What Is The "Crack" During A Chiropractic Adjustment?

This is a common question I get from patients from time to time, they never really seem to understand how it works. I have heard answers such as "are the bones breaking" or "are you snapping my head off". Of course at this point of practicing I've told patient the cause of the "crack" before they guess that answers themselves, trying to be proactive. The "crack" noise is something that is actually very minor, it is nothing more than gases escaping from the joint capsule. The gas, which is nitrogen, must escape the joint during a chiropractic adjustment, the gas that leaves the joint capsule leaves the joint as an audible pop. So while the "pop" or "crack" sounds scary it's nothing more than a natural process of gas escaping a joint. The quick motion of the adjustment creates a negative pressure inside the joint and takes nitrogen out of solution in the form of a gas. It's important to note that not all joints make an audible click during an adjustment and you also don't need the audible click to have adjustment confirmation. The adjustment is a feedback from how the bones move as sensed by the chiropractor delivering the adjustment. This is also independent of a wellness adjustment or an adjustment treating a certain condition.     

Tell Me About Gluten, I Keep Hearing About It

Well the good news is if you're not familiar with gluten you probably don't have a severe food sensitivity to it. You perhaps may know of someone who has problems or you yourself may have gastrointestinal issues that are not severe enough where you have sought a doctor before. I will provide info for you to know what gluten is, what are the symptoms associated with gluten and how to find if you have a sensitivity to it.

Gluten to put it simple is just a protein in wheat, anything that has wheat in it also has gluten in it. A protein is a long chain of amino acids arranged in a certain order and folded a certain way that is only specific to the DNA of that organism. These proteins have many functions and are very abundant and essential for life functions. The way the immune system is made in our body is to find anything the body labels as foreign, even if you know it's not foreign the body does not know this. Once the body sees a foreign objects it starts to attacked it, the body usually looks for proteins while it's on patrol, and gluten just happens to be a protein.

When the body notices a foreign invader (gluten) it tries to eliminate it by causing inflammation. The inflammation process is a recruitment of a whole bunch of chemicals and cells to that area. The cells try to eat and digest the invader and label it as foreign for future memory and the chemicals are markers to call more friends to take care of the job. The inflammation in most cases is usually felt by pain, although noticeable inflammation is not present all the time. So technically, your body can be inflamed and you don't even know it. This chronic, unknown inflammation takes a toll on the body and it's starts to work less than optimal. When people have a severe problem with gluten that is called Celiac disease. According to the Mayo Clinic Celiac disease can cause abdominal pain and diarrhea. Eventually, the decreased absorption of nutrients (malabsorption) that occurs with celiac disease can cause vitamin deficiencies that deprive your brain, peripheral nervous system, bones, liver and other organs of vital nourishment.

If you have Celiac disease you usually know it based on the symptoms or if you have these symptoms learned how to manage it. The other problems are the unnoticed effects of having a food allergy to gluten which as I stated above can cause chronic inflammation which in turn causes havoc on the body. Some of the symptoms of chronic inflammation are fatigue, muscle soreness, being lethargic, sleeping problems, and digestive issues. If you have these symptoms it could be a good idea to get a food sensitivity test, this test can tell you if your body has an inflammation response to certain foods.

If you do have a problem with gluten and it needs to be eliminated from your diet it's not a huge deal. It does mean you should not eat traditional pastas, pizzas, cookies, and other wheat products. Since Celiac disease has been to the forefront a little more they are starting to make foods that are gluten free to make your life without gluten an easier one. If you have questions about how to get food sensitivity test visit our website by clicking on food sensitivity test link.     

Chiropractic Treatment For Functional Leg Length Discrepancy

A functional leg length discrepancy is when one leg upon measurement seems to be longer than the other when it's not anatomically longer, meaning one just appears to be longer. While measuring is going to yield the same results, radiographs may show a pelvis discrepancy in the iliac crest or greater trochanters. This discrepancy can be attributed to a possible issue within the lower back or sacroiliac joint. When the lower back and sacroiliac joints are not functioning properly it changes the way the tissues response creating an "asymmetry" in the spinal muscles. If the muscles in the spine are either tight (hypertonic) or loose (hypotonic) then the certain structures can be elevated or depressed leading to an appearance of a longer leg. Radiographs will show this and it can be explain to the patient.

If a functional leg length is present and remains for a long period of time without being treated by a chiropractic major issue can arise. Of course lower back and sacroiliac pain will be present but also any joint in the legs can be effected due to a disruption of normal biomechanics. If a joint is holding more weight than the other joint it is going to fail and become inflamed quicker, then a patient will start to favor the sore joint which will then cause the other joint on the other leg, due to compensation, to have aberrant biomechanics and that starts to turn into a long process when now both joints hurt. Long term effects of improper mechanics wear on the overall strength and stability of the lumber spine leading to possible disc herniation or injuries with minimal force compared to a normally functioning spine.

Chiropractic treatment rendered can help, the first step is to correct the muscle to make them more pliable so one side is not completely spasmodic due to the long standing effects. Then after taking careful radiographic measurements you can adjust the sacroiliac joint in their respective position. One side should be done in a posterior inferior direction while the other should be in a posterior superior direction. This chiropractic adjusting can be done in a prone position with chiropractic drops. After a course of treatment there should be a new resting alignment, this could be observed with radiographs or measurements on the patient's body. Once the new resting alignment is observed to satisfactory of the patient and the chiropractor, corrective and strengthen exercises can be done to hold the alignment and possibly help preventing future injury due to weakness. As always wellness care can and should be recommended for maintaining gains and prevent possible future reoccurrence. If you are having back pain and want to see if chiropractic can help you visit our website or our Plano Chiropractic office.          

Why Is Chiropractic Treatment For More Than One Visit?

This is a great question for someone which is unfamiliar with chiropractic care. I always tell a patient that care is a process and a treatment protocol meaning there are different steps involved. If you go to a medical doctor and get a prescription for a course of treatment such as an antibiotic, do you really think you would be better from one pill? No, of course not, the doctor would say take every pill, that is their course of treatment, as a multiple number of visits is a course of treatment from a chiropractor. The course of treatment is a word used in the healing arts, the difference is a medical doctor gives pills as a course of treatment and a chiropractor gives adjustments and therapies. It is just as unreasonable to think that one adjustment is going to cure your neck pain or low back pain forever, as it may help slightly for a temporary time it is a long term fix, just like one pill of antibiotic is not a long term fix for an infection.

The steps or phases to chiropractic treatment usually fall under three sections and they all vary on progress of the patient and the severity of the condition. The first step is the acute or relief phase, this is the phase where the doctor works on getting the patient out of pain and decreasing their inflammation. The next phase is the healing or correction phase, this the phase where the doctor works on the patient to restore function to their spine and getting their tissues to heal properly. The last phase is the health or strengthening phase which is where the doctor works with the patient to get them back where they were prior to the problem and strengthen and stabilizes the tissues. The last phase which is optional but we highly recommend is the wellness or maintenance phase, in this phase the patient takes responsibility for their health by getting regular check-ups to make sure their spine is staying health and there are no problems.
 

Why Should I Get Wellness Care?

Wellness care is a very important lifestyle choice that many people like to make. Weather the choice for wellness care came out of a serious past injury or an athlete just to be at top physical shape, it really doesn't matter.  What does matter is that you made a choice to take care of your body and decided to be proactive with your health and life. In my experience the people who receive wellness care are adamant about being well. In our country there has been a large paradigm shift (albeit we would like it larger) towards taking care of your body before problems arise and keeping it healthy.

Recent evidence suggest that visiting a chiropractor and having a chiropractor as your primary doctor would yield better results in the form of saving money and probably increasing your overall health and wellness. This can be due to fact that chiropractors are in trend with the paradigm shift of wellness, where an allopathic doctor would have you visit her/him when there is a problem a chiropractor would have you visit when there is possibly no problems and try to keep problems from arising. We have found that it's easier and more cost effective to keep you healthy than to neglect your health and try to get you out of a hole to restore your health again.

I always like to quote Thomas Edison whom was a great thinker, innovator and forward mover, he said "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease." Even Thomas Edison long ago saw how healthcare should be ran, he saw that the doctors of the future will be so knowledgeable that they will prevent people from getting sick and medicine will not be needed, now we are not there yet but we are moving there.

The reason why wellness care is effective is because you are putting yourself in front of a highly trained professional more often than not. When you do not get regular check-ups, problems can manifest without you even knowing they are there until it's late and if they are neglected you're ushered back into the old model trying to dig your health out of a hole. Within the wellness model the doctor can find issues with your body that you did not know were present, the doctor can find these issues, treat them and/or refer appropriately to take care of the problem(s) quickly and before it to late. You have only one life to life and health is the greatest wealth.

    

I Have Headaches! What Can I Do?

Headaches seem to be an ever occurring problem with a large number of people. First let's just start and stay headaches are not a normal thing. Many people pass off headaches like it's not a big deal, the problem is headaches could be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to other issues. There are many different types of headaches and many different cause. The causes range from hormone imbalance to high blood pressure. For our sake we will be talking about cervicogenic headaches because it fits our audience perfectly. Cervicogenic headaches are a very common type of headache which arises from the cervical spine in origin. Cervicogenic headaches can arise from irritated facets, tight muscles, sore joint, and nerve impingement.

The pain from these headaches can be mild to severe, they can last from a few minutes to hours, day, or weeks on end. They can come on gradually or happen spontaneously and they can leave the same way with treatment. There is one common theme though, if you have headaches arising from your cervical spine you definitely a cervical spine problem. Pain and other symptoms are the last thing to show up when there is cervical dysfunction, the good thing is they are also the first thing to go away. The important thing is that chiropractic treatment can help with the headaches from the above mentioned symptoms.  After the headaches are gone it's very important to correct the spinal dysfunction that caused the symptoms and then usher to wellness care to make sure the cervical dysfunction can be quelled as needed.

We Are Back To Talk About Chiropractic & Wellness!

After a long hiatus Living Healthy 24/7 is back and we will be talking about chiropractic and everything wellness. It's going to be a lot of information and it's also be fun in the upcoming weeks. We are going to be trying to hit it hard so try to keep with us and check back frequently.

We also have some other sites that are putting out a lot of good content, I suggest everybody to check it out if they are interested, they will be hyperlinked. If you have any direct question we would love to help you out check out our main site for more info that can answer your questions, click here.

We decided to change direction to appeal to our audience a little more, we were asked to speak about chiropractic more. Ask and ye shall receive, we always want appeal to our audience so if there is ever a specific topic you want us to write on we will try to do our best to make it possible. Enjoy our future content and stay tuned!