Archive for sciatic pain

ARE YOU SHRINKING?

Posted in health and wellness, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2014 by chiropracticdouglasville

Is it true that you lose your height as you age? Is this something that is unavoidable?

You can observe that many people start to shrink over time and although this is a common thing to happen, it is absolutely not normal.

     To fully understand why the height changes, we first need to understand how  a spine works. There are normal ranges for most systems in your body. There are normal ranges for blood pressure, body temperature and, indeed, the spine too has a normal range. A normal spine is straight from the front and from the side there are three curves. These banana shaped curves are in the neck, mid-back and low back. The whole spine is made up of 24 individual bones (vertebra). In between each bone is a cartilage pad called a vertebral disc. When the spine is within the normal range it has the average height of 71 cm.

    There are many different types of stresses that cause a person’s spine to go out of the normal range. A few of these include the birth process, fall, traumas, accidents, and job hazards including, but not limited to, sitting for long periods in front of a computer, driving for long periods, manual labor, etc.

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The people with a shrinking spine and structural abnormalities will experience many secondary conditions such as neck and back pain, disc bulges, radiculopathy,headaches, arm or leg pain, muscle spasm…. People with these issues are at a greater risk of experiencing height loss.

Although most traditional doctors have focused on treating the secondary conditions, a Structural Chiropractor’s first concern is to examine if the issues are coming from a structural abnormality. This is done by a thorough examination that includes Digital Structural Radiographs,  Bilateral Digital Weight distribution analysis, Functional movement analysis and a Neurological exam. The examination determines if the person’s has structural abnormalities and,  if so, recommends a structural corrective care plan to stop the shrinking process

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PATCH IT OR FIX IT?

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 10, 2013 by chiropracticdouglasville

One of my favorite educational games for our patients is the ‘rubber band’ game.

The way this game works is that I tie a rubber band around your finger. We now wait and see what happens. Within a period of time the skin starts to change its color and the fingers starts hurting. What would happen if we left the rubber band on the finger for the next hour, day month or longer? Of course the finger would keep getting worse and eventually will have irreparable damage.

At this time I ask the patient, from the solutions I give them, which one would you fix the problem with the finger and which solution would just patch it.

One of the solutions might be to exercise the finger. This might make the finger feel better but it does not correct the cause of this particular problem? No

A person can massage their finger to make it feel better. This can offer temporary relief but again in this situation because it does not fix the underlying cause, the finger keeps getting worse.

Another solution is to put some pain relieving cream or medicine on the finger. Does this help temporarily relieve the finger? Yes, but does it fix the problem? No

Finally we can cut the finger off, it might alleviate the symptoms but the person has permanent damage in their body.

The only right answer is to remove the rubber band. This is the only true fix.

A Structural Abnormality in your spine is very similar. Especially because it puts pressure on the nerves just like the rubber band on the finger. Consider looking at what you are doing with this abnormal health condition that you might have. Many people keep patching up their symptoms and not actively pursuing a fix. In my office we see many patients that have been previously trying to patch up the issues they have with their spine, consequentially because the problem is not getting fixed the spinal condition, just like the finger, keeps getting more damaged. What separates me from the traditional doctor is that we look for the underlying cause of the problem and apply Structural Correction to fix it. The correction of the structural abnormality is how we can remove the pressure of the nerve and stop it from coming back.

So, in your daily life are you pursuing a fix or a patch?Image

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