Change

Things in our office are slowly changing. We have a new logo, a new look, and with that a new renewed enthusiasm.

Alternatives

It is important to be adaptable, and willing to change overtime. Everything else around you is constantly changing and adapting, so you must as well. The same is quite true in terms of your body and overall health. If you have never been to a chiropractor, or tried massage, acupuncture, or the plethora of alternative medicine options, it may be that time.

Chiropractic and Your Change

Your body is constantly changing, adapting, and aging. Chiropractic can help with the changes you experience over time by allowing your body to have fewer obstacles in the way of adapting to age. As chiropractors, we remove those obstacles, whether they are mobility or stability issues. We add movement where you need it, and teach you methods to control the movement when there is an abundance. in doing so, you can allow your body the best chance at successfully adapting and changing over time.

The one thing that hasn’t changed in our office is our love for reconnecting you to the movement you know you should be able to experience. We will always be here for that. We want to help you move well, so you can move often.

Concussions and Chiropractic

Concussions have been a hot topic for a while in sports, and rightfully so. It used to feel as though only contact sports like football were a common place for such injuries, but we now know that almost any athlete can find themselves dealing with a concussion, or concussion like injury.

What Causes a Concussion?

Concussions are caused by forces that are applied either directly to the skull or by a whiplash effect created during trauma. Not to be too graphic but picture your brain shifting inside your skull. When you get hit the brain will shift in the skull and collide with the inside of the cranial cavity. As you can imagine, this will cause pain, swelling, cognitive processing issues, decreased reaction time, visual disturbances, etc.

Concussions were always managed with rest, which is a good start. Rest will allow the brain time to heal without exerting it with everyday tasks. However, this should only be one piece of the recovery puzzle. You will also want to focus on proper hydration (with water), omega-3 fatty acids (the brain uses these as fuel), anti-inflammatory diet (decrease inflammation in any way possible), and chiropractic care.

Chiropractic and Concussions

Chiropractic for concussions will help by increasing blood flow to the brain which will allow your brain to rid itself of the waste products caused from the healing process. It is also rare to have a concussion without some trauma to the cervical spine. Muscle balance, mechanics, and improved overall movement will be vital to recovery as well.

Through my experience in both Athletic Training and Chiropractic, I have learned quite a bit in the way of managing athletes who suffer from a concussion. I have also learned a lot from personal experience, as I have had 7 myself.

Orthotics and Feet

In our office we recommend orthotics and feet adjusting when your feet are bothering you. Orthotics are used to control the medial arch of the foot and how much it travels with each step. If there is excessive travel you can end up with plantar fasciitis, bunions, neuromas, etc.

How Do We Know If They Are For You?

If we determine through an examination that you need orthotics, we then measure the foot’s forefoot valgus/varus to see how much support is needed in the orthotic. After that, we adjust the foot, and re-measure. This is so we are placing your corrected foot into an orthotic and not merely matching the angles of a pathological foot.

Importance of The Foot

If you think about it, the foot is one of the most important structures in the human body when it comes to movement. Your feet need to be a stable foundation for us to work with. For example, if the foot travels too much into pronation with each step, that will then alter the amount of deviation experienced in your knee and then hip. We say it all the time, but sometimes symptoms in one area of the body are being caused by distant structures. This is called regional interdependence.

Are They Perfect?

The only downfall to orthotics, is once you have a pair, that is the best thing to have underneath your feet at all times. This can be an issue if you like to wear sandals or other footwear that are not conducive to orthotic devices. You really have to be disciplined in your approach to wearing them. If that not a problem, they really can make a big difference in your quality of life.

Headaches and Chiropractic

Headaches are often reported as the #2 reason for visiting a chiropractor. Right behind low back/ neck pain.

In typical chiropractic fashion, we aim to discover the reason behind the headaches. This can often be tricky, and lead to some in-depth questioning as headaches can have many origins.

Causes

Our examination and history-taking will first start with common things, as those happen commonly. For example, headaches are often caused by stress, caffeine, vision problems (out-dated prescription glasses, or sensitivity to light to name a couple), or mechanical changes in the neck and shoulder.

For the purposes of this writing, we will focus more on the structural issues that can cause headaches, as that is where we help out the most.

Anatomical Contributors

If you look at a picture of the neck and shoulders, you will see the that the muscles that attach to the shoulder blade and spine, often travel towards the head and base of the skull. Therefore, when there are muscle imbalances from side-to-side, spasms, or length-tension issues in theses muscles, they can change the way that you are able to use your shoulder and neck. These mechanical malfunctions cause abnormal tensions on the head and neck causing headaches.

In that same picture, you will also see all of the joints on the neck. When these joints do not have the movement that they are supposed to, other joints have to compensate for this lack of motion. In doing so, there is an abnormal amount of tension being placed on the adjacent muscular structures. You can see where we are going with this one.

How Do We Treat Them?

Once we know the cause of the headaches, we can help by providing any of the modalities of treatment that would work for specific sites and tissues. This includes, but is not limited to; chiropractic adjustments, soft tissue tools, cupping , dry needling, electro-therapy, and so on.

You may be wondering if we can help with the other causes of headaches (diet, stress, etc.) and the answer is yes! However, that may be best described in a seperate blog post. Stay tuned!

Who Do We Help?

In our office, we focus heavily on human movement throughout life (if you haven’t gathered that yet).

Our Background

While all chiropractors are trained to adjust and treat people of all ages, we all find our niche somewhere in the field. We found that ours in the part of the population that is the most ambulatory (walking, running, etc.). We have a background in Athletic Training, so we are able to diagnose and treat many sports related injuries as well.

While in chiropractic school, we received extra training in extremity (arms, legs, feet, etc.) work. We have the ability to treat a wide variety of extremity issues that arrive throughout daily life. We also pursued extra coursework in soft tissue treatment via instruments or tools and cups as well.

Continued Education

After finishing school, all chiropractors are required to continue their education by attending seminars. We have chosen a vast array of coursework over the years, but found that courses like dry needling, rehabilitation of sports injuries, and analysis of gait have been the most used in our office. We like to keep a lot of tools in the tool box!

Summary

In summary, all chiropractors are trained to see people of all ages with all types of complaints. From there, we all branch out to master certain areas of our profession that our particular skill sets are well suited.

Our skill set is geared toward helping you move well, so you can move often.

Why Movement?

At Balanced Chiropractic and Wellness we focus heavily on movement.

We believe that this is the best way to make the biggest impact on your life and the quality thereof. It is our goal to help you move well, so that you can move often (or as much as you would like to anyways).

Initial Examination

This is why a large portion of our initial examination is focused on screening movement, and trying to determine which structures need assistance in moving more effectively, efficiently, and without pain. We are looking for joints and soft tissues (ligaments, muscle, tendon, etc.) that do not have adequate motion, as well as looking at how well your brain controls the motion that you do have.

Once we determine where and what needs our expertise, we come up with a plan to get you back to doing what you love. We do this, by doing what we love…

Our Approach

At BCW, we utilize chiropractic adjusting techniques alongside adjunct therapies to provide mobility to joints and soft tissues when warranted. We use rehabilitation exercises to aid in the brain’s ability to properly control the motion that you had, and now have after treatment. This helps improve recovery time and results as a whole.

Our favorite tools are IASTM, dry needling, taping, and cupping to name a few. We are always learning new tips, tricks, and techniques to perfect our craft, and provide the highest quality of care for you and your family.

Chiropractic and Movement

We feel that the one thing that all chiropractic techniques have in common is there aim at improving movement, either locally or globally. Does that mean that chiropractic is really all about movement!?

We think so.