Conditions Treated
Generally speaking, all musculoskeletal conditions involve postural habits that are dysfunctional. I won’t be repeating that for every condition listed, but rest assured I will be assiduous in getting you to recognize the inappropriate static and movement patterns you have developed. Such patterns if left unchanged will undo or compromise any positive effects of therapy in this office and even the effects regular home exercise. Since many of us spend the day in a sedentary sitting position I typically provide coaching, exercises, and a list of ergonomic tips to improve your sitting posture at a desk. I also show you how to correct a slumping posture while standing and even how to correct imbalanced walking patterns.
Also, I can choose from a large repertoire of herbal, nutritional, and homeopathic products that you can use on a daily basis to help to reduce pain, inflammation, and muscle tension.
Acute injuries and accidents
You may become aware of this sort of problem suddenly, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been developing over a long period of time. “I just leaned over to pick something up and my back went out” is a common refrain, but usually a problem has been brewing for some time. Muscle imbalance and joint dysfunction can evolve into a painful event given enough time. The story of ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ is actually physiologically accurate. Of course sudden events like slips and falls are also in this category. Acute injuries usually improve in a short amount of time with appropriate treatment.
Sports & Exercise Injuries: Prevention and Treatment
Like any other kind of injury, sport/exercise injuries generally take time to develop and are usually caused by more than one factor. These factors usually include some combination of inappropriate movement patterns and inadequate neuro-musculo-skeletal function. The essence of prevention is identifying those deleterious patterns and bodily dysfunction before they cause a problem. If the injury has already occurred treatment must include a customized rehabilitation exercise program engineered to safely and effectively improve your ability to perform.
Sprains and strains
Sprains are injuries to the ligaments that attach bones to one another. Ligaments are the primary stabilizers of joints. Ligaments become injured when the joint is exposed to a sudden stress that overcomes the ability of the ligamentous fibers to stabilize the joint. Strains are typically used to describe injuries to muscles, including tendons (tendons attach the thick part of the muscle to the bone). Sprains and strains can either be acute or chronic. I use a wide variety of techniques to improve the healing time of injured ligaments and muscles that include massage techniques, low level laser therapy, microcurrent, ultrasound, interferential therapy, and gentle adjusting.
Joint dysfunction
Joint dysfunction is usually the result of a sudden traumatic event or an evolving response to muscle imbalance or degenerative joint disease (e.g., arthritis). Chiropractic physicians do not assert that dysfunctional joints are due to ‘a bone being out of place,’ or ‘a slipped disk.’ Bones don’t go out of place and spinal disks don’t slip. Chiropractors understand that joint dysfunction is equivalent to an abnormal range of motion for the involved joint. The joint may be hypermobile in certain directions of movement and hypomobile in others. Gentle adjusting, massage therapy, and home exercises are often sufficient to correct affected joints.
Low and mid-back pain/stiffness/tension
This situation is usually more chronic in nature, that is, you’ve probably been living with some degree of discomfort for some time. When it becomes too debilitating or annoying and hasn’t responded to exercise or previous therapy, that’s when you start looking for more help. Over the past 25 years I’ve found that my approach of combining muscle release/balancing and joint mobilization through gentle adjusting is usually successful. Being diligent about doing the customized home exercise routine I’ll show you is the key to not having to come back to the office with the same problem.
Sciatica
There are two common causes for this painful condition. The first is directly related to irritation of the sciatic nerve right where it exits the spinal column. This is usually caused by disk degeneration, arthritis, and/or stenosis. The other main cause of sciatica comes from a tight muscle in the lower buttock/hip area called the piriformis muscle. A piriformis spasm puts direct pressure on the nerve and can cause irritation and pain down the leg. Low level laser therapy can often help the local inflammation at the spinal or buttock level; ultrasound and interferential electric muscle stimulation can relieve muscle spasm; regular muscle strengthening and stretching can help relieve the pressure around the nerve. Natural and/or pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory products and muscle relaxants are also helpful. Gentle chiropractic adjusting can help to correct fixated joints that are contributing to the irritated and inflamed sciatic nerve response.
Hip pain
This issue can be caused by foot dysfunction (flat feet, etc.), tight and imbalanced muscles in the hip, and/or joint fixations in the pelvic area. Again, muscle release and balancing is crucial for proper treatment, as are home exercises. If the problem is in the hip joint itself the problem could be arthritis or bursitis. Both of these problems can be helped but do tend to take a longer time to heal.
Muscle spasms
Spasm occurs when muscles have forgotten how to relax and stretch. (This kind of selective muscle amnesia is often encouraged by ‘sister muscles’ (antagonist muscles) being too weak.) Sometimes people focus on strengthening to the near exclusion of daily stretching. Since we all accumulate muscle tension on a daily basis we also need to do muscle stretching on a daily basis. Stretching literally performs the same function as bladder and bowel elimination does for the body. Usually there is joint dysfunction associated with muscle imbalance and tightness, which is why I perform gentle chiropractic adjustments to help mobilize the joints and return them to a normal range of motion.
Neck pain
Neck pain is often the result of poor sitting and/or standing posture. Often there are problems in the pelvic area and middle and upper back and shoulders that are the main cause of neck pain. Sometimes jaw tension/dysfunction (“TMJ”) also contribute a negative influence to the neck. Joint dysfunction in the neck can cause numbness, tingling, and/or pain down your arms. Stretching, strengthening, muscle balancing, home exercises, ergonomic coaching, and gentle adjustments usually are very helpful for this problem.
Headache
Headaches can be relatively easy to stop when they are simple tension headaches. Tension and muscle imbalances are most prominent in the upper back and shoulders and the neck and jaw. The source of headache is often found in the upper back in the shoulder blade area. Migraine headaches are much more complex because there can be numerous triggers (food-related, stress-related, posture-related, etc.) that are working simultaneously. These factors need to be carefully isolated and identified and then eliminated if progress is to be made with migraines.
Bursitis
Bursitis is an inflammatory condition affecting joints. The space that allows the joint to move freely within its range of motion is called the bursa. The lining of the bursa can get irritated and/or inflamed with improper joint motion, and that is called bursitis. This condition can be painful and slow to improve. I use a combination of natural anti-inflammatory therapies (low level laser, microcurrent, homeopathy, herbs, etc.) in addition to soft tissue work and gentle adjustments to reduce pain and inflammation and improve normal joint motion.
Tendonitis
Any anatomical term that has “-itis” at the end means that there is an inflammatory condition of that tissue. Tendons are the part of the muscle that attaches to the bone. When the muscle has suffered either acute or chronic strain the tendon and its boney attachment can become inflamed. Common sites for tendonitis are the shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle. The treatment approach for many ‘-itises’ are similar, so see above for bursitis.
Arthritis
Arthritis is a chronic degenerative condition of the joint/s. It is commonly caused by a combination of factors including faulty diet, lack of or improper exercise, chronic muscle tension and imbalance, and genetic factors. Treatment options include dietary changes, customized exercise coaching, muscle release and balancing, gentle adjustments, and nutritional, herbal, and/or homeopathic remedies.
TMJ Pain & Dysfunction (Temporomandibular Dysfunction--TMD)
Pain and clicking in the jaw can be very uncomfortable and can interfere with normal eating and chewing. Chiropractic care can alleviate this problem and sometimes can eliminate it, often with the help of dental appliances. It is very important to correct joint dysfunction and muscle imbalances throughout the whole body (even foot and ankle problems!), because normal TMJ function is very much dependent on proper balance everywhere else. My treatment approach emphasizes the use of craniosacral therapy, muscle release and balancing for the pelvis, back, and neck, TMJ massage, low level laser therapy, and microcurrent.
Auto accident injuries
These injuries can be relatively minor or more serious in nature. When they are more serious I often work in conjunction with other health professionals like physical therapists, orthopedists, neurologists, acupuncturists, massage therapists, etc. Rest assured that no matter whose fault it is your auto insurance policy will cover my services, and there is no need for you to pay anything for therapy that is needed to treat your injury. My services are covered by all auto insurance policies.
Work-related injuries (workers’ compensation)
As with auto accident injuries, my services for any work-related injury will be covered by workers compensation insurance. Again, you will not be billed for any services received.