tunnel syndrome, pinched nerves, sports injuries, and leg, hip, or shoulder pain.

Myth 5. Chiropractic Treatment Isn’t Effective

Several research studies have shown that chiropractic offers effective relief for many painful conditions. A study published in Clinical Rehabilitation in 2018 revealed that people who had mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome reported improvements in pain and function, in addition to decreases in the severity of their pain.

Military personnel who received chiropractic treatment in addition to standard medical care for low back pain had less pain and better physical function compared to study participants who only received standard medical care, according to a study that appeared in the April 15, 2013 issue of Spine.

In 2017, The American College of Physicians included chiropractic treatment in its list of recommended treatments for low back pain.

Are you ready for chiropractic care to improve your condition? Contact our office to schedule an appointment.

Sources:

American College of Physicians: American College of Physicians Issues Guidelines for Treating Nonradicular Low Back Pain, 2/14/17

PubMed: Spine: Adding Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy to Standard Medical Care for Patients with Acute Low Back Pain: Results of a Pragmatic Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Study, 4/15/13

Pub Med: Clinical Rehabilitation: Is Manual Therapy Based on Neurodynamic Techniques Effective in the Treatment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, A Randomized Controlled Trial, 10/11/18

Spine Universe: Chiropractic Spinal Adjustment: What was that pop?

How to Prevent Pain While Traveling

Do you suffer from neck or back pain for days after a long car, plane, bus, or train trip? Sitting for hours stresses your spine, joints, ligaments, discs, and muscles, causing those travel-related aches and pains.

How Traveling Causes Pain

After you remain in the same position for a few hours, your joints and muscles tend to tighten. When this happens, your range of motion may decrease. As a result, the slightest movement can lead to painful muscle spasms or even strained muscles. Reaching forward to change the radio station or turning your head to look out the window can trigger jolts of pain if your muscles and joints are too tight.

Long trips can aggravate existing back or neck conditions, including arthritis, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, and sciatica.

Sitting affects your spine’s ability to support your body adequately. When you sit, the natural curve in your lower back flattens, while pressure on your spinal discs increases, according to a study published in the Asian Spine Journal.

Seat design is another issue. Although seat designers try to accommodate a range of body types and sizes, it’s difficult to construct a seat that fits everyone equally well. If the headrest is too tall to fit your neck, or the seat doesn’t offer enough lower back support, you’re more likely to experience some degree of pain if your trip lasts more than an hour or two.

What You Can Do to Prevent Pain

Fortunately, pain can be avoided, or at least decreased, by following a few of these suggestions:

• Take Regular Breaks: Break long car trips into two- or three-hour-long segments. If you’re a passenger in a plane or train, get up and walk up and down the aisle a few times after two or three hours. Walking not only keeps your muscles and joints limber but also reduces the risk of blood clots on long trips.
• Try a Few Stretches: Stretching before, during, and after long trips will help keep your joints and muscles limber, reduce spasms, and prevent range of motion restrictions.
• Be Prepared: Pack a few things that make your trip more comfortable. If long trips leave you with an aching neck and a headache, use a headrest pillow or a U-shaped neck pillow. When back pain is an issue, buy a cushion that helps support the curves of your lower back. Bring a pillow or cushion to sit on if you often develop shooting pain in your back and legs after sitting for a few hours.
• Use Pain-Relieving Patches, Ointments, or Tape: Pain-relieving capsicum patches or ointments can help ease muscle pain, while kinesiology tape applied to your neck or shoulders can reduce stress, pain, and swelling. If cold is most helpful, bring a few cold packs to ease your pain. (If you’re traveling by air, you may not be able to bring the packs.)
• Improve the Way You Sit: Slouching increases pressure on your back and neck and can increase aches and pains. Remind yourself to maintain good posture while sitting. Keeping your seat upright will make it more difficult to slouch. If sciatica or tailbone pain is a problem for you, put most of your weight on the bones in your legs, rather than your tailbone, when you sit.
• See Your Chiropractor: Visiting your chiropractor before and after long trips can help you avoid pain. During your pre-trip visit, your chiropractor will offer treatments to improve the alignment of your spine and reduce muscle tension. If these issues aren’t corrected, you’ll be much more likely to experience pain. Treatments after your trip will focus on restoring spinal alignment, eliminating spasms and muscle pain, reducing inflammation, and improving range of motion.

Do you have a long trip planned soon? Chiropractic care can enhance your comfort. Contact our office to schedule your pre- or post-trip visit.

Sources:

Edmunds: Creating the Perfect Fit: New Car Seat Design

Spine Health: 7 Tips to Alleviate Back Pain on Your Road Trips, 9/12/19

How to Stay Comfortable on Long Drives, 5/24/18

Asian Spine Journal: The Effect of Standing and Different Sitting Positions on Lumbar Lordosis: Radiographic Study of 30 Healthy Volunteers, 10/15

5 Conditions That Can Be Improved with Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care offers more benefits than you may realize. Whether you’re suffering from back pain, fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), or another condition, chiropractic treatment can ease your pain and reduce or eliminate other symptoms. These five conditions are among the many that chiropractors treat every day.

1. Back and Neck Pain

Back and neck pain may occur as a result of a car accident, fall, arthritis, spinal disc degeneration, poor posture, or even looking down at your cell phone for hours every day. No matter what the cause, back and neck pain can interfere with your sleep, make you feel irritable, and prevent you from carrying out your usual daily activities.

The pain may be a result of a misalignment of the vertebrae in your spine called a subluxation. In addition to pain, you may notice tingling, numbness, or burning in your back or neck if you have a subluxation. Misaligned vertebrae can also increase tension on your muscles and press on your nerves, worsening your symptoms.

Spinal manipulation is one of the treatments chiropractors use to treat subluxations. The hands-on treatment uses quick thrusts to move vertebrae back into alignment. Your chiropractor may also use several other treatments to ease back or neck pain, including massage, soft tissue manipulation, heat, ice, ultrasound therapy, and electrical stimulation.

2. Headaches and Migraines

Headaches and migraines affect the quality of your life and can make it difficult to function at work or school. Head pain is a particularly common complaint. In fact, 50 to 75 percent of adults have suffered from headaches during the last year, according to the World Health Organization, while 30 percent have experienced migraines.

Chiropractic treatment eases the pain of both migraine and tension headaches and may reduce the number of headaches you get. In a case series published in the March 2019 edition of Global Advantages in Health and Medicine, researchers explored whether chiropractic care could be helpful in treating migraines.

One patient reported a 50 percent decrease in headache intensity after treatment with spinal manipulation, spinal mobilization, and soft tissue release. Migraines decreased from three to four a week to just one per month in another patient who received chiropractic treatment.

3. TMJ

TMJ affects the muscles, bones, and ligaments in the hinge joints in your jaw, causing pain that increases when you open or close your mouth or chew. Headaches, facial and ear pain, and muscle spasms can also accompany TMJ.

Your treatment may involve soft tissue techniques that relax muscles and tissues in the jaw and break up scar tissue. Gentle pressure may also be used to improve the alignment of your jaw joints.

4. Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia causes tender points all over your body, in addition to fatigue, limited range of motion, and difficulty sleeping. Pain relievers, anti-depressants, and anticonvulsants are typically used to treat fibromyalgia symptoms. Unfortunately, these medications, like all drugs, can cause unpleasant side effects.

Spinal manipulation and ischemic compression treatments may reduce pain, eliminate muscle spasms, and improve nerve health. Ischemic compression involves applying pressure to a trigger point, or knot, to deactivate it.

Twenty female fibromyalgia patients received 20 sessions of connective tissue manipulation and ultrasound therapy of the upper back in a study published in The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapies. The women reported better sleep and less intense pain after their treatments.

5. Asthma

Asthma flare-ups affect your ability to breathe easily by narrowing the small airways inside your lungs. A spinal misalignment may worsen your symptoms if the subluxation causes muscles used for breathing to tighten. If this happens, it may be difficult to take a deep breath.

Realigning your spine loosens the muscles, which gives your lungs more room to expand when you breathe. Correcting subluxations also reduces pressure on nerves, allowing them to send messages between your lungs and brain more efficiently.

Has pain become a constant part of your life? Chiropractic care offers natural relief for many conditions and injuries. If you’d like to find out if chiropractic treatment is right for you, give us a call.

Sources:

Global Advantages in Health and Medicine: Integrating Chiropractic Care Into the Treatment of Migraine Headaches in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Case Series, 3/28/19

Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapies: Short and Long-Term Results of Connective Tissue Manipulation and Combined Ultrasound Therapy in Patients with Fibromyalgia, 9/06

Spine Universe: What Disorders Do Chiropractors Treat?

WebMD: Chiropractic Care for Back Pain

Are Your Shoes Causing Back and Spine Problems?

Have you been wondering why you have back pain? Your shoes may be to blame. Unfortunately, the most stylish choices don’t always offer the best support or comfort for your feet and spine.

What Happens When You Select the Wrong Type of Shoes

Your feet support the weight of your entire body, absorb the shock generated when you run and walk, and help keep your spine properly aligned. If you choose shoes that don’t offer adequate support or place too much pressure on one part of your foot, the vertebrae in your spine may soon become misaligned.

Misalignments, called “subluxations” by chiropractors, cause back and neck pain, muscle tension, spasms, stiffness, and reduced range of motion. Hands-on spinal manipulation can improve spinal alignment, but subluxations may continue to occur if you don’t make a few footwear changes.

Some Shoes Are More Likely Than Others to Cause Problems

High heels are particularly troublesome because the shoes place extreme pressure on the front part of your foot. A one-inch heel increases pressure by 22 percent, while pressure rises by 76 percent with a three-inch heel, according to UPMC Pinnacle.

When you put on a pair of high heels, your posture changes completely. Due to the unnatural position of your feet, your lower back moves forward slightly, disrupting the natural curve of your spine. Wearing the shoes every day will increase wear on tear on the discs between the vertebrae that absorb shock and may strain the joints and ligaments in your back. Knee and muscle pain, tight calf muscles, and Achilles tendons are other consequences of wearing high heels.

Both high heels and flip flops can affect your gait, which is the way you normally walk. Gait changes may alter spinal alignment, cause balance problems, and trigger knee, hip, and back pain. Auburn University researchers reported that an altered gait due to flip flop wear makes walkers take shorter steps and affects the vertical force of the heels.

Lack of arch support is a common problem when you wear flip flops or flats. Arch support helps stabilize your feet, legs, and spine, and is essential to proper spinal alignment. Without proper support, your feet and your back may begin to ache by the end of the day.

How to Select Shoes That Protect Your Spine

Keeping these tips in your mind will help you select spine-friendly shoes:

• Lower Your Heels. “The lower the better,” is a good motto to follow when it comes to heels. If you’re not ready to give up high heels entirely, give your feet a break by switching to lower heels after a few hours or wearing high heels every other day. Thick heels are a better choice than stilettos and offer more even weight distribution.
• Rethink Your Flip Flop Obsession: Flip flops can be a good choice if you’re spending the day at the beach or hanging around the house, but they shouldn’t be your go-to shoes. You’re more likely to develop back pain or injure yourself if you wear flip flops every day.
• Choose Well-Cushioned Shoes. Shoes with plenty of cushioning help your feet absorb shock and, of course, are much more comfortable.
• Replace Athletic Shoes Often. Your shoes may look like new, but that doesn’t mean that they’re still offering adequate support. Cushioning in running shoes may become compressed in as little as three months. Replacing your shoes often helps you avoid injuries and pain.
• Try Orthotics. Orthotics are shoe inserts custom-designed by your chiropractor. The inserts provide arch support, keep your feet properly aligned, reduce foot movement, and provide extra cushioning.
• Get Fitted. Ask the shoe salesperson to measure your feet the next time you go shopping. Wearing the wrong size shoes, whether they’re too small or too big, may be a factor in gait issues.
• Avoid Tight Shoes. Tight shoes also increase pressure on your feet and can affect alignment and gait. Make sure your shoes offer a little wiggle room in the toes.
• Make Arch Support a Priority. Look for flats, flip flops, and other types of shoes that offer adequate support.

Are you suffering from back pain? We offer treatments that will realign your spine and relax your tight muscles. Contact our office to schedule an appointment.

Sources:

PubMed: Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association: Comparative Analysis of Human Gait While Wearing Thong-Style Flip-Flops Versus Sneakers, 7-8/10

American Osteopathic Association: The Real Harm in High Heels

UPMC Pinnacle: The High Price of Heels, 5/10/19

Spine Universe: High Heels and Flip-Flops Cause Back Pain, 8/1/18

American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons: That Pain in Your Back Could Be Linked to Your Feet