Pain and Chiropractic

Pain is a universal experience that can impact our quality of life. Whether it’s acute or chronic, pain can be debilitating and hinder our ability to enjoy our daily lives. However, there is hope through chiropractic care. A chiropractor is trained to understand the complexities of pain, including it’s causes. A holistic approach consisting of chiropractic and other modalities, can drastically decrease the amount of pain one is experiencing.

Pain serves as our body’s alarm system that something is amiss. It can stem from various sources, including injuries, poor posture, stress, or underlying medical conditions. Living with pain can affect physical well-being, as well as impact our mental and emotional health as well.

Chiropractic, especially at Balanced Chiropractic and Wellness takes on a holistic approach to care. Rather than treating just the pain itself, we focus on what is causing the pain. We take a deeper look at how your body is functioning, to get to the root cause. We ensure that the spine and nervous system are functioning properly which improves the body’s ability to maintain its state of homeostasis, or its set point. This allows the body to express it’s ability to self-heal. We also take a look at the body from a movement standpoint to ensure we are addressing the problem from both ends. This approach has proven effective at not only alleviating pain, but ensuring that it doesn’t continue to plague your life.

One of the best parts of this job is empowering our patients to take control of their pain, and their well-being. Patients are better doctors than we will ever be. When we show them how to listen to their bodies, they know long before pain is an issue that something needs to be adjusted. There is something truly fulfilling about seeing our patients and our community thrive.

Low Back Pain

Low back pain is a common problem that affects millions of people every year. Whether you're an athlete, office worker, or stay-at-home parent, low back pain can be debilitating and impact your daily activities.

At Balanced Chiropractic and Wellness, we believe that understanding the causes of low back pain is the first step in preventing and treating it. Here are some of the most common causes of low back pain:

1. Poor posture: Sitting or standing with poor posture can put excessive pressure on your spine and lead to low back pain.

2. Muscle strain: Overuse, poor lifting technique, and sudden movements can cause muscle strains that result in low back pain.

3. Herniated discs: When the discs between your vertebrae slip out of place, they can press on your nerves and cause low back pain.

4. Arthritis: Arthritis can cause inflammation in your spine, which can result in low back pain.

5. Sciatica: Sciatica is a condition that occurs when the sciatic nerve, which runs from your lower back down to your legs, is compressed or irritated.

At Balanced Chiropractic and Wellness, we offer a range of treatments that can help alleviate low back pain. Chiropractic adjustments can realign your spine and reduce pressure on your nerves, while massage therapy can relax your muscles and improve circulation. We also offer corrective exercises that can strengthen your core and improve your posture.

New Year's Resolutions...

We aren’t big on making resolutions. They typically aren’t successful for a myriad of reasons.

You can start taking better care of yourself at any moment. It does not have to be on January 1.

What we are big on, is being a resource for you to make lasting lifestyle modifications that improve your life now, and increase the likelihood of you enjoying it for a lot longer. Chiropractic is not just about getting you out of pain. Although it is good at that. It is about being in control of your health. Taking ownership of the things you surround yourself with, and the things that you put into your body.

Yes, our main focus in this office is movement , and helping you improve the way that you move through this life. We do this in order to empower you to move often (in whatever way suits you).

In short, don’t feel bad if you aren’t making a resolution. Just start heading in the direction of better health, even if they feel like baby steps, they are steps. We are here to help, reach out.

Mobility vs. Stability

One of the most helpful pieces of information in our line of work, is the idea of mobile joints vs stable joints. It’s no surprise that different joints come with different responsibilities, but remembering which joints are meant to move, and which are meant to maintain stability is a key takeaway.

For example, the foot likes to be stable, the ankle likes to be mobile, the knee is stable, while the hip joint is mobile. This alternating pattern continues on up the kinetic chain in order to coordinate complex movement patterns. We use this information in order to take a step back and look at the way the body is functioning as a unit. If you have knee pain, there is a high likelihood that either the hip or ankle, or both is lacking mobility. They aren’t moving enough (which is their job), so the knee has too move more (not it’s job).

Treat Locally, Think Globally

We always want to treat locally while thinking globally. This way we avoid needless, and often less-effective treatments. This will save time, and money in getting people back to whatever movement they enjoy. We say this, to say that it may seem weird that we focus on joint structures that are not the ones in pain. Pain is an indicator that something is wrong. It fails to mention where that problem is located. That’s our job.

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.