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WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE

thedoc — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 06:07:31 +0000

Mental Attitude: Risks For Quitting College. 40% of students in the US fail to get a bachelor’s degree within 6 years at the college where they began. Surprisingly, events such as a death in the family and students’ failure to get their intended major did not have a significant influence. The critical event with the most influence was depression. Other reasons include recruitment by an employer or another institution; losing financial aid or experiencing a large increase in tuition or living costs; unexpected bad grades; and roommate conflicts.
Journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Feb 2011
Health Alert: Cough It Up. Research has linked over-the-counter cough and cold products to poisoning or death in hundreds of children, ages 2 and younger. Studies also show these medicines do little to control symptoms. In 2008, the FDA formally recommended OTC cough and cold products not be given to children under age 2. 61% of parents of children ages 2 and younger gave their children OTC cough and cold medicine within the last 12 months. More than half of parents report their child’s doctor says OTC cough and cold medications are safe for children under 2.
University of Michigan Health System, Feb 2011
Diet: Too Fat! The rate of obesity among children and adolescents in the US has nearly tripled between the1980s and 2000s. Childhood obesity can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep problems, cancer, liver disease, skin infections, asthma and other respiratory problems later in life. Pediatrics Journal, February 2011
Exercise: The “Skinny” on Exercise. Exercise boosts blood circulation and the delivery of nutrients to your skin, helping to detoxify the body by removing toxins. As exercise boosts oxygen to the skin, it helps increase the production of collagen, the connective tissue that keeps your skin elastic. Mayo Clinic, Feb 2011
Chiropractic: Headache Help! A study compared 6 weeks of chiropractic adjusting for tension-type headaches to 6 weeks of medical treatment with amitriptyline, a medication often prescribed for severe tension headache pain. Chiropractic patients experienced fewer side effects (82.1%) and only chiropractic patients continued to report fewer headaches when treatment ended. JMPT, 1995
Wellness/Prevention: Zinc! The cold accounts for 40% of sickness absence from work and millions of school days missed each year. Zinc taken within a day of cold symptoms can reduce severity and shorten the length of illness. At 7 days after onset, a higher proportion of people who took zinc reported no cold symptoms compared to those who took a placebo. The Cochrane Library, Feb 2011
Quote: “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” ~ Thomas Edison

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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Injuries

thedoc — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:57:35 +0000

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a very common complaint often associated with repetitive motion related jobs. There are 9 tendons traveling down the arm from the elbow that “merge” or come together in the relatively tight carpal tunnel, kind of like when 4 lanes of traffic suddenly narrow into 1 lane. We all know what happens when there is road construction during rush hour – traffic comes to a screeching halt and you have to sit there and wait, and wait, then move an inch or two, painfully waiting to reach the end of the construction zone. However, when its not rush hour, traffic may not slow down much at all because there simply aren’t many cars on the road. This analogy is VERY similar to CTS as the 9 tendons and median nerve are the lanes of traffic that merge together as they travel through the tight carpal tunnel in the wrist. When a worker, let’s say a typist, works long hours at the computer typing as fast as possible (like heavy traffic during rush hour), the repetitive rubbing of the tendons in the tunnel creates friction, heat, swelling, and eventually pinching of the nerve resulting in the classic numb thumb and first four fingers. They have to stop shake their hands and flick their fingers to get the them to “wake up” and then they can resume typing again, but have to stop and go and shake/flick the hands/fingers several times during the day. As a result, they either have to take a break and rest or, compensate by shifting their body into different positions in attempt to reduce the strain on the wrist tendons.

Some of the ways we shift in attempt to reduce strain includes raising the elbows away from the sides of the body, shrugging the shoulders up towards the ears, moving the head and neck into different positions like poking the chin out, slouching, plus combinations of all or some of these. Over time, these compensatory faulty postures end up straining the other surrounding joints and when this occurs, the collection of all painful areas is referred to as “cumulative trauma disorders” or, CTDs. As you can see, it’s important to treat or manage the CTS condition early on so we can avoid the progression into the other CTDs or else, treatment will also have to address many other conditions such as (partial list): tennis and/or golfer elbow (tendonitis), shoulder tendonitis, neck or cervical strain, and/or radiating neck to arm pain (cervical disc injury with radiation of pain into the arm). CTDs can also be a contributing cause to mid and low back pain. As these conditions gradually occur, the longer it takes to stop the progression and sometimes, many of these conditions can become permanent.

There are a lot of ways we can avoid the cascade of events that lead to CTS and other CTDs, some of which include: 1. Early intervention (treatment) – las vegas chiropractic care works particularly well at this stage. 2. Taking “mini-breaks” during the work day such as a 1-minute every 30-60 minutes to stretch the neck, shoulders, forearms, hands and fingers. 3. Performing specific carpal tunnel / wrist stretches (placing the palm of the hand on a wall at shoulder level, keep the elbow straight, pointing the fingers down towards the floor). 4. Wearing a cock-up splint, especially at night (this prohibits extreme wrist bent positions and the numbness feeling that can wake us up at night). 5. Modifying a workstation, such as moving the computer monitor so the neck/head point straight ahead. Work station modifications can also reduce awkward hand/wrist positions that overload the tendons of the wrists by lowering the mouse and/or keyboard if they are too high, or padding a sharp countertop edge to prevent it from digging into the forearm and further pinching the nerve.

WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE

thedoc — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:53:08 +0000

Mental Attitude: It Could Be In Your Head. Your emotional response to challenging situations can predict how your body responds to stress. People with high levels of anger and anxiety showed greater increases in a marker of inflammation than those who remained relatively calm. This could help explain why some people with high levels of stress experience chronic health problems. Over time, these emotionally-reactive individuals may be more vulnerable to inflammatory diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, February 2011
Health Alert: Time To Get Healthy! A shortage of oncologists and the rising cost of chemotherapy and radiation therapies and imaging tests are making delivering quality cancer care increasingly difficult. By 2020, the shortage of oncologists in the US will be between 2,350 and 3,800, which represents a capacity of between 9.5 million and 15 million office visits. Cancer, March 2011
Diet: Vitamin E And Pneumonia. Vitamin E decreased pneumonia risk by 69% among those who had the least exposure to smoking and who also exercised. In contrast, vitamin E increased pneumonia risk by 79% among those who had the highest exposure to smoking and who did not exercise. Over half of the participants were outside of these two subgroups and vitamin E did not affect their risk of pneumonia. Clinical Epidemiology, February 2011
Exercise: Fat Burner! Muscles are metabolically active, so the more muscle mass, the more calories you burn even when you’re not working out. For each pound of muscle you add, you will burn an extra 35-50 calories per day. Every 5 pounds of muscle added will burn 175-250 calories a day, or an extra pound of fat every 14-20 days. Mayo Clinic
Chiropractic: Better Immune System? Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York’s Preventive Medicine Institute and professor of medicine at New York University, performed one of the most important studies showing the positive effect chiropractic care can have on the immune system and general health. In his initial 3-year study of 107 individuals who had been under chiropractic care for 5 years or more, the chiropractic patients had a 200% greater immune competence than people who had not received chiropractic care. The Chiropractic Journal, August 1989
Wellness/Prevention: A Leg Up? 9 million Americans over the age of 50 have peripheral arterial disease. Symptoms: 1. Claudication (fatigue, heaviness or cramping in the leg muscles that occurs during activity and goes away with rest). 2. Foot or toe pain at rest that often disturbs sleep. 3. Skin wounds or ulcers on the feet that are slow to heal. Risk increases if you: smoke, or used to smoke, have diabetes, have high blood pressure and/or abnormal blood cholesterol, if you’re African American or have a Vascular disease. Foundation, February 2011
Quote: “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ~ Albert Einstein

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Low Back Pain: Where Does The Pain Come From?

thedoc — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:41:48 +0000

“Were does the pain come from?” is probably the most commonly asked question we hear as las vegas chiropractors and frequently, the patient is not told the answer to this simple question. The problem is, the question is not so simple. This is because there are many structures in the low back that share a common nerve supply and hence, the pain arising from those structures is located in the same area of the back. For example, the back portion of the disk, the facet capsule and some of the deep muscles in the spine are all innervated by the same nerve and therefore hurt is a similar location. In all honesty, the only way to try to isolate the pain generator is to inject a local anesthetic to block the pain for a short while. This is like when you go to the dentist and they “numb” your tooth so you don’t feel the pain when they work on it. After a few hours, you start to feel some “life” coming back to your mouth and soon it regains its full feeling. Of course, no one would consider “numbing” the back just to figure out exactly where the pain is arising as really, it’s not that important. This is because the chiropractic treatment approach is similar regardless of the exact tissue that is involved. However, it DOES matter in cases where a nerve root is shooting pain down the leg caused by a herniated disk vs. a localized pain in the back that doesn’t radiate. Hence, we doctors of chiropractic will work hard to differentiate these two distinct types of conditions as the treatment is definitely different.

In 1995, the Quebec Task Force recognized the importance of this distinction and recommended all health care providers concentrate on differentiating the nerve root / herniated disk case from what is called “mechanical low back pain.” As noted in the model below, the arrow and pen point to the two most common structures that cause nerve root pain (the herniated disk) and mechanical low back pain (the facet joint).

Facet Joint

Herniated Disk

The facet joint, when sprained / injured, hurts worse when bending backwards and feels good bending forwards. This is exactly the opposite for the herniated disk where bending backwards helps reduce pain and often reduces the shooting leg pain as well, while bending over even a little can create a sharp stabling pain in the back that may shoot down the leg. Of course, there are variations of this and, to make matters more complicated, BOTH the disk and the facet can generate pain at the same time, so it’s not always this cut and dry.

WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE

thedoc — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:38:21 +0000

Mental Attitude: Delay Alzheimer’s! Mastering a second language seems to delay getting Alzheimer’s as bilingual patients did not contract Alzheimer’s until 5 years later than monolingual patients. Even if you’re not bilingual, there are other ways to exercise the brain like word games, crosswords, word search. Ellen Bialystok, York University, Feb 2011
Health Alert: Too Much Drinking! 5.9% of adolescents ages 12-14 drank alcohol in the past month and 44.8% received their alcohol for free from their family or at home. People who begin drinking alcohol before the age of 15 are six times more likely to develop alcohol problems than those who start at age 21 and older. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, Feb 2011
Diet: Allergic To Food? 17 million people in Europe suffer from food allergies, with 3.5 million younger than 25 years old. Allergies in children under 5 have doubled over the last ten years and trips to the emergency room for severe anaphylactic reactions have increased seven-fold. Allergic reactions are probably increasing due to changes in nutrition patterns, exposure to environmental factors such as cigarette smoke and changes in lifestyle. European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Feb 2011
Exercise: New Toy. A wireless device, the iSense, can predict and detect the status of muscles during training. The iSense helps optimize performance by building the bridge between what the brain is telling the athlete and what the muscles are actually doing. The iSense device detects the tiny electrical signals muscles produce when contracting. Muscle fatigue can promote muscle growth, but can also cause serious injury when the level of fatigue is high. When muscle fatigue is not detected soon enough, it can often lead to pain and injuries. The system will guide the user during training to act as a warning device, to avoid unnecessary strain on the muscles and avoid injury. Essex University, AlphaGalileo Foundation
Chiropractic: Watch Your Back! Half of working Americans suffer from back pain each year. 25% of American adults reported they suffered from back pain for at least a day within the last three months and lower back pain is the 5th most common reason people visit the doctor. CDC
Wellness/Prevention: Wear A Helmet. Severe head trauma is the most frequent cause of death and severe disability in skiers and snowboarders and accounts for 15% of all skiing and snowboarding related injuries. Injuries include epidural hematoma, subdural hematoma, other traumatic intracranial hemorrhage, skull fractures and cervical spine injury. Helmet use reduces head injuries 35%, with another study suggests head injury reductions range from 15-60%. Helmet wearers decreased the need for neurosurgical procedures, length of hospital stay, and incidence of death. Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, March 2011
Quote: “The player who loses his head and his cool, is worse than no player at all.” ~ Lou Gehrig

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WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE

thedoc — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:03:14 +0000

Mental Attitude: Cognitive Disorders. Seniors (age 85 and older) were most likely to report one or more cognitive disorders, such as senility or dementia (18.4%) compared to seniors ages 75-84 (6%) and seniors ages 65-74 (1.1%). The average annual health care expense for seniors reporting one or more cognitive disorders totaled $15,549 a year, compared to $9,019 for seniors not reporting any cognitive disorders. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Health Alert: A Bad Fish Story. Mercury contamination, a worldwide environmental problem, has been called “public enemy No. 1″ in California’s San Francisco Bay. Mercury mining and gold recovery in the mid-1800s, combined with present day oil refineries, chemical manufacturing plants and wastewater treatment plants have contributed enough mercury to threaten wildlife and prompt a fish consumption advisory in the Bay Area. Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but some 2,000 tons of it enter the global environment each year from human-generated sources. A small portion of mercury consumed by microorganisms converts to methylmercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish and the animals – and people – who eat them. Health effects include damage to the central nervous system, heart and immune system. Environmental Science & Technology, January 2011
Diet: Depressed Over Trans Fats. Consumption of trans fats, present in fast foods and mass-produced foods like pastries, may raise the risk of depression. A diet rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fats and olive oil appears to have a slight protective effect. People who consumed a high level of trans fats had a 48% higher risk of developing depression and the more trans fats consumed, the higher the risk.
Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk of Depression: The SUN Project”, Jan 2011
Exercise: Eat Right! Because 33% of children and 66% of adults in the US are overweight or obese, the new “Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” places stronger emphasis on reducing calorie consumption and increasing physical activity. Good nutrition is an integral component of successful aging, the benefits of a healthy diet and regular physical activity may include a more robust immune system, higher energy levels, faster recuperation times, sharper mental acuity, and better management of chronic health problems. The Gerontological Society of America, February 2011
Chiropractic: Fun Fact! Humans have a 100 trillion cells! Anatomy & Physiology, Guyton
Wellness/Prevention: Cool Down, Lose Weight. Warmer winter temperatures in your home could be a factor in the current obesity epidemic. Increased time spent indoors, widespread access to central heating and air conditioning, and increased expectations of thermal comfort all contribute to restricting the range of temperatures we experience in daily life and reduce the time our bodies spend under mild thermal stress – meaning we’re burning less energy.
Obesity Reviews, January 2011.
Quote: “Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.” ~ Muhammad Ali

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WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE

thedoc — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:39:15 +0000

Mental Attitude: Lets Talk. People are attracted to, date, and marry people who resemble themselves in terms of personality, values, and physical appearance. A new study finds people who speak in similar styles are more compatible. The study focused on words called “function words,” words that show how those words relate (words like the, a, be, anything, that, will, him, and and). How we use these words constitutes our writing and speaking style. Pairs of people whose language style matching scores were above average were almost four times as likely to want future contact as pairs whose speaking styles were out of sync. 80% of the couples whose writing style matched were still dating three months later, compared with 54% of the couples who didn’t match. Psychological Science, January 2011
Health Alert: Are We Bugged? Superbugs are not just a problem in hospitals, they could also come from animal farms. Insects could be responsible for spreading antibiotic resistant bacteria from pigs to humans. Widespread use of antibiotics in confined swine production is likely to increase the selection and evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. While farm pigs continue to share their homes with insects, the risk of these resistant strains being transferred to humans via cockroaches and flies is an ever-present possibility. BMC Microbiology, January 2011
Diet: Diabetes. 33% of adults in the US (79 million people) have pre-diabetes and 26 million have diabetes. Prediabetes exists when blood sugar levels are too high, but not enough for a diagnosis of diabetes to be reached. Those with prediabetes have a significantly higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes, as well as stroke and heart disease.
CDC, January 2011
Exercise: Stretch The Other Side? To properly strengthen the muscles of your upper back, which help pull your shoulders and head back for better posture, you should stretch your chest muscles first. Most people have overly contracting chest muscles that inhibit or turn off the upper back muscles. If you stretch the chest first, this will allow the upper back muscles to fire at a higher rate. Try it.
Chiropractic: Another Analogy. “Not following through with maintenance care is like wearing braces for 3 years and not wearing the retainer.” The idea of wellness/maintenance chiropractic care is simple: maintain proper spinal/joint motion and decrease the risk of muscles tightening and the spine degenerating.
Wellness/Prevention: Try Leisure Instead Of Medicine. “Play” or leisure is an important part of a person’s health. It renews our spirit, gives us clarity of thought, life satisfaction and benefits blood pressure. For our physical, mental, spiritual and cognitive health, “leisure time should be a necessity, not a luxury.” Leisure is anything that brings personal enjoyment to individuals and allows them to recharge. It can include: puzzles, a walk, a sport etc., as long as it fits this criteria: the activity must be freely chosen; must provide satisfaction and adventure; must arouse interest; must require a commitment; must serve as a sense of separation or escape; and most important, must be pleasurable.
Canisius College, Feb 2011
Quote: “The best way to get something done is to begin.” ~ Anonymous

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WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE

thedoc — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:17:48 +0000

Mental Attitude: Who Has The Highest Stress Levels? A workplace’s key employees may be at the greatest risk of experiencing high stress levels. 18% reported their job was “highly stressful.” The odds of having high stress were greater if workers were managers or professionals, if they thought their poor job performance could negatively affect others, or if they worked long or variable hours. If workers felt their poor job performance could result in any physical injury, damage to their company’s equipment or reputation, or a financial loss, they were twice as likely to report high stress. Having a worksite far from their home, or having to entertain or travel for their jobs also increased the odds of being stressed, as did variable hours such as being on call, doing shift work or having a compressed work week. Chronic stress can lead to burnout, and can worsen existing mental health problems or physical disability.
International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, January 2011
Health Alert: Medication Errors For Kids? Preparing small doses of medication from syringes may be inaccurate and can result in crucial dosing errors for infants and children. Because babies and young children require small doses of drugs, these are often prepared from stock of less than 0.1 mL. Current equipment does not permit the accurate measurement of volumes less than 0.1 mL. 7.4% of preparations for children needed less than 0.1 mL of stock solution and 17.5% needed preparations from less than 0.2 mL. Medications most commonly requiring small doses include potent narcotics and sedatives such as morphine, lorazepam and fentanyl as well as immunosuppressants.
Canadian Medical Association Journal, January 2011
Diet: Foods Preferred By Preschool Kids. Preschoolers (ages 3-5) prefer salt, sugar and fat, and these children equate their taste preferences to brand-name fast-food and soda products. Children even turn to condiments to add these flavors — and with them calories — to be sure the foods they eat match their taste preferences. Appetite, January 2011
Exercise: Stretch Before Sit-ups? To properly strengthen abdominal muscles, stretch your low back muscles first. Most people have overly contracting low back muscles that inhibit or turn off the abdominals. Stretching the low back first will allow the abdominals to fire at a higher rate. Try it.
Chiropractic: Starting Over, Fun Fact! The human body is in a constant state of breakdown and repair, your cells are constantly replaced by new cells. (Lung tissue becoming healthy again after quitting smoking is a good example.)
Anatomy & Physiology, Guyton
Wellness/Prevention: Another Reason Not To Smoke. Women who smoke regularly before menopause have a higher risk of developing lung cancer. The risk was also greater if the woman smoked for longer, started at an earlier age, and consumed many cigarettes each day. Breast cancer is the most common worldwide female cancer.
Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011
Quote: “A Hospital is no place to be sick.” ~ Samuel Goldwyn (1882-1974)

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WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE

thedoc — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:45:34 +0000

Mental Attitude: Empathy Improves Care. Doctors showing clinical empathy to patients can improve their satisfaction of care, motivate them to stick to their treatment plans and lower malpractice complaints. Empathy is the ability to understand another’s experience, to communicate and confirm that understanding with the other person and to then act in a helpful manner. In a recent study, oncologists were video-recorded speaking with their patients and only responded to 22% of moments thought to be an empathic opportunity. Another study involving oncologists and lung cancer patients showed the physicians responding to only 11% of empathic opportunities.
Canadian Medical Association Journal, Jan 2011
Health Alert: Elderly Patients Do Not Receive Same Care As Younger Patients! A recent study reveals trauma centers that excel in the care of severely injured young patients do not necessarily provide the same quality of care to elderly ones. Elderly patients are more likely to have coexisting diseases than younger patients (they often have heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, and might be on blood thinners). All of these things need to be addressed at the same time their injuries are cared for. Elderly persons are also more likely to have reduced organ function, what physicians describe as “physiologic reserve”. Annals of Surgery, January 2011
Diet: Bigger Leads To Bigger. When you’re ordering a Starbucks “Trenta” iced coffee, you’re not only getting a massive drink (31 ounces) but massive calories (190 calories using non-fat milk). An extra 200 calories per day will lead to a potential weight gain of about 2 pounds per month, or potentially 21 pounds per year.
Loyola University Health System, January 2011
Exercise: Walk It Off. 60% of adults over age 65 walk less than one mile per week. Walking more and losing weight can improve mobility as much as 20% in older, obese adults with poor cardiovascular health.
Archives of Internal Medicine, January 2011
Chiropractic: All In A Name. “Samuel H. Weed, at my request selected two Greek words, cheir and praktikos, meaning, “done by hand,” from which I coined the word, CHIROPRACTIC.” ~ DD Palmer.
Wellness/Prevention: Obesity And Smoking. The average lifespan of US citizens is shorter, when compared to rival countries, in great part because 1) Americans used to smoke a lot, and 2) Americans have considerably higher than global average rates of obesity. The lingering effects of regular smoking persevere to varying extents for twenty to thirty years after an individual has quit. More people are obese in America than in any other developed country. 20-33% of reduced longevity is linked to obesity. Obesity rates continue to rise and may wipe out any expected improvements in life span. National Research Council, January 2011
Quote: “If you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry.”
~ Dalai Lama

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“My Neck Is Killing Me!”

thedoc — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:46:19 +0000

When patients present with neck pain, they always ask, “where is the pain coming from?” Of course, this can only be answered after a careful history and thorough evaluation is completed, which is what we do in this office. Let’s take a closer look at what this involves.

The History: This includes a careful description of how the injury occurred, if there was an injury. For example, in a slip and fall injury, it makes a difference if the patient fell forwards, sideways, or backwards; if they landed on their knees, hips, buttocks, back or if they hit their head on the ground. Also, if there was a dazed feeling or loss of consciousness in the process. If there was a head strike, were there any signs of concussion: fatigue, mental “fog,” headache, difficulty communicating or forming words or sentences. When there is no specific injury, we will ask if there were perhaps one or more, “mini-“ or “micro-“ injuries that may have occurred sometime within 2-3 days prior to the onset of the neck pain. The cumulative effect of several small “micro-injuries” can result in a rather significant onset of symptoms several days later. The next batch of information gathered includes factors that increase and decrease the pain, the type of pain quality (sharp, dull, throb, burn, itch, etc.), pain location – “…put your finger on where it hurts and “does it radiate into the arms or legs, severity (pain level 0-10), and timing such as, “it’s worse for the 1st 30 min. in the morning and then loosens up.” Information regarding past history, family history, medical history (surgeries, medications), social history, habits (caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, etc.), and a systems review (heart, lungs, stomach, nervous system, etc.).

The Physical Exam: This includes vital signs (blood pressure, etc), observation – the way the head is positioned (forwards, to the side, rotated, etc.); palpation – touch/feel for muscle spasm, trigger points, spinal vertebra position and motion; range of motion, orthopedic and neurological tests. The exam procedure may also include x-ray, depending on each case.

The Diagnosis: This is determined after taking all your information and “…putting the puzzle pieces together” to determine what is causing your pain.

The Treatment: Chiropractic spinal manipulation (often referred to as “adjustments”) is performed by applying energy or force to the misaligned or fixed vertebra structures by one of many methods depending on the patient’s size, pain level, tolerance, and so on. Other “manual” treatment approaches include soft tissue therapy such as trigger point therapy, active release, massage, vibration, and others. The use of physical therapy modalities such as ice, heat, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, light – laser therapy, and/or others, again, depending on your specific situation and needs can also be very helpful. Similarly, exercises to teach you how to hold your proper posture, to improve flexibility or range of motion, and to strengthen the muscles that are weak really help to make the adjustments “hold” and the beneficial effects last longer. A work station/job assessment may also be needed if that appears to be irritating your condition.

We realize you have a choice in where you choose your healthcare services. If you, a friend or family member requires care for low back pain, we sincerely appreciate the trust and confidence shown by choosing our services and look forward in serving you and your family presently and, in the future.