Health Conditions Chiropractic May Help

Back Pain

Back pain is a very common disorder. Just because it is common does not mean having pain is normal. Pain is like the engine light turning on in your car. It’s telling you something is wrong. Most people throughout life will suffer either an episode or ongoing back pain. It can vary from a mild pain to debilitating and have a large effect on a person’s life. It can restrict daily activities, sleep, work and home life. Chiropractic treatment may provide effective relief for back pain because it helps the joints, muscles and nerves of the spine to work properly. There are many causes for back pain therefore a thorough consultation and examination is needed to find the cause of your back pain. It is then that I can determine if chiropractic care can help you.

Neck Pain

Many people experience neck pain, neck stiffness, shoulder pain or pain between the shoulder blades. Our increased use of computers, smart phones and tablets are causing us to adopt postures that put tension on the joints and muscles in the neck. Neck pain can affect your sleep, your mood, your ability to work, your concentration and can lead to headaches. There are many causes of neck pain therefore a careful examination is needed to find the cause of your pain. If the pain is related to your nerves, joints, muscle or posture then I may be able to help.

Headaches and Migraines

Headaches and migraines are awful. They can cause you to lose concentration, lose sleep, and lose your temper. They can be mild to debilitating, they can be dull, sharp, ache, or throbbing. They may cause you to feel nauseous, vomit or affect your vision. Headaches and migraines can have many causes such as abnormal joint motion in the neck, poor posture, irritated nerves, tight muscles, stress, hormones or something more serious. While it is rare they are sinister a thorough consultation and examination will determine if chiropractic treatment can help. Some patients respond quickly to treatment and others notice a slow decline in the frequency and intensity of their symptoms over several weeks. If you’ve had chronic headaches for many years, improvement can take time.

Sciatica

Sciatica is a term used to describe pain that is felt along the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is a large nerve that starts in your lower back. It travels into the buttocks and down the back of the thigh, leg and foot. Irritation to the sciatic nerve can cause a mild discomfort that comes and goes to excruciating pain.

Pain can be felt only in some areas of the nerve distribution or all the way from the low back to the foot. Sciatica is a condition that can have a major impact on the quality of your life. You may not be able to sit for a length of time, therefore driving or sitting at the movies can seem daunting. Often the pain will kick into over-gear at night and will affect your sleep.

Due to the complex nature of the sciatic nerve careful examination and diagnosis is needed. If it looks promising that I can help I will use a combination specific chiropractic techniques to improve the function of the spine and other structures involved.

How long it takes to recover from this condition depends on many factors. The most important thing to remember is that it takes time for the spine to heal. Some patients recover quickly, and others can take weeks or months.

I see people with sciatica regularly. It is one of the main conditions I treat. The best part of treating people with sciatica is not just getting them out of pain but seeing them get their life back.

Disc Bulge

Everyone has heard the age old ‘I’ve slipped a disc’, but what does that really mean? Discs are the spongy cartilage between the spinal bones. Disc problems can vary from a slight bulge to a protrusion to a sequestration. All these terms describe the disc material entering the nerve or spinal cord canal, in different ways, which have different clinical outcomes. Patients can experience moderate to extreme pain, numbness, tingling in the arms and legs, great difficulty getting comfortable and pain that won’t ease in any position. Conservative management (like chiropractic treatments) can be very effective for the right cases while some cases need medical intervention. Rest assured you will be directed to the right treatment.

Shoulder Pain

The shoulder is one of the most complex joints in the body. It can move in many different directions and it can have so many things go wrong and cause pain. Pain in the shoulder is very common. The cause can be direct injury to the shoulder, irritation of the nerves in the neck that go to the shoulder, or poor posture putting pressure on the shoulder.

When the shoulder does get injured, you may find you can’t lift your arm up over your head, or maybe that you must help it over a certain part of the movement. Or it may just hurt doing certain activities. Often it will be aggravated by sleeping on your shoulder, so you may want to sleep on the other side until it has healed.

After a consultation and examination, I will let you know if chiropractic treatment will able to help, of how much improvement you will be able to achieve and in what time frame. Treatment varies depending the cause of the problem. Often it will include specific manipulation, stretching, exercises and soft tissue interventions.

Hip Pain

Hip pain can affect many movements of daily living like getting up out of a chair, bending over, kneeling and squatting down. The pain can be like a sharp pinching pain, dull ache or a combination of both. It can be felt in the groin or on the outside of the upper thigh. It can affect how you walk and go up and down stairs. Sometimes the pain will affect your sleep. You may not be able to lay on one side for long or at all. Hip pain can be related to the hip joint, joints of the pelvis, nerves of the pelvis, muscles and many ligaments of the pelvis. It can refer pain down the leg. A thorough examination of the low back, pelvis and hip is needed to find out what the problem is and if chiropractic treatment is the best care for your hip problem.

Poor Posture

Posture is the window to the spine. If your posture is out of balance, then the spine is out of balance, putting pressure on your nervous system. It’s that simple.

Unhealthy posture is a strong indicator of early spinal disease and can lead to pain, fatigue, headaches, breathing difficulties and lack of confidence. Posture is also related to morbidity (disease) and mortality (death). Our posture typically deteriorates with time.

I have an interest in spinal posture and I have studied specific post graduate chiropractic techniques and have the specialised equipment to improve poor spinal posture.

For more details on posture see Clinical Biomechanics of Posture® (CBP) in techniques.

Pins and Needle Sensations

Are you dealing with tingling, pins and needle sensations into your arms, hands, legs or feet? Unfortunately, tingling is a common symptom that can be bothersome. Sometimes tingling sensations into the hands or feet can be short lived and temporary or other times can be the result of something far more serious.  There are many conditions that can cause these sensations and therefore a careful and thorough examination needed to determine the cause of these symptoms. Recent research has shown that a combination of chiropractic care and physical exercises can help many causes of tingling and radiating pain.

Scoliosis

Scoliosis is a very complex progressive spinal disorder. There are many causes of scoliosis and many approaches which may help reduce the symptoms, potential progression or improve scoliotic deformity. The effects of scoliosis include: poor posture, shoulder humping, muscle weakness, and pain. In rare cases scoliosis can lead to heart and lung problems.

If scoliosis is detected and treated early, patients can avoid these symptoms in many cases. If left untreated, scoliosis can sometimes require surgery. In surgical cases, the bones of the spine are sometimes fused together, and metal rods are inserted to try to straighten the spine. If the correct approach is used early enough, bracing is an effective treatment for halting the progression of scoliosis curves and reducing the need for surgery.

If you are concerned that your teenager has curvature of their spine I recommend you make an appointment to have their spine assessed, especially if there is a family history of scoliosis.

As a chiropractor I am skilled in the identification of scoliosis and I work closely with Scolicare Australia to provide the best way forward for each case.

Sport Injuries

Sport, both recreational and professional, can put enormous strain on your body and spine. Sometimes this strain results in injury that can stop you from playing sport. A thorough examination of any sports injury is needed to make a judgement on what is going on, can chiropractic treatment help and how long it will take to get better. I want to get you back in the game you love and will do what I can to help you recover quickly.

Work Place Injuries

What you do for a living can have a big impact on your body – and your job doesn’t have to be physical for that to be true. There are many kinds of injuries that can be sustained in the workplace. Some injuries are a result of an accident (such as a fall) or from repetitive movements. Lifting and twisting can cause tremendous stress on the spine and the object being lifted does not have to be heavy to cause an injury. Long hours at a desk looking into a computer screen will take a toll on the body as well.

Many work place injuries may cause neck and back pain, sciatica, headaches, hip or leg pain, shoulder or arm pain. If you are suffering from pain that is keeping you from doing your job, it is time to make an appointment. Many work place injuries respond well to chiropractic care.

Dr Rock is able to give advice on work place ergonomics. This ranges from lifting techniques to work station set up to create less stress on the body.

Please contact the Toowoomba Chiropractic Centre with any questions.