One of the things people don’t always realize is how damaging car accidents can be to your body. Even it seems “minor” and there’s only a little dent in your fender, your body sustained a jostle big or small.
Think about it, if you’ve ever hit a large pothole, you know how much that can damage your car alignment. It’s no different with your physical body.
You can get out at the scene of the accident and feel fine at the time. Yet, in the next day or two, you might start feeling achy. This is not unusual. In fact, you may not even connect it to your car accident if it’s several days later or a week later.
For instance, let’s say you were rear-ended by a car going 5 miles an hour. You have a dent in your fender, but otherwise, everything seems fine. Then, a few days later, you have neck pain. Most people don’t realize even such a minor seeming impact is strong enough to cause whiplash and other painful injuries. That’s why chiropractic treatment after a car accident can really help.
Factors in Possible Car Accident Injuries Include:
1- The type of vehicle – both the type of vehicle you’re in as well as what hit you. If you’re in a small car like a Prius and a jeep hits you, your car may have more damage.
2–Angle it hit you – We’ve all seen those roadside accidents where it’s obvious that the vehicle sustained a blow at one of the corners. The direction the vehicles made impact affects the damage on the vehicle and the person inside.
3-How fast it hit you – A light tap on the rear in stop-and-go traffic is not the same as a head-on collision, yet, if that “light tap” damages your fender, that could be enough to knock your body out of alignment too.
4-The location of your headrest to the location of your head – For example, the headrest can offer protection if it cradles the back of your head, but if you have it down and your head whips front and back, then you could have whiplash.
5 – Did you tense in anticipation or was it a surprise? (Surprise car accidents can cause injury to your ligaments whereas if you tense up, the injury is more likely to be in your muscles.)
These are all factors that go into whether your body sustained an injury after a car accident.
Chiropractic Treatment After a Car Accident is a Good Idea
Just like your car may need realignment your body needs realignment periodically. This is especially true after an accident. Even a “minor” accident can knock your spinal column out of place. Fortunately, a chiropractic adjustment will put everything back where it needs to be. In our Doylestown office, we can also run an x-ray to see if there’s any reason for concern internally speaking. Plus, your insurance may cover all or part of your treatment.
If you have a car accident, please don’t delay seeking chiropractic treatment. You deserve to feel good.
Hippocrates (Greek Physician 460-357 B.C.) said, “Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases.”
Chiropractors also have a favorite saying, “Your spine is your lifeline.” The reason is that your spine connects everything in your body. From your head to your toes, the spine connects everything with bones, tendons, ligaments, and nerves.
A fully functioning spine helps you stay mobile. It’s flexible so you can bend and turn, stand up, sit down, play golf, cook a meal, type, pick up your children, all the things in life.
But when a bone or tendon shifts and pinches a nerve, you may have a limited range of motion. You might find yourself in pain or feeling tingly or even numb down your arm or leg.
In other cases, you might have a disc that’s slipped out of place. The cartilage between discs can also break down leaving you in pain because the discs are rubbing against one another.
According to Georgetown University, 8 percent of American adults experience back pain. Maybe you’re one of them. Back pain can keep you from doing the things you love. It’s also one of the biggest reasons for missed work in the U.S.
Chiropractic healthcare workers hold to the belief that proper alignment of the body’s musculoskeletal structure (particularly the spine) will enable the body to heal without the use of medication and surgery.
Chiropractic Care May Give You Back Pain Relief
If you’ve ever thought about good posture, then you know that standing (or sitting) up straight is what doctors (and your mother), recommend. When your posture is correct, it reduces strain on your muscles and joints.
Yet, most of us have picked up bad habits over the years. We slouch, we spend long hours at the computer and more time bent over our phones. All of this often leads to neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain, and other pains.
No matter the reason for your back pain, if your body is in proper alignment, it will help your body heal. The spine, in particular, needs to stay in its lane so to speak. When it’s aligned in your body, it helps your body heal naturally. No surgery or medication is needed.
Chiropractic care can often help.
Over 22 million Americans visit a chiropractor annually and 7.7 million are seeking back pain relief.
31 million Americans experience low back pain at any given time.
Back pain is the single leading cause of disabilities according to the Global Burden of Disease 2010.
One-half of all working Americans say they have back pain symptoms each year.
Americans spend at least $50 million each year on back pain relief.
It’s time you found relief from your back pain. When you visit a chiropractor, you can expect the following:
Medical history taken
Physical exam with particular attention to the spine
Lab tests and diagnostic imaging to determine an appropriate course of treatment
Manual adjustments (joint manipulation) which involves controlled, sudden force to joints that pushes the joint beyond its normal range of motion
Nutritional counseling
Exercise and rehabilitation recommendations
Most likely, you’ll benefit from some lifestyle changes too. Maybe it’s more exercise (or different types of exercise) or diet changes. Or, upgrading your work environment so it’s more ergonomically friendly.
No matter what, your chiropractor will work with you to provide back pain relief, restore your range of motion, and overall, help you feel better. Our goal is to help you feel better and prevent further injury.
How Chiropractic Care Works
Traditional chiropractic care consists of discussing your medical history, pains, and concerns. Depending on your condition, your chiropractor will work with you on a treatment plan.
Typically, chiropractic adjustments consist of small spinal manipulations that use body weight. But we also have other tools to help as well. For example, here at McQuaite Chiropractic, we have “tapping” tools that help too.
Our overall goal is to help you feel your best. We want you to experience back pain relief and improve your mobility, so you feel great.
Dr. Jay Handt (guest speaker for New York Chiropractic Council and the International Chiropractic Association) believes, “Everything functions better when the nervous system functions at 100%.” Helping patients understand that “connecting the mind with the body” is a process…a lifestyle.
Dr. Jeff McQuaite in Doylestown, Pa. helps his patients ease back pain relief. Book your appointment today!
Landmark Study Finds Solution to Back Pain is On the Table
If you’re one of 31 million Americans who suffer from back pain each year, you’ll be excited by recent findings. SPINE Journal reports a 9-month study found participants experienced a significant decrease in their back pain with only one month of chiropractic treatments.
The study followed 60 patients suffering from chronic lower back pain for a minimum of six months. One group got no treatment though they thought they did (sham treatment), group two had 12 treatments for one month but no more, and the third group had 12 treatments for one month followed by 2x a month for 9 months.
“To determine any difference among therapies, we measured pain and disability scores, generic health status, and back-specific patient satisfaction at baseline and at 1-, 4-, 7-, and 10-month intervals.” PubMed.gov
The second group reported significantly less pain and disability. Remember, they only had 12 treatments for one month. However, at the 10-month evaluation, their pain and disability levels had slipped to pre-study levels.
Not surprisingly, the third group reported the best results at the 10-month evaluation. Remember, they had 12 treatments in a month followed by 2x a month for the next 9 months.
These results show regular chiropractic treatments reduce chronic back pain without drugs and without surgery.
Good Posture and Sleeping/Sitting Support Helps Too
Good posture protects your back too. If you strengthen your core with yoga, pilates, barre, or other exercises, you’ll also strengthen your lower back.
Add a supportive pillow, mattress, and work-station so your body is supported in its best posture whether you’re sleeping or awake. Whether you sleep on your side, stomach, or back, there are a variety of different pillows out there to support your neck. It’s worth discussing the best type of pillow for your back pain and sleeping habits with your chiropractor.
Quick Results are Possible
Other studies show spinal manipulation is an excellent back pain solution. Many patients with chronic lower back pain achieve quicker results than standard physical therapy practices alone.
In fact, you might find yourself more productive and enjoying greater mobility after such treatment. One professional writer who suddenly found it painful to type stemming from back pain got relief after just two sessions.
The secret is in the follow-up. As the study shows, consistent treatments realign the body which reduces your pain. When you think about it, it makes sense. If your back pain is caused by years of poor posture or an accident, it won’t be gone overnight. Though many people do find relief within their first visits.
If back pain is holding you back from going about your day-to-day life, you might also want to consider chiropractic care. It’s a safe and natural approach to back pain relief.
How about you? Are you ready to see if chiropractic treatments can help your chronic back pain? Dr. Jeff McQuaite is a Doylestown Chiropractor who offers free consultations. Book yours today.
In my Doylestown chiropractic practice, I regularly see golf injuries when the weather turns nice. Sometimes it’s back pain or rotator cuff pain. Sometimes it’s wrist pain.
It may come as a shock but golf is actually a pretty injury-ridden sport. Often, golf injuries happen because people aren’t properly warmed up or because they practice the same repetitive motions frequently.
And it’s not surprising when you think about it. Spending several hours hunched over is enough to give anyone lower back pain. Then, when you think about the repetitive motion of swinging the clubs through the air, the THWACK of connecting with the ball, and the twist of your spine, there are plenty of opportunities for injury.
According to the MayoClinic, golf injuries are typically caused by overuse — such as logging lots of tee time after spending a sedentary winter.
Another reason golf injuries occur is through misalignment, you probably know it’s important to bend from the waist and follow through on your swing but many golfers hunch their necks and shoulders and THEN swing. That’s a good way to injure yourself.
3 Ways to Protect Yourself from Golf Injuries:
Increase Your Flexibility
Make sure you take the time to warm up before you play a round of golf. Bend over and touch your toes and simply hang there. When you stand, you can put your hands on your waist and do a few gentle twists back and forth.
You can do a few runners stretches and rotate your shoulders forward and backward and circle your head a few times. Rotate your wrists. A common complaint is wrist pain, which can come from holding the club too tightly or simply the repetitive action. You may be aware that carpal tunnel syndrome stems from repetitive motion. You can make it a habit to rotate your wrists – on and off the course. Stretch your fingers too. These movements will help prevent carpal tunnel.
The more limber you are before you play, the better off you’ll be.
Work Up to Your First Full Round to Reduce Risk of Golf Injuries
This is especially true if you’ve been sedentary for the last several months. You’ve probably heard it before but if you’re out of condition, you can easily hurt yourself. You’ve probably heard of someone who pulled a muscle doing a simple task like getting the clubs out of the car or swinging the club. You can prevent such injuries by warming your body up first.
Practice at the driving range. Play 9 holes instead of 18. Do another type of exercise in between golf games — even walking will help. What you don’t want to do is go from sitting behind a desk all day for months and then hit the greens on the first nice day and overdo it.
Always Practice Good Form
You want to bend from your hips, not hunch your head, shoulders, and upper back. The latter is likely to cause strain in your neck and shoulders. Use a consistent swing rather than sinking all your power into your first point of impact Swinging too hard or fast stresses your joints.
When you maintain a flexible spine, that helps your golf game. One of the best ways to protect yourself from golf injuries is to practice yoga stretches regularly. Getting regular chiropractic care helps too.
I find that golfers often have their shoulders and hips out of alignment which puts stress on your joints and can cause pain in your lower back, rotator cuff and even your knees or wrists.
Chiropractic adjustments realign your shoulders and hips so you get pain relief. When muscles, tendons, and bones are out of alignment — even by a few centimeters– that can put a lot of pressure on your nerves and joints.
Don’t spend the summer sitting on the sidelines! Take precautions so that you can enjoy your golf game injury-free for many years to come.
Doctors recommend cortisone shots for all manner of aches and pain. In fact, there are more than 9 million cortisone injections performed a year!
From herniated discs, joint problems, and even allergies, some people respond well to cortisol injections.
However, you might wonder what it means to “get a cortisone shot.” And, if your medical practitioner recommends it, can you also continue with chiropractic treatment?
In this article, we’ll attempt to answer your most important questions about what to expect from a cortisone shot in the lower back and how it can help your lower back pain.
First, what is a cortisone shot anyway?
What is a Cortisone Shot and What Does It Do?
Cortisone is a corticosteroid which is a type of drug meant to lower inflammation in your body.
Inflammation, as you probably know, relates to your body’s attempt to fight disease. Inflammation is your body’s natural defense mechanism designed to heal your body.
You may feel a throbbing pain in the area. That’s a cue that your “inner pain warriors” are working hard. The problem occurs when your body continues fighting pain so you always have inflammation. Too much can damage your organs and tissues throughout your body.
So, if you have chronic lower back pain from stenosis, a herniated disc, or other problem, a cortisone shot can help reduce the inflammation.
It’s an injection of cortisone directly into or near the painful area. Often, there’s an anesthetic, too, which gives immediate relief.
Afterward, your doctor might tell you to rest for the next couple of days, ice the area as needed, and let them know if you feel pain or have swelling or another discomfort.
However, there’s concern that these injections may damage the cartilage in the joint. That’s why doctors limit the number of injections you can have in a year. Three or four injections a year is the maximum for most people.
This is where we get to the point where it’s a short-term relief that has its place. But it doesn’t address the underlying problem of why you’re having chronic lower back pain in the first place.
In fact, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recommends a different approach than going straight for the injections. JAMA recommends targeted exercise, physical therapy, or chiropractic care before relying on cortisone shots in the lower back.
For many years, these injections were precursors to back surgery.
Yet, less invasive options exist like physical therapy and chiropractic care. These approaches address your pain and create an environment for your body to heal itself.
If you have tried cortisone injections, chiropractic care can still help you find lower back pain relief.
Can I Go to the Chiropractor After Getting a Shot?
Yes. A study of patients with lumbar radiculopathy found most participants experienced reduced pain with only one chiropractic treatment.
In fact, the study found that while many think of cortisone injections as reducing inflammation and pain, chiropractic adjustments can achieve the same results.
Both injections and chiropractic care can address nerve pain. For instance, if you have a slipped disc, that usually means the disc is pressing against a nerve. The injection can provide you pain relief, but it doesn’t address the out-of-place disc, so the pain returns.
Through a series of spinal adjustments, chiropractic care can help your disc shift back to its proper position. That way, you feel less pain longer and without injecting anything else into your back.
Of course, when choosing a cortisone shot in your lower back and chiropractic care, every approach is individual. So if you’re in Doylestown, Pa., why not speak with chiropractor Dr. Jeff McQuaite to see if chiropractic care is right for you and will relieve your lower back pain?
Back pain can hit at the most random times. You bend down to pick up your dog’s leash and wham! You’re clutching your back in pain.
Could it be a herniated disc? Maybe. Also known as a slipped or ruptured disc, if these discs crack open they can spill their gooey substance, hit the nerves and cause you to grimace in pain.
You probably kow your spinal cord runs from the base of your spine to your neck. You may also know 24 bones known as vertebrae form your spine with flexible discs that fit in between the bones in your spinal column.
Filled with a jelly like substance, the flexibility of the discs help you bend, wiggle, run, dance, and do all the things people want to do that require flexibility.
However, when a disc shifts out of place or ruptures and that fluid leaks out, it can bump up against the nerves and be painful.
Herniated Disc Definition
Dictionary.com, defines a herniated disc as “an abnormal protrusion of a spinal disk between vertebrae, most often in the lumbar region of the spine, causing pain due to pressure on spinal nerves.”
Symptoms of a Herniated or Slipped Disc
When an invertebral disc cracks and the disc material leaks out, that material can irritate the surrounding nerves. The disc can also slip and press on a surrounding nerve which is often called a pinched nerve.
As a result of a herniated disc in your lumbar, you can feel pain, tingling or numbness in your leg or legs. If the herniated disc is in your upper or mid back, you might experience that pain or tingling in your arms.
The other thing that can happen is your discs can slowly wear away. This is typical in people with degenerative disc disease.
In some cases, you can have a herniated disc and not even know it, there are a few common signs and symptoms:
Arm and/or leg pain
Numbness and tingling – usually on one side of the body
Weakness of your arm/leg
Pain that gets worse while standing
You can have a slipped or herniated disc in your neck or spine. Typically, symptoms are experienced only on one side of the body.
If the herniation is very large and presses on the spinal cord or the cauda equina in the lumbar region, both sides of the body may be affected, often with serious consequences. Compression of the cauda equina can cause permanent nerve damage or paralysis. The nerve damage can result in loss of bowel and bladder control as well as sexual dysfunction. This disorder is called cauda equina syndrome.
Spinal disc herniation can occur in different locations:
Cervical – These most often occur in the neck and symptoms can affect the back of the skull, the neck, shoulder girdle, scapula, shoulder, arm, and hand.
Lumbar – These occur in the lower back and Symptoms can affect the lower back, buttocks, thigh, anal/genital region and may radiate into the foot and/or toe. The most commonly affected nerve is the sciatic nerve that runs the length of your back and down your legs.
More common is general pain and symptoms like those mentioned above on the side of the body.
What Causes a Herniated or Slipped Disc?
Your lifestyle, injuries, and age can lead to break down in these discs which then lead to pain.
Disc herniation can result from general wear and tear. In other words, they’re more common as people get older. Minor back pain and chronic back tiredness are indicators of general wear and tear which can lead to injury. However, if you have a job requiring lifting and squatting, then you’re more susceptible too.
People who are overweight are at greater risk too. Combine that with a sedentary lifestyle and you get weak muscles which lead to many aches and pains including things like a slipped disc.
How to Protect Your Spine
Regular exercise and good posture are two ways you can protect yourself from a herniated disc. Nothing crazy but walking, light cardio, and yoga/stretching are excellent ways maintain your flexibility. You’ll also want strengthen your core and lower back. If you need to lift heavy items, lift with your legs and not your back and use a back brace when possible.
Fortunately, a simple regimen of rest, heat and ice can help a herniated disc heal naturally. However, a professional diagnosis can set your mind at ease and help you feel better quickly. For a personalized herniated disc definition and how it applies to you, see Dr. McQuaite in Doylestown, Pa. He will x-ray you to pinpoint the problem and create a treatment plan for you.
