Pain Relief
Post surgical pain syndrome refers to painful episodes that an individual experiences following surgery. While the surgery was done to correct a problem, it didn't alleviate the problem in whole or in part. It is quite common for people to have PSP and for them to have their physician give them advice that essentially means the patient will "just have to live with it." Since "learning to live with it" means to cover up the symptoms of pain with drugs, in time, serious health problems and issues can result from complications of the medication. Furthermore, since many chiropractors have neither the experience nor the tools to gain the experience, they are reluctant to accept these types of patients.
Our practice has devoted over 20 years of practical experience to gaining a keen insight into helping people with these unique problems. For example, if you were traumatized and fractured a vertebrae, you will most likely have received enough trauma to misalign other vertebrae immediately above and below that fracture. Often this misalignment is so close to the fracture that doctors are reluctant to address this injury. Therefore the residual pain that follows surgery is almost always a result of this unattended injury. The misalignment does two things: 1) creates nerve interference and 2) produces irritation in the soft tissue that drives swelling and advances joint degeneration.
We have state-of-the-art equipment and technology that allows us, with pinpoint accuracy, to reduce nerve interference, restore normal joint motion, alleviate scar tissue effects, and realign vertebrae around the surgery site without "popping" or "twisting" the neck.
Back and Neck Pain
Contrary to conventional wisdom, back and neck pain aren't caused by a lack of aspirin or pain pills. Back or neck pain is almost always caused by abnormal joint motion. Stress can build up in the spine from an old injury or from a slowly developing postural injury. This stress causes pain and nerve pressure, which results in the pain symptoms in the back and neck. However, the real cause of the pain is the vertebral misalignment.
Is it hard to look over your shoulder? Is there a constant pulling or throbbing pain in your neck? Do you notice a "grinding" sound as you turn your head? These are signs that your cervical vertebrae are significantly misaligned and need to be put back in alignment. An old neck injury can affect the entire spine, above and below it. The joints in the neck have many more nerve endings in the joints than the similar areas in the spine below it. The body has the ability to adapt to spinal injuries and is geared toward protecting the balance of the head. Therefore, stress can set into the lower back regions simply because of a neck injury. That's not the only cause for low back pain, but it is a rather common cause and a complicating factor to head and low back pain.
We examine the entire spine from top to bottom and we remove subluxation* complexes wherever we find them.
*A vertical subluxation is a minor misalignment of a vertebrae that
causes nerve interference. A subluxation complex is nerve interference
and joint degeneration with inflammation of soft tissues.
Arthritis
"Artro" = joint
"itis" = inflamed
The most common spinal arthritis stems from improperly moving spinal joints, which are caused by misaligned vertebrae. Vertebrae become misaligned due to poor posture or trauma. In other words, vertebrae either sag slowly out of place or they get knocked out of place. When one vertebrae does not communicate normally with the one above it and/or the one below it, friction results. This friction to the soft tissues that comprise the actual joints between the vertebrae creates irritation that precipitates inflammation (arthritis) . This inflammatory disease can be relieved by strengthening your posture and restoring normal motion to the spinal vertebrae. Most people would prefer to correct the misaligned vertebrae than to spend a lifetime on anti-inflamatory drugs. This is what we can help you do.
The least common arthritis (less than 5% of the reported cases) belong to a type of disorders that we refer to as systemic arthritis. This type of inflammatory disease is currently believed to be an autoimmune disorder, where the body attacks its own joints (gout, psoriatic, rheumatoid). These types of conditions do not fare well with manually manipulative procedures.
To summarize, there are two kinds of arthritis. One responds well to
manual therapy, and one does not. We have the ability, through our
extensive diagnostic tools, to differentiate whether a patient has one
or the other, or a mixture of both. If a patient suffers from both kinds
of arthritis, we
can make you feel better by addressing the one we can help and leaving alone the one we can't.
Migraines / Headaches
When systems of the body are not able to function normally and get out of synchronization, various symptoms develop, such as tunnel vision, nausea, weakness, dizziness and other symptoms. While stress is often blamed for provoking a migraine headache, the underlying causes are a combination of a lack of sufficient rest, vertebral subluxations and improper diet.
Our approach is two-fold: nutritional and bio-mechanical. Since
vertebral subluxations alter nerve function, the body is not able to
rest or assimilate foods well or otherwise respond promptly to the
environment. By correcting subluxations, the body is able to rest and
respond normally to the environment. The only other thing we feel that
is important to evaluate is whether or not the patient is provoking
their problems nutritionally by eating foods that are toxic or
unsuitable for digestion.We provide patients a list of foods that their
individual bodies are more likely to handle well. Our assessment include
our extensive spinal bio-mechanical examination which includes the
pro-adjuster, X-rays, and lab work in the form of blood typing.
Degenerative Disc Disease
A disc is the soft tissue between the vertebrae. This soft tissue
allows each vertebrae to move independently in various directions. When
this tissue is damaged, the space between the vertebrae typically
narrows. As the space joint narrows, the disc material is forced outside
of the normal joint space. This creates a bulging effect. In fact, the
bulge can be so profound that it can break open and the liquid inside
the disc leaks out into the body. This leak can occur in front of, in
back or, or beside the spine. If this occurs front or side, then the
bulge, or the material that breaks out of the bulge has no neurological
consequence. However, if the bulge herniates backwards in any direction,
it can have the potential to press against the spinal cord and/or nerve
rootlets. We examine every patient for this disorder. We have
specialized equipment that can decompress the disc bulge and reduce any
pressure it may put on the spinal cord or nerve rootlets. Our machine is
called the DTS machine.
Hip, Knee, Ankle & Foot Pain
When standing or walking the foot begins the motion of the body that works into every joint including the spine. We call this action the kinetic chain of events. This means the foot is the beginning of motion that transcends all the way up to the head with motion. If your foot, knee, or hip is misaligned, even slightly, we can properly diagnose it and treat it the way it should be treated by restoring the proper, healthy motion of the gait and reducing your pain.
The most common treatment for disc injury is traction or surgery.
Alone, neither is as effective as they are when utilized with the manual
therapy of chiropractic adjustments. The reason for this is simple: In
order to have a disc injury, you must have a misalignment. Misalignments
are comprised of multiple twists and turns and not simply a vertical
compression on the disc. To pull apart a disc by traction does not
address the rotation component or the flexion component that is in every
misalignment. Therefore, when you are only treating a fraction of the
problem, you are likely to only get a fraction of the recovery that is
possible. We analyze every injury from every angle and we address every
compromise that makes up your vertebral subluxation complex.
Hip, Knee, Ankle & Foot Pain
When standing or walking the foot begins the motion of the body that works into every joint including the spine. We call this action the kinetic chain of events. This means the foot is the beginning of motion that transcends all the way up to the head with motion. If your foot, knee, or hip is misaligned, even slightly, we can properly diagnose it and treat it the way it should be treated by restoring the proper, healthy motion of the gait and reducing your pain.