Chiropractic Adjustments

If you are experiencing headaches, back pain, or other joint pain, you may be an ideal candidate for chiropractic care. Many patients who have had these issues for years have not yet considered visiting a chiropractor to review their case.
​​​​​​​

Your back, neck, and spine are responsible for maintaining our overall posture. Besides bad posture, poor spine health also has the potential to cause problems that may not seem directly related to the spinal column.

Disc Protrusions:

These are commonly referred to as disc bulges or disc herniations. The most common disc protrusion I see in my clinic is the lower back or in the lumbar region of the spine. Symptoms include a very sharp burning pain with any slight of movement. The patient is usually slumped forward or has to hold onto a support to move. The patient will describe this pain as a 9 or 10 out of 10 on a pain scale. These patients may also have a “S” shaped torso when you look at them or when they look at themselves in the mirror. Coughing, sneezing, laughing, and even bearing down when going to the bathroom can all aggravate the sharp intense pain. In most cases there is usually pain radiating into one or both legs that can be accompanied with numbness in the toes or the big toe. Sleeping is usually interrupted by the sharp pain when attempting to move in bed.


Disc protrusions of the neck or cervical disc protrusions can occur. They too are characterized by a very sharp intense pain in the neck. These patients are usually holding their head and neck to the side where there is the least amount of pain. There can also be pain radiating down one arm or both arms causing numbness or tingling into specific fingers of the hand.

Accurate diagnosis of disc protrusions are through advanced imaging such as CT scans or MRI scans. These scans can tell us if one, or more than one disc is bulging or protruding. These scans can also provide us information if a nerve root, multiple nerve roots, and even if the spinal cord has pressure being placed on it from the disc protrusion.

Chiropractic care has been an effective treatment for disc protrusions. Specific spinal adjustments near the area of the protrusion can relieve the pain from the protrusion and reduce the pressure on any surrounding nerves or the spinal cord. Relief can be noticed as fast as a couple of days or a few weeks depending on the severity of the protrusion and the number of discs involved. Actual healing of the disc protrusion could take a few months or even up to a year or longer. And yes, in some severe cases may require a surgical consultation.

Your chiropractor can provide you with timely suggestions to help decrease the severity of your pain in addition to the spinal adjustments. This could include knowing when to ice or heat the area of the spine, when stretching or strengthening should or should not be performed, and what body movements could aggravate the disc protrusion. In some severe cases, the use of anti-inflammatory medication from your family medical doctor can reduce the severity of pain to allow the chiropractor to move you in the necessary positions for a spinal adjustment.

Headaches:

Cervico-genic headaches are what we call headaches that are the result of misalignments (subluxations) of the cervical spine or the neck region of the spine. There are 7 vertebrate in the neck where one or more vertebrate could mis-align and place tension on surrounding muscles, ligaments, or tendons. This may allow for headaches to form lasting for short periods or even a few days or weeks. Symptoms may include nausea, dizziness, and vomiting. Chiropractic adjustments of the neck can be a safe, gentle, and effective treatment for these headaches when performed by a trained qualified chiropractor.

General Joint Pains:

Joints such as shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles can also be effectively treated with chiropractic care. Proper assessment, which may also require the use of x-ray can provide your chiropractor information as to what is causing your joint pain. Once a proper diagnosis is attained, your chiropractor can now decide what is the necessary therapy of care. In our clinic, this therapy may include adjusting of the joint, trigger point therapy to the surrounding muscles and ligaments, and other myofascial release techniques. Our clinic also has access to interferential current, ultrasound, and laser therapy, which are all effective adjuncts of care for joint pain.