- Disc Injuries
- Arthritis
- Personal Injuries
- Back Injuries
- Headaches / Migraines
- Whiplash
- Shoulder Pain
- Neck and Arm Pain
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Sports Injuries
BACK PAIN
Eighty percent of Americans experience one form of back pain or another
during the course of their lives. More men over the age of 45 are disabled
by back pain than any other condition. It is the third most common reason
for surgeries. Because of this, people complaining of back pain cannot be
easily diagnosed. This is because the spine is such an incredibly complex
structure of bones, muscles, nerves, joints, tendons, and ligaments. Injury
or disease affecting any one or more of these structures can often trigger
an episode of pain.
Lower back pain is often caused by a muscle strain. The erector spinae, or large paired muscles in the lower back that help keep your spine erect, can become inflamed and spasm. In more serious cases, the pain may be caused by a degenerative condition, such as arthritis, disc disease, or disc herniation.
A degenerative disc condition can sometimes cause a chain reaction of other events in your spine. When a disc is not in its proper place, or is malformed from disease or some other condition, it can allow additional undue pressure on other healthy structures, such as neighboring discs, nerves, muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons.
Rest, ice or heat therapy, and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicine, such as aspirin, are often the first course of treatment for mild lower back pain. This allows your muscles to return to their normal position and begin to heal.
Because the thoracic spine is the sturdiest part of the spine, it is less prone to injury. That said, upper back pain, while less common than lower back pain, is often caused by irritation of the muscles or a problem with a joint. Other less common causes of upper back pain include herniated or degenerative discs.
However, rest for a sore back should be kept to no more than two weeks. Otherwise, the muscles in the lower back begin to atrophy and can become significantly weak, leaving you open to further undue pain and injury.
NECK PAIN
Neck pain is a common problem, with two-thirds of the population having neck pain at some point in their lives.
Neck pain, although felt in the neck , can be caused by numerous other spinal problems. Neck pain may arise due to muscular tightness in both the neck and upper back, or pinching of the nerves emanating from between the cervical vertebrae . If this support system is affected adversely, then the muscles in the area will tighten, leading to neck pain.
Common causes of neck pain include, but are not limited to:
- Cervical disc bulge or herniation
- Poor posture or work ergonomics
- Trauma such as a car accident or sports injury
- Spinal stenosis
- Muscle strain
- Degenerative changes
- Arthritis
At Sheldon Road Chiropractic & Massage Therapy we provide our patients with multiple solutions to their neck pain ranging from traditional Chiropractic manipulation and massage therapy to Spinal Decompression Therapy on the DRX9000 to painless noninvasive Low Level Laser Therapy using the M6 MLS laser.
Headaches/Migraines
Headaches and migraines afflict many Americans. The severity of pain can
range from mild and intermittent to episodes of debilitating throbbing,
unrelenting agony. Often the underlying causes of headache pain can be
traced to neck dysfunction and muscle tightness.
Some recent studies have shown that patients suffering from long term headaches and migraines may benefit more from long-term chiropractic care than drug therapy alone. For headaches that originate in the cervical, or neck, area, chiropractic treatment, such as spinal manipulation, has been shown to be quite effective. A 2001 Duke University study, for example, found that spinal manipulation provided relief for patients with headaches that originate in the neck, and resulted in fewer side effects than medication. Researchers in that study concluded that such treatments as relaxation training, thermal biofeedback combined with relaxation training, electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and to a lesser degree, acupuncture, are all modestly effective in treating migraine headaches.
Acording to the American Chiropractic Association close to 15 percent of people who visit a chiropractor do so to seek relief for pain from long term headaches or migraines.
At Sheldoon Road Chiropractic & Massage Therapy we offer a variety of approaches to helping you deal with your headaches.
Whiplash
Whiplash is a non-medical term describing a range of injuries to the neck caused by or related to a sudden distortion of the neck associated with it's sudden extension /flexion as a result of a motor vehicle crash . The term "whiplash" is a slang term but is generally accepted to describe the symptoms that occur after an accident. "Cervical acceleration-deceleration" (CAD) describes the mechanism of the injury, while the term "whiplash associated disorders" (WAD) describes the injury sequelae and symptoms.
Whiplash is commonly associated with motor vehicle accidents , usually when the vehicle has been hit in the rear; however, the injury can be sustained in many other ways, including slips, falls and other trauma.
At Sheldon Road Chiropractic & Massage Therapy Dr. Kollias and his staff have decades of experience with treating the symptoms associated with these injuries.
Disc Injuries
A spinal disc herniation is a medical condition affecting the spine due to trauma , lifting injuries , or idiopathic , in which a tear in the outer, fibrous ring ( annulus fibrosus ) of an intervertebral disc allows the soft, central portion ( nucleus pulposus ) to extrude out beyond the damaged outer rings. Tears are almost always postero-lateral in nature owing to the presence of the posterior longitudinal ligament in the spinal canal. This tear in the disc ring may result in the release of inflammatory chemical mediators which may directly cause severe pain, even in the absence of nerve root compression.
Disc herniations are sometimes a further development of a previously existing disc "bulge", a condition in which the outermost layers of the annulus fibrosus are still intact, but can bulge when the disc is under pressure. In contrast to a herniation, none of the nucleus pulposus escapes beyond the outer layers.
Disc herniations and bulges can result in pain to the neck or back and depending on their severity can additionally result in numbness, tingling or pain to the arms or legs. At Sheldon Road Chiropractic & Massage Therapy we offer a number of treatments designed to reduce pain and dysfunction and allow for proper healing of these types of injuries.
