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Fall and Chiropractic Care

It is the time of year, once again, where the weather becomes cool and the leaves change colors. With these beautiful colors also come leaves to rake, plants to pull, and eventually snow to shovel. We see many injuries in our office relating to fall time chores. These include strains and sprains or injured joints of the neck, back, and shoulders. Chiropractic is very effective in treating these as well as preventing them. 

These chores typically involve using a “long-levered tool” such as a rake or shovel. If we use these tools over long hours of shoveling, raking, and other activities we can injure the muscles, ligaments, and joints of our neck, back, and sometimes shoulders or other extremities. These repetitive movements can cause injuries to our neck, back, shoulders, and other parts of your body. Chiropractors are very effective at treating these types of conditions.

To prevent these injuries there are several things you can do; stretching and warming up prior to and during these activities is important to make sure your muscles and joints are ready for activity. Using the proper technique while shoveling or raking is also important. You should use a tool that is long enough so that you can keep your neck and back straight while shoveling or raking. Oftentimes a bent handle versus a straight handle may make this easier. Making sure to bend your knees and keep your back straight while lifting shovels can reduce stress on your joints, remember to lift with your legs and not your back. It is also important to not overwork yourself. Taking breaks to stretch can prevent overuse injuries. 

It can be “normal” to be stiff and sore for up to a day after these types of fall chores. If the pain lasts longer than 1 day or is getting worse instead of better, please consider seeing a chiropractor. Expect a thorough history, a thorough examination, and an explanation of your condition. If the chiropractor determines you have a condition that may benefit from chiropractic care, expect a “report of findings’’ to discuss treatment options. After discussing those options, you choose what works best for you. Then a treatment plan will be created that may include in-office and home treatment recommendations with predetermined reevaluations to determine your progress. If the chiropractor determines you are not a good candidate for chiropractic care, expect a referral to the appropriate provider.

Subluxated Ribs and How to Make it Better

Popping a rib out of place can result in a lot of pain in your chest when breathing deeply or coughing. When a rib is out of place, you can feel sharp stabbing-like pains in the front of the chest or between the shoulder blades. The misaligned rib causing pain in your chest may intensify when you move your upper body or be worse in the morning when you wake up.

Your rib cage doesn’t just protect vital organs in your upper abdomen but also assists in breathing. Your ribs constantly move when you breathe and if a rib pops out of place, the pain can be unbearable. This is why a rib out of place can cause persistent upper abdominal agonizing pains under your ribs. Of course, there are other serious causes of intense, pressing chest pains that are related to your heart.

Some of the reasons why a rib can come out of alignment include injury to one or more of your ribs, excessive sneezing, forcefully throwing an object, or lifting heavy items. In most cases, you should, first of all, see a doctor for any kind of intense chest pain that causes discomfort. If the reason for pain in your chest or upper back is due to a popped rib, physical therapy can often help to relieve the pain and put the rib back into place.

Your rib cage has 2 pairs of 12 ribs that are attached to the middle part of your spine (thoracic spine). Ten of your ribs on each side of your chest attach to the front of your breastbone (sternum). The other 2 ribs on each side of your spine are called floating ribs because they don’t attach to your sternum. In total, you have 24 ribs in your ribcage.

Doctors from PubMed Health say that your rib cage also comprises of intercostal muscles located between your ribs, as well as nerves and ligaments. The muscles and ligaments in your rib cage support your torso and also contract and expand when you breathe.

A rib out of place describes a condition when one or more of your ribs gets partially separated from its normal position. This can happen either where the rib joins the thoracic spine at the back or where it joins the sternum at the front of your chest. This can cause pain that affects your ribs or middle back.

Doctors also refer to rib subluxation as a partial dislocation of a joint. This can cause tremendous pain especially if the rib presses on a nerve or if any muscle tissue is inflamed or damaged near the end of the rib.

An out of place rib is sometimes referred to as a rib misalignment, jamming a rib, popping a rib, or subluxated rib. Sometimes, you may hear doctors talking about a slipped rib or dislocated rib when a person has agonizing rib pain. What is the difference between a rib out of place and a dislocated rib?

Doctors from the Mayo Clinic say that a dislocation (luxation) is when the bone is forced apart from the joint. This means that the rib becomes completely displaced from its joint. This results in intense pain in the affected area, and the pain may radiate to other areas of the body.³

On the other hand, a rib out of place, or subluxation, is only a partial dislocation. A rib head subluxation will also cause intense and even debilitating pain, but it is not as serious as a complete rib dislocation.

The main symptom if a rib is out of alignment or becomes partially dislocated is pain that will take a few weeks to heal. However, depending on the severity of the subluxation, you may have some other symptoms.

The journal Gut described many symptoms of various painful rib syndromes. Doctors say that there are 3 main symptoms of popping a rib out of place. These are:

• Varying degrees of pain in the upper abdomen or lower chest
• Tenderness on the lower part of the rib cage
• Pain when pressing on the affected area of the rib cage

Other symptoms of a rib out of place can include:

• A clicking noise when moving the upper body
• Inflammation and possible swelling in the affected joint
• Muscle spasms in the rib cage
• Difficulty breathing
• Increased chest pains when breathing deeply or sneezing

Sometimes patients with mild to severe chest pain caused by a displaced rib can mistake the pain for digestive problems or even a cardiac-related pain. You should never ignore any kind of chest pain. So, even if you assume that the sharp pains under one side of your ribs are due to a popped rib, you should still see your doctor.

Rib subluxation or a rib out of place is common among sports people and athletes. For example, sports that involve racquets or bats, swimming, or throwing items can put tremendous strain on the ribs, forcing one to become displaced or partially dislocated.

A study published in the Journal of Athletic Training found that rib subluxations are a common sports injury. For example, one swimmer experienced persistent pain in the left lower rib cage. Because rib subluxations are often undiagnosed, the pain lasted for many months. However, doctors discovered that the swimmer had suffered a subluxation in the rib cage.

Also, the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports says that trauma to the rib attachments in the rib cage can cause the rib head to pop out of place. Because 20 of your 24 ribs in the rib cage are attached to the sternum, a rib out of place can cause chest pain that radiates to the back.

Some other symptoms of a rib out of place can include:

• Difficulty breathing
• Increased intensity of pain when bending forward or crouching down
• Tenderness at the place where the rib is out of place

If you are experiencing the symptoms of a rib out of place, then there are some ways to help reduce the agonizing discomfort in your chest or middle back. Of course, because there is a risk of further injury, you shouldn’t try to put a rib back into place yourself.

• Get plenty of rest to prevent further injuries to ligaments, muscles, or nerves in your rib cage
• Try to breathe normally to prevent a buildup of mucus in your chest and chest infections
• Hold a pillow against your chest to reduce pain if you need to sneeze or cough
• Clear your lungs by taking 10 slow deep breaths every hour
• Ice the area affected.
• Some yoga poses can help to carry out a self-adjustment on a rib out of place if the misalignment is only minimal.

Next make an appointment with us where we will perform various manipulation techniques to help loosen the muscles and ligaments around the out of place rib. This will allow the us to gently pop the dislodged rib back into place. Most patients report that this type of procedure only causes a minimal amount of pain.

Summer Sports Injuries That a Chiropractor Can Help

Now that the weather has warmed up, it is time to get outside and active! But exercising and playing sports can lead to various injuries, including injuries to the neck and back, elbows, shoulders, wrists, knees, ankles and shins. Most sports injuries occur due to repetitive motion, sudden injuries and muscle and ligament sprains, strains and tears.

Common summer activities include hiking, jogging, bicycling, golf, tennis, and any number of other competitive sports! All of these are fun activities that many people enjoy, but they also inevitably produce injuries. Chiropractic care is the perfect, pain-free solution for those nagging injuries that include back pain, neck pain, lower back pain and even leg pain caused by your normal summer activities.

Golfer’s and tennis elbow are among the most common conditions treated through chiropractic care. These conditions can be nagging, persistent and really put a damper on both training and everyday life. In most cases, golfer’s and tennis elbow is not a result of playing either sport, rather it is associated with overuse of those particular muscles. Adults are particularly susceptible to these conditions due to a lack of muscle strength that would normally stabilize the area. Our experienced team works with patients to alleviate their pain and get back to being healthy and active.

Overuse injuries develop slowly over time due to repetitive stress on tendons, muscles, bones or joints. Golfer’s elbow is considered a cousin of tennis elbow, both cause elbow tendinitis. However, tennis elbow is sustained from damage to the tendons on the outside of the elbow while golfer’s elbow is caused by tendons on the inside. Common symptoms of golfer’s elbow include stiffness in the elbow, pain while making a fist, weak wrists, numbness or tingling in the extremities and pain when using repetitive hand, wrist or forearm motions. Tennis elbow is more of a late-occurring pain that slowly increases around the outside of the elbow. The pain becomes worse when squeezing objects or moving the wrist with force such as lifting, using tools or opening jars.

Treatment can be done through elbow adjustments and manipulations, soft-tissue work, exercises and if the condition persists, patients will be given support devices such as a brace or splint to help limit arm movement. Patients who play either golf or tennis might need their swing professionally evaluated and changed in order to continue playing.

For patients with any other sports-related injuries sustained this summer, we offer various treatment options to help get you healthy. Treatment starts with a physical evaluation and complete medical history, including how long you have had the pain and what you were doing at the time the pain first occurred. Additional questions may include the activities that cause more and less pain.

In many instances realigning the joints and vertebrae can provide nearly immediate pain relief and subsequent adjustments can keep the joints and spine in their proper positions. Massage therapy can help relax the muscles and relieve physical and mental stress while improving circulation and ridding the body of lactic acid. Chiropractic rehabilitation may also be utilized to further improve range of motion, strengthen weak muscles and reduce pain.

Set an appointment today to optimize your summer health!

How Chiropractic Care Can Help Increase Your Running Time

Many athletes use chiropractic to manage and treat sports injuries, but recent research suggests that it can also play a role in boosting athletic performance.

A preliminary study found that chiropractic treatments may improve performance in runners with restricted joints. Researchers from Sweden analyzed hip extension ability and running time in 17 young, male athletes. All the participants had restricted joint mobility and hip extension. Research on the biomechanics of running velocity suggests that these restrictions can negatively affect running performance. Tight hip flexor muscles and decreased elasticity of joint or tendon structures can increase the anterior tilt of the pelvis in a way that comprises step frequency and length.

To improve hip extension and flexibility, athletes in the study were assigned a set of stretches they incorporated into their typical training regimen. Half of participants also received chiropractic treatments that included high-velocity, low-amplitude (HVLA) manipulations targeted to the pelvic region and sacroiliac joints. Treatment also included manipulative thrusts applied to the hip joints.

By the end of the trial, both groups had enhanced hip-extension but the chiropractic group had significantly better improvements. In addition to correcting joint dysfunction, chiropractic treatments “enhanced and prolonged the stretching modality that was used as part of participants’ normal training activities.”

HVLA manipulations could also result in changes to the sacroiliac joint and pelvic regions themselves. The therapeutic effect of HVLA manipulations could lie “in the mechanical properties of the applied force, the body’s response to the force, and the movement caused by the force or an amalgamation of these and other factors.”

Despite positive changes in hip extension capabilities, the athletes in the study did not experience significant changes in running time. Although the chiropractic group had greater improvements in 30m running time than the control group, these changes did not reach statistical significance. However, the authors argued that this lack of statistical significance may have resulted from the low number of observations made. The authors suggested that more studies are needed to draw firm conclusions on the effects of chiropractic on running speed.

While more research is needed, these preliminary results suggest that chiropractic care may improve hip extension capabilities in runners which could in turn influence their running speed.

But runners aren’t the only athletes who could benefit from chiropractic; previous studies have shown that chiropractic can improve grip strength in judo athletes, help soccer players heal from sports hernias, prevent injuries in football players, ease golfers’ hip pain, and more.

Pregnancy and Chiropractic Care

There are many pregnancy benefits of chiropractic care. The promise of alleviating back pain alone can be enough to persuade you to schedule an appointment with your chiropractor during your pregnancy! However, there are several other incredible benefits to continuing chiropractic care while pregnant. Of course, safety is top priority, especially when it comes to pregnant patients. Luckily, most people can receive routine chiropractic treatment safely while pregnant.

As your body changes both physically and physiologically with pregnancy, many discomforts arise. The pelvis widens, the spine compresses, and one’s posture begins to curve, among other changes. With all these changes come aches and pains. Receiving routine treatment during pregnancy can help continued alignment of the spine and maintaining pelvic balance, providing several benefits.

In addition to pain relief, chiropractic care can help avoid certain risks during labor and delivery and help those who want to alleviate sore back, neck and joint issues,the most common ailment pregnant women face. Plus, if you suffer from sciatica, this pain can resonate through the body and be debilitating. Pain does come with the weight of that growing belly and curving spine, but also because of the production of relaxin. Relaxin is the hormone that loosens your ligaments and joints in the pelvic area to prepare for birth, and also results in painful and fragile joints throughout the body. Fortunately, chiropractic care naturally relieves back pain by decompressing and properly aligning the spine, including alleviation of pain from all reasons for pain, including relaxin production. With chiropractic care, you can enjoy better posture, increased flexibility and mobility, and even better sleep along with overall pain relief.

Another common pregnancy symptom is morning sickness. Nausea is often overlooked when considering chiropractic care. However, regular treatments can also tackle this discomfort by aligning your spine to improve overall nervous system function, which will allow your increased hormones to balance and therefore lessen nausea. Additionally, digestive issues such as heartburn or constipation can also be improved with regular chiropractic care.

The more flexible you are, the less risk of injury you face overall as well, especially in the spine. This is incredibly important during pregnancy as you lose mobility increasingly the further along you go. Continued spinal alignments will help you maintain flexibility throughout your body so you can avoid injury during pregnancy, as well as during labor.

In addition, dangerous positioning of the baby, such as breech or sunny side up position, can lead to interventions such as induction, forceps birth, and C-section. Preparation through chiropractic care can help to position the baby optimally and decrease the risk of intervention. Treatment can therefore help reduce overall labor and delivery time, and therefore help you avoid complications in general.

The spine is directly connected to the lower back and pelvis, so routine realignment through chiropractic care will improve posture and provide optimal pelvic alignment. This can help strengthen pelvic muscles, avoid lower back injury during labor, and maximize space for the baby leading to a much easier and smoother labor and delivery. This can also help those wanting to avoid pain medication and experience a natural birth. Of course, it is important to note that chiropractic care, like all prenatal preparations and treatments, cannot guarantee an easy labor and delivery, as all bodies and birthing experiences are different! However, taking steps to ensure you are wholly connected to your body and baby can encourage a positive birthing experience, even if your birth plan does not follow through perfectly.

Once you give birth, your body continues to slowly revert to its pre-pregnancy state. Recovery time can decrease if you maintained spinal flexibility, pelvic strength, and overall wellness during pregnancy. Because chiropractic care can help to promote a smoother, more natural birth as well, healing and recovery time is also lessened. Chiropractic care can therefore help during the postnatal period, particularly with pelvic rebalancing.

It is well-known that chiropractic care increases immune response, helping you avoid nasty colds and allergies that are even worse to endure while pregnant. Additionally, pregnancy wellness and being in tune with your body at its healthiest state can bolster your emotional well-being, improving your prenatal experience all around.

Overall, receiving chiropractic treatment is safe and effective at all stages of pregnancy. Call us to schedule an appointment.

Chiropractic Care and Your Heart

February brings us Valentine’s Day and American Heart Month.  It is the time when we think about our hearts and how they work for us including the importance of maintaining heart health by following a healthy lifestyle.  Often times though a healthy lifestyle is not enough to prevent heart disease.  Heart disease kills nearly 650,000 people in America every year according to the Center for Disease control and a person dies of heart disease every 37 seconds in the US.

This “silent killer” can be prevented though with heart health maintenance and chiropractic care.  When you receive regular chiropractic care, you decrease your chances of developing heart disease.  Studies show that chiropractic adjustments support the cardiovascular system improving heart health and potentially relieving chest pain, reducing your heart rate, lowering your blood pressure and preventing future heart attacks.  Chiropractic patients also report lower levels of anxiety and stress.

This is due to the fact that chiropractic care helps the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves in the spine.  These nerves in the thoracic and cervical spine can cause a deregulation in your heart rate when they are misaligned or under pressure.  If this problem remains untreated, it can lead to major issues as the spine and brain are unable to communicate with the heart, known as subluxation.  This can lead to other health issues as well including migraines, hypothyroidism, diabetes and kidney disease.

Chiropractic adjustments treat subluxations lowering systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels which reduce the burden pumping blood creates on you heart.  Lowering your blood pressure reduces the risk of ventricular hypertrophy, or a enlarged heart and ultimately cardiac arrest.

While family history and genetics contribute to heart disease, proper care can lower your blood pressure and help treat heart issues before a problem arises.  Schedule an appointment today to begin taking care of your heart health in addition to following a healthy lifestyle.

New Year – Healthier New You

A new year presents an opportunity to start with a clean slate and make meaningful changes to your life. Many people associate this time of year with starting over by creating new year goals for the coming year. A common goal many people share is to improve their health. Chiropractic care can boost your overall wellness and help you maintain your new year goals.

When people think of getting fit in the new year, the first thing that comes to mind is a gym membership, but chiropractic care is just as essential to keeping the body healthy. With chiropractic care, gentle manipulation and adjustments are used to remove restrictions, tension, and pain in the body, improving mobility and making exercise more enjoyable. A realignment of the spine and removal of tension can lead to a wealth of benefits, including restoring functionality throughout the entire body so that you can start your new year with a focus on your health goals.

Keeping your spine in alignment is very important as it is the line of communication for the body and is intricately linked to the body’s organ systems. Any misalignment can cause impairments within the nervous system, impacting immunity. With regular chiropractic care, you will be less likely to become ill, and your body will be better equipped to fight off any illness. Beginning the new year with chiropractic can help you attain your wellness goals for the year.

Working out or even daily activities can be difficult when you suffer from pain. Visiting a chiropractor can reducing pressure and tension within the body. By manipulating joints within the body, restrictions and misalignments can be corrected, relieving stress and discomfort. Chiropractic treatment also helps to prevent injury. The patients who receive routine care report less pain, fewer illnesses, and faster recovery times if they suffer any illnesses or injuries. You don’t have to start the year in pain. Make visiting a chiropractor one of your new year goals.

As you begin to work toward new health goals, consider chiropractic treatment to help kick start the year. With chiropractic treatment options and other tips, True Form Chiropractic can keep you happy and healthy this coming year.

A Chiropractic Christmas

Author Unknown

T’was the day before Christmas,
but there was no cheer.
No jingle bells jingled, no sound of reindeer.
The word had gone out that Santa was sick.
There would be no visit from jolly St. Nick.

The people were sad; no gaiety sounded.
For Christmas had come,
but Santa was grounded.
He drove down the road,
and what should he see?
But a sign for a doctor, who was a D.C.

Now Santa was not one to like a new tactic,
But all else had failed, so he tried Chiropractic.
He entered the office and saw at a glance,
in a place such as this, illness hasn’t a chance.

The office staff smiled, the music was sappy,
with all of the patients contented and happy.
In a very short time, to judge by the clock,
he was in the adjusting room, talking to Doc.

It must be the hurry, the tension and all,
I simply can’t seem to get on the ball.
Life used to be easy;
just kids, toys and whistles,
now I dodge smog, spaceships and missiles.

And Doc, take a look at the size of this pack!
Have you any idea what it does to my back?
Poor Santa was miserable and just barely able,
with the help of the Doctor, to get on the table.

The Doctor was gentle;
without a fuss or a tussle
he examined the vertebrae
and relaxed every muscle.
He spotted trouble and then with a click,
started aligning the spine of old St. Nick.

Santa felt aches and pains slipping away
and in no time at all he began to feel gay.
The air was a tingle with new fallen snow
and a healthy Kris Kringle was rarin’ to go.

As he went out the door, he threw them a kiss;
why, it had been centuries
since he felt good as this!
Then once more he shouldered
the bag full of toys,
his heart overflowing with true Christmas joys.

Merry Christmas!

Have a safe and

happy holiday.

The Benefits of Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic is a method of natural healing for those those seeking complementary/alternative health care for acute and chronic conditions. While you may first visit a chiropractor to relieve pain in the lower back or to treat sciatica, neck pain, whiplash or headache, you will find that a chiropractor views the whole person and not just the sum of your parts to optimize your health and wellness.

Chiropractors recognize that many factors affect your health, including exercise, nutrition, sleep, environment and heredity. They focus on maintaining your health naturally to help your body resist disease, rather than simply treating the symptoms of disease. When you visit a Doctor of Chiropractic, you will be evaluated including a consultation, a case history, a physical examination, a laboratory analysis and am X-ray examination. At this time, they will do a structural examination in particular your spine.

A broad range of techniques will be used to locate, analyze and gently correct vertebral misalignments in the spine. Chiropractors may use manual adjustment, electrical muscular stimulation, ultrasound or massage. They will not use pharmaceutical drugs or invasive surgery. Chiropractic is a natural method of healing that stimulates the body’s communication system to work more effectively to initiate, control and coordinate the various functions of the cells, organs and systems of the body.

If needed for your treatment, they with other healthcare professionals. But chiropractic care is effective in helping with improving pain, reducing reliance on opioid pain relievers, reducing osteoarthritis symptoms, easing headaches, improving the immune system and can often be more affordable than traditional treatments.

Want to learn more? Schedule an appointment today!

Proper Lifting Techniques for Pumpkin Patch Picking

It is fall and that means trips to the fall festivals and pumpkin patches.  But finding that perfect giant orange squash that you want to carve into a jack-o-lantern can also lead to injuries due to improper lifting techniques. Lifting can tone your body, boost your metabolism and build muscle mass, but it can also cause painful injuries.

Lifting that big pumpkin requires your body to bear a lot of weight and awkward angles which can result in injuries.  If you do injure yourself, we will evaluate you to identify the injury and its extent and then develop the most effective treatment method. We not only treat the symptoms but the cause of injuries, too.

Some of the most common lifting injuries include:

• Back Injuries – Lifting can cause mild and chronic back injuries, especially when you lift the wrong way.
• Shoulder Injuries – Shoulder injuries can occur after overhead weightlifting. You may only experience some pain when you raise your arms. After the condition progresses, you may feel pain even when lying or sitting.  So carrying that exhausted child on your shoulders or lifting a pumpkin up may strain those areas.
• Knee Injuries – Knee injuries can be brought on by lifting your legs repetitively or bending over incorrectly.

To prevent injury, remember to warm up your muscles, ligaments, and tendons by stretching and light exercise. It also promotes proper blood flow, which reduces the risk of getting injured.

If you do get injured by fall fun, we can help you realign your body and reduce the risk of injury in the future.  We focus on eliminating pain and getting you back out enjoying our beautiful autumn weather as soon as possible.