Chiropractic care can assist us on the path to smart exercise. We want to complete our work, making gradual progress towards an increase in strength and cardiovascular fitness. But even if we're really doing smart exercise, injuries can still occur. Chiropractic care can help to prevent unexpected injuries and help to decrease the recovery time...
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When National Hockey League (NHL) superstar Sidney Crosby suffered two concussions within days of one another, he looked for help from his chiropractor, Dr. Ted Carrick, a Chiropractic Neurologist who treats Crosby and many other players in the NHL and NFL. Carrick says, “In professional hockey alone, there are more than 50,000 hits annually, and far too many of these are serious injuries to the head.” Hockey is a rough contact sport, as anyone who has been to a game can attest. As Rodney Dangerfield once famously quipped, “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out.”
The risk of concussion during a hockey game is extremely high, with pucks traveling at speeds of up to 100 mph. Also, include the injuries from players colliding with each other, or being hit by hockey sticks and skate blades and you can easily see why hockey is a sport prone to injury. Unfortunately, the numbers of neck and back injuries have increased, possibly due to the false sense of security provided by the large amount of protective equipment used. The knee is one of the familiar place to pick up an injury, with sprains to the ligaments being extremely common.
After nearly 10 months of suffering dizziness, fogginess, instability and light sensitivity, Crosby started his specialized chiropractic care that helped to improve both his physical and cognitive functioning. After about 6 months of this treatment, Crosby returned to the ice and assisted his Pittsburgh Penguins score a win against the New York Rangers, and the Penguins subsequently signed him to new a 12-year contract.
Chiropractic care is so vital to the Vancouver Canucks that they have a team chiropractor on staff. Dr. Sid Sheard has treated the Canucks for 24 years and says, “In managing musculoskeletal problems, the team chiropractor must determine when to order the relevant diagnostic tests and imaging studies in order to give the appropriate diagnosis.” Chiropractic care is not only for the treatment of injuries, it also allows the players to stay in top form. Sheard notes, “The number of games lost to injury this year is running at less than half, which we like to think is due to the preventive and supportive training that starts in the off-season.”
Olympic silver medalist in hockey and player for the Dallas Stars, Mike Modano is a strong advocate of the benefits and rewards of chiropractic care for hockey players. He quotes, “Chiropractic helps with recovery time and the way my body responds with the grind it takes.”
Chiropractic care is one of the best ways that professional hockey players can maintain a large amount of time on the ice.
After engaging in a complete evaluation, including a history and physical examination, your chiropractor will start to model a care plan that meets your specific health needs. Your care plan will include chiropractic care focusing on the improvement of the functioning of your spinal column. Your care plan will also include additional recommendations, such as stretches, exercises, and nutritional planning advice. Your chiropractic care plan can, depending on the circumstances, include strategies for reducing stress and obtaining proper rest.
Your chiropractor is an example of a holistic practitioner who has expertise in many areas of health care. Chiropractic care is renowned for its ability to treat musculoskeletal problems such as neck pain, back pain, and headaches. As chiropractic care focuses on the nervous system, your chiropractor can be of benefit in your overall care plan for many other conditions.
Chiropractic care is the one form of health care that keeps on producing rewards. It certainly helps people to recover from short-term health problems, but not only that, this powerful method of healing can also help people stay well and assists in the prevention of new problems from developing.
Your chiropractor can treat a wide variety of musculoskeletal problems. Neck pain, back pain, pain that travels from the neck to the arm and hand, pain that travels from the back to the leg and foot, headaches, and muscle spasms are all examples of conditions that are commonly treated by chiropractic care. Your chiropractor also treats many types of exercise- and sports-related injuries. Repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome can also be treated by chiropractic care. Chiropractic care can be a valuable addition to treatment for sleep disorders or digestive problems. It can also be of great assistance during pregnancy, in helping to relieve neck pain and back pain and to ease the process of delivery.
Chiropractic care can be highly beneficial for many health problems due to the fact that it directly affects the functioning of your nervous system. Your nervous system, consisting of your brain, spinal cord, and nerves that branch out to the rest of your body, is your master physiologic system. Your nervous system, by sending signals to every cell, tissue, and organ in your body, controls all the other systems. Your heart relies on the nervous system so that it can pump blood at the right time and in the right amount. Your small intestine relies on the nervous system so that it can complete the digestion of food and transmit usable nutrients to the bloodstream. Your white blood cells and other immune system agents rely on the nervous system so that they can quickly identify and destroy foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses.
But your nervous system can break down, in a sense, if spinal nerve interference is present. Such nerve interference, caused by irritation and inflammation of spinal nerves, is caused by loss of full mobility of spinal vertebrae. Limited spinal motion irritates the muscles that move the spinal bones and the ligaments that hold those bones together. Inflamed spinal muscles and spinal ligaments cause spinal nerve inflammation. The immediate result is distortion in the quality and flow of information sent from the brain to the rest of the body. Too much or too little information is sent to the cells, tissues, and organs. The messages they receive are the wrong messages, or the messages arrive at the wrong time. The outcome is decreased functioning and/or inappropriate functioning of many other physiologic systems. Thus, spinal nerve interference is one of the primary causes of the many problems that may bring a person to his or her chiropractor’s office.
Chiropractic care helps reduce and remove nerve interference by restoring increased functioning of your spinal column. The direct result is improved overall functioning of the rest of your body. By directly focusing on your spine and nervous system, your chiropractor can help restore quality of life and overall health and well-being.
You are unable to turn on the television nowadays without a commercial appearing, for some new pharmaceutical that will cure whatever may ail you. If you pay close attention, you will realize that nearly half the ad time is consumed by a long list of the possible side effects and adverse reactions that can accompany taking the drug. The possibilities usually include everything from minor fatigue to death.
It is estimated that around 4.5 million Americans visit their doctor or the ER every year due to adverse reactions from prescription drugs. These adverse side effects are also suffered by an extra 2 million people each year who are already in hospital being supervised by the medical professionals. The CDC gave an estimate that 82% of Americans are consuming at least one drug, and 29% are consuming five or more drugs.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for the approval of pharmaceutical drugs on sale in the US. However, their methods for approval are based on the scientific studies carried out by the drug companies. The FDA carries out no independent testing. The FDA usually approves a drug if its benefits outweigh its dangers. Assuming the drug companies’ studies have been well-conducted and state that a drug is relatively safe, no drug is 100% free from side effects for everyone, even drugs that are categorized as “natural.” The person’s age, weight, gender, overall health and genetic profiling will all contribute to how an individual responds to a drug.
The most common side effects are gastrointestinal problems, as most drugs are processed through the digestive tract. These problems generally include nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea. Although dizziness may not seem like a dangerous side effect, it can be extremely dangerous for elderly people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), slips and falls among the elderly are the number one cause of injury-related death. A quarter of all elderly people who fall and break a hip die within six months of the injury.
Death is obviously the most serious side effect of all. Allergic reactions that cause anaphylactic shock can be deadly. Many drugs, such as those that are used to treat type 2 diabetes, can cause a stroke or a heart attack. Antidepressants are said to actually increase suicidal thoughts. Some drugs cause pain and total or partial paralysis. Other drugs increase your risk of cancer. Ironically, the drug Tamoxifen, administered to treat breast cancer, actually increases the risk of cancer in the uterus. Memory loss, hallucinations, loss of taste and loss of sight are other common side effects of different pharmaceuticals.
Although there is no doubt that some pharmaceuticals have a greater use than they have dangers, if you want to try and avoid the harmful side-effects that many drugs produce, try your best to keep as healthy as possible. Eat correctly, get regular exercise and visit your chiropractor to keep your body in optimum condition.
Chiropractic care is primarily designed to improve the flexibility of spinal joints. A loss of the spinal vertebral motion can lead to spinal muscle tightness and pain, which generally results in various other physical problems. For example, headaches, lack of restful sleep, and increased irritability may all have a link with a loss of spinal flexibility.
By increasing the mobility in your neck, mid back, and lower back, chiropractic care helps your body function more efficiently. By removing the sources of the musculoskeletal irritation, chiropractic care can reduce internal physiologic stress. Some benefits may include improved peace of mind, and a better response to your home and work environment.
Some people experience increasing musculoskeletal joint stiffness as they get older. Shoulders, knees, and ankles aren’t as flexible as they used to be. It becomes more difficult to bend over and pick up a dropped object. It is uncomfortable to turn your head around to see the car in the next lane. The bad news is that, left untreated, your joints will get stiffer as you get older. Ignored, your joints will lose a large amount of mobility. However, the good news is there’s plenty you can do to help prevent this. You can regain and retain much of your youthful flexibility, but only if you are willing to be proactive.
Joints such as the shoulder, knee, and ankle are lubricated by synovial fluid. Synovial fluid keeps the joints moist, provides oxygen and nutrition, and washes away toxic end-products of the normal metabolic processes. The joints in your spine are also lubricated and upkept in this way. However, aging reduces the amount of available synovial fluid. Normal aging processes increase the viscosity of the remaining synovial fluid. You have less lubricant available and the lubricant that you do have is thicker. The result is stiffer joints, throughout your whole body.
One way to combat such physiologic aging is to keep active. This is a pretty big task for the people of today, in a world in which most of our time is spent at a desk or sat down. The human bodies were designed for hard, physical work. But as we’ve evolved from an agrarian to a more industrial society, and in recent times from an industrial to a service-based society, the type of work has changed dramatically. When we’re not typing on a computer, we’re at home watching TV or playing games on our electronic devices. None of these activities involves any actual active motion. If we want to look after our bodies, we’re going to have to be proactive about finding the time to do so.
We’re going to have to create time for exercise. Almost any type of exercise helps synovial fluid to become more available, pumping synovial fluid into joint spaces and increasing the lubrication into the joints. Exercise raises the core temperature of the body, which subsequently decreases the viscosity of synovial fluid. The end product is increased joint flexibility. This benefit is, more often than not, experienced immediately. The benefit will be long-lasting, but only if you continue to exercise regularly.
Thirty minutes of exercise per day, 5 times a week, will help us maintain as much joint flexibility as possible. Switching between a cardiovascular exercise day and a strength training day is the optimal exercise program. Yoga can give a total body workout which uses cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and flexibility. The types of exercise you do are not as significant as the long-term consistency of the exercise. Regular, vigorous exercise, will provide great benefit, not only will it improve your joint flexibility, but it will also help to improve your general health and wellness!
When one talks about a good lifestyle and a healthy life, we generally think about exercise and nutrition. A third section - rewarding and fulfilling relationships and interests - may be added as an afterthought. But a fourth section - spinal care - is in fact the key to enjoying the benefits from all the...
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“Where should I go to relieve my neck and low back pain?” A question that is asked far to often.
When you suffer with neck and low back pain you should consider an evaluation first by a qualified chiropractor. The majority of these spinal complaints are caused by irritation and inflammation of muscles, tendons, and ligaments that not only help create the structure of the spinal column but provide for the full mobility of the spinal vertebrae. By locating regions of your spine where mobility is decreased, your chiropractor is able identify the areas that are in need of treatment. The treatment includes not only restoring mobility to the spinal joints, but through the chiropractic care the neck and back pain are eliminated from source of the problem.
An additional benefit of chiropractic care is the reduction of pressure and irritation on spinal nerves. Irritation and inflammation of spinal soft tissues is not only one cause of the pain but negatively affects the normal function of the spinal nerves. The compression on the delicate spinal nerve strands reduces or may completely inhibit the transmission of information from your brain to the rest of your body. The result may include a wide range of health problems. By addressing the source of many of these problems, chiropractic care helps contribute to your overall health and well-being.
No one wants to constantly worry. We certainly don’t want to visit our chiropractor or family doctor for every ache and pain. But eventually we all experience physical problems and it may be difficult to know how to solve them. Some problems are immediate and serious. If you suddenly experience crushing chest pain and radiating pain down your left arm, possibly with nausea, profuse perspiration, and a feeling of impending doom, you know you have to call “911” immediately. If you awaken in the middle of the night with an intense, deep, sharp pain in your lower right abdomen, accompanied by vomiting and a fever, you also know that you need to go to the Emergency Room right away. In these exceptional cases, however, most people know which steps to take. What should you do when your pain is not clear-cut and dramatic, as it is in a heart attack or acute appendicitis? General guidelines are available which can be applied in many situations.
Overall, pain is a warning sign, but many problems that cause pain can resolve on their own. For example, you may twist an ankle on your daily walk. It may hurt to put weight on that ankle and there may even be a bit of swelling; however within two days your ankle is much better. There was initial pain attributing to a soft tissue injury, possibly involving muscles, tendons, and/or ligaments. However, the injury was not so severe that your body’s ability to self-heal could not manage the situation. In the case of a greater degree of initial pain and more swelling, or if improvement was not being obtained within 48 hours, a visit to your chiropractor would be appropriate. In borderline situations involving musculoskeletal pain, and whether you choose to seek professional advice depends on your intuition and level of pain tolerance. If you think something is “wrong”, regardless of the nature of the injury or the intensity of your pain, you should seek professional assistance.
With some categories of physical problems, making the time to visit your chiropractor is the best course of action. Repetitive episodes of spinal pain should always be evaluated by your chiropractor. A severe headache should probably lead to a chiropractic examination, especially if you’ve never before had the type and intensity of pain that you’re currently experiencing. Persistent radiating pain into an arm or a leg, accompanied by numbness and tingling, can also be evaluated by your chiropractor. Again, if discomfort continues and you can’t clearly explain to yourself why you’re having the pain that you’re having, the best thing to do is to make an appointment to see your doctor, that is, your chiropractor or your family physician. Most importantly you want to obtain expert information and advice, and to receive treatment if needed with the most helpful instructions on how to care for yourself in the coming days, weeks, or months ahead.
When we eat, we instigate a complex series of digestive, endocrine, and metabolic physiologic processes. Various cells, tissues, organs, and systems are involved in convert our carrots, apples, grains, and proteins into energy that helps us live satisfying lives. These complex processes don’t happen on their own, though. They require timely instructions and guidance from the nerve system to work properly and produce a coordinated conclusion.
Chiropractic care helps the nerve system do its duty as the body’s master system. Chiropractic care eliminates nerve interference that can cause essential signals to be distorted or delayed. By helping ensure that the nerve system is free of interference, chiropractic care helps us to achieve the top physiologic performance, elevate long-term health and well-being.
Whether you live in the United States, Canada, or Western Europe, your health care decision-making is impacted by the type of health insurance accessible to you. Americans receive a fee-for-service system that entails that you will be paying for most or all of the costs of every service that you use. Canadian patients receive health care through a publicly funded system. Costs are funded via income taxes, so in Canada, patients pay indirectly for their care. The majority of Western European countries have national health care systems in place. The French, for example, the national insurance policy pays 70% of costs and much of the remaining 30% is paid by supplemental private insurance (most of this is paid by the patient’s employer). Regardless, for every person, more health problems imply more costs. Thus, avoiding health problems in the first place is a beneficial method that will save families stress, anxiety, and financial resources for the distant future. In health maintenance it’s said that the best defense is a good offense.
What makes up a “good offense” in health care? Being proactive in terms of lifestyle choices helps you put together a health care program that works. Your health care “offense” includes a healthful diet supported by sound nutritional principles, regular vigorous exercise, getting enough rest, and regular chiropractic care. All these factors are needed to enjoy long-term health and well-being. Each element provides critical value and helps support the benefits you get from the others. Good food helps you build strong muscle in response to regular vigorous exercise. Doing regular exercise helps you sleep better at night. More sleep helps you have more energy, so you have more strength and endurance when you’re exercising. Regular chiropractic care helps your nerve system function at peak level, helping all your body systems work well together.
Such a lifestyle program goes a long way toward restoring good health and reducing the costs of using the health care system. For example, regular vigorous exercise is an important part of all lifestyle programs aimed at lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. A healthful diet and regular exercise help lower the incidence of type 2 diabetes and assist overweight and obese individuals, children as well as adults, in returning to more optimal levels of health.
There are many self-help books, DVDs, and television infomercials that target people who wish to improve their overall health situation. These programs may have some value, but professional encouragement and guidance is the key to developing long-term, successful health strategies. Your chiropractor is experienced in nutrition, exercise, and health maintenance and can help you design a “good offense” for health care that works for you and your family.
As with a routine exercise program, regular chiropractic care should be a vital part of achieving your long-term goals for health, wellness, and well-being. When you participate in a consistent vigorous exercise program, regular chiropractic care can help us stay on track by minimizing the chances of picking up an exercise-related injury. Regular chiropractic care...
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Back pain is pervasive among American adults, but a new and disturbing trend is emerging. Young children are suffering from back pain much earlier than previous generations, and the use of overweight backpacks is a major contributing factor. In fact, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that backpack related injuries sent more than 9,000 people to the emergency room in 2010 alone.
“In my own practice, I have noticed a marked increase in the number of young children who are complaining about back, neck and shoulder pain,” and “The first question I ask these patients is, ‘Do you carry a backpack to school?’ Almost always, the answer is ‘yes.'”
This new back pain trend among youngsters isn’t surprising when you consider the disproportionate amounts of weight they carry in their backpacks – often slung over just one shoulder. A recent study conducted in Italy found that the average child carries a backpack that would be the equivalent of a 39-pound burden for a 176-pound man, or a 29-pound load for a 132-pound woman. Of those children carrying heavy backpacks to school, 60 percent had experienced back pain as a result.
Preliminary results of studies being conducted in France show that the longer a child wears a backpack, the longer it takes for a curvature or deformity of the spine to correct itself. The question that needs to be addressed next is, “Does it ever return to normal?”
The results of these types of studies are especially important as more and more school districts – many of them in urban areas – remove lockers from the premises, forcing students to carry their books with them all day long.
The problem has become so widespread, in fact, that the California State Assembly passed legislation that would force school districts to develop ways of reducing the weight of students’ backpacks. Similar legislation is being considered in New Jersey as well. The ACA believes that limiting the backpack’s weight to no more than 10 percent of the child’s body weight and urging the use of ergonomically correct backpacks are possible solutions.
The following tips will help prevent the needless pain that backpack misuse could cause the students in your household.
If you or your child experiences any pain or discomfort resulting from backpack use, call our office. As a Doctor of Chiropractic we are licensed and trained to diagnose and treat patients of all ages and will use a more gentle type of treatment for children. In addition, we can also prescribe exercises designed to help children develop strong muscles, along with instruction in good nutrition, posture and sleeping habits.