Make An Appointment
What Is Spinal Subluxation?
What Is Spinal Subluxation?
Symptoms include general localized pain, a tight locked-up sensation, dull ache, lack of mobility when bending or rotating the back or neck, sharp pain, catching sensation, and stabbing pain in the neck, upper back, or lower back.
Vertebral, or spinal, subluxation is a partial dislocation or misalignment of one or more joints in the spine. Subluxations can cause abnormal wear-and-tear of the joint, abnormal musculature, decreased range of motion, decreased nerve function, and pain. Prolonged subluxations lead to severe degeneration, known as subluxation degeneration. One might also develop loss of proper curvatures of the spine, which creates abnormal wear-and-tear of the spine and puts unwanted stress on muscles. Some muscles might get tight or overdeveloped, and others could weaken and shrink.
This subluxation complex, meaning multiple misaligned vertebrae, can contribute to other health problems, the most obvio
us being back or neck pain. Other less obvious symptoms might be dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, which controls your organs.
Subluxations can irritate spinal nerves. To understand the importance of the nerves that are extensions of your spinal cord, think about all the different types of vehicles on the highway—trucks, cars, buses, motorcycles—each going to a specific destination to do a special or unique thing. Your nerve impulses act in the same way, traveling the superhighway of your brain, spinal cord, nerve root, all the way to the tiniest nerve in your fingers, toes, organs, and systems of the entire body. They are all traveling at a proper speed and certain function, as long as there is no interference.
Improper position of spinal bones or vertebrae, overuse, and injuries can cause interference of the nervous system highway, causing too much or too little movement of nerve impulse. As mentioned before, you can develop nerve pain such as numbness, tingling, or sharp shooting pain, and might not be getting 100 percent of the signals to other organs of your body. Take, for example, a tree; if there is problem in the roots of the tree, everything from the trunk to the limbs, which are not getting proper nutrients, will slowly starve or become less healthy than the rest of the tree. In simpler terms, if you kink a water hose, it slows the outpouring of water. When dealing with the nerve signals that control every organ in the body, you want 100 percent of nerve function going to every organ and cell of that organ. Vital organs include your thyroid that controls metabolism, intestinal function, and many other organs. There are ways to measure the amount of signals coming from spinal nerves, to test if they are functioning at optimal levels. This is why so many people maintain strict weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly regular chiropractic care. They have decided not to wait for a problem to arise and are taking a proactive approach to their health. We call this “wellness care.”
Subluxations might occur from repetitive abnormal motion at work, sitting too long in the recliner, old accidents and injuries, emotional trauma and chemical trauma or, in most cases, a combination of all of the previously mentioned.
Effective Treatment for Spinal Subluxation
Joint realignment or manipulation by a trained chiropractor • Muscle balance treatments to improve postural strains
Call Today to schedule your Appointment. Let us help you get back to feeling normal! 325-695-9355
Don’t Forget to Ask For our New Patient Special!
Are Sharp Stabbing or Grabbing Pain Stopping You in Your Tracks?
What Are Muscle Spasms?
Acute symptoms include severe sharp stabbing or grabbing pain that can stop you in your tracks or bring you to your knees. Chronic muscle spasms can be deep, dull, and unrelenting pain.
Muscle spasm pain can be a primary source of pain but often accompanies other conditions, such as joint misalignments, degenerative disc disease, or bulging discs, sometimes overlooked by medical professionals. You must work to solve the underlying problem if the underlying problem is causing the muscle spasm.
The muscles in your back are large and powerful. Muscle spasms can be categorized as chronic muscle spasms, which often includes what most patients describe as “my back is always so tight.” Chronic muscle spasms are usually due to chronic repetitive strains from work demands or postural strains. The longer the muscles are stuck in a spasm or chronically tight, the increased risk of damage to your vertebrae, disc, and nerve function.
Acute muscle spasm usually occurs due to acute injuries, such as a whiplash injury, weekend warrior sports injuries, or lifting injuries. Sometimes you have torn connective tissue in your spine or the muscle itself, and the tightness is the muscle trying to protect itself. If acute injuries and muscle spasms are not treated properly, these muscles have a high probability of turning into chronic spasms, tightness, and pain.
SUCCESS CASE STUDY
Dan is a 40-year-old athlete who competes in marathons and triathlons…and will challenge you to a foot race if you look at him the wrong way. He trains hard and takes very good care of himself. He entered the clinic with pain in his lower back that limited his ability to stand in an upright position. He states that he just got off a 10-mile bike ride and started to jog when, after four steps, he had sudden severe lower back pain that brought him to a crawl. X-rays were taken, and he had no structural evidence of fractures, arthritis, or disc bulges. He did, however, have several misaligned vertebrae in his lower back, as well as severe muscle spasms in his lower back and hip flexor region, in a muscle called the “psoas.” He had severe muscle imbalances in the hip flexor muscle, a muscle that attaches to the hip and lower back—it is responsible for bending your upper leg or flexing your upper leg toward your waist. This muscle was so tight after riding his bike that where the hip flexor muscle, or the psoas, was still very short and tight, it created a tug-of-war with the muscle in the lower back—and the muscles in the lower back lost. He had a quick recovery, as I expected. Being the competitive athlete, he never missed an appointment, was at the clinic early, and stayed late, always wanting to know more about how to treat his back. After a short six weeks, he was back to running and has learned to stretch his hip flexors often. He has added weekly chiropractic visits to his routine and has not had another back problem for two years and counting.
Effective Treatment for Muscle Spasms
Joint realignment or joint manipulation • Muscle balance therapy • Electrical muscle stimulation to ease muscle pain • Soft tissue manual therapies • Magnesium supplementation to help relax muscles
Just like Dan and hundreds of others we can help you get back to you every day life pain free!
Call us today and ask for our new patient special!
PS. Download you copy of my latest book or stop by the office and pick up a copy.
What Is Degenerative Disc Disease?
What Is Degenerative Disc Disease?
Symptoms usually include dull ache or pain traveling across the lower back, stiffness, and catching sensation in lower back. Upper back or neck degenerative disc disease can happen in any region of your spine. Degenerative disc is a condition in which the disc or cushion between your vertebrae start to break down, usually having been damaged at some point in your life. As they wear out they can create abnormal movement in the spine and send abnormal signals to the supporting muscles, leading to muscle imbalance, dysfunction, and pain.
These changes are more likely to occur in people who do heavy physical work, such as repeated heavy lifting. A previous sudden (acute) injury, such as a fall, leading to a herniated disc might also begin the degeneration process. Those old injuries you might have not given a second thought to sometimes come back to haunt you.
Some studies correlate a genetic relationship to degenerative changes, so be sure and thank your parents if you have this condition. As the space between the vertebrae gets smaller, there is less padding between them, which creates bone on bone and the spine becomes less stable. The body reacts to this by constructing bony growths, called “bone spurs” (osteophytes). Bone spurs can put pressure on the spinal nerves or spinal cord, resulting in pain and affecting nerve function.
If degenerative changes in the bones occur in your upper back, you might develop a slumped or hunched appearance of your back. We have all seen men or women who have humped appearance, loss of height, and permanent postural abnormalities. This might be where we get the term “little old lady.” If this has occurred, you are in advanced stages of degenerative disc disease and need to take action now to prevent further postural changes. If someone in your family—a mother, father, or grandparent—has this, it is possible you have a genetic predisposition for the same condition.
SUCCESS CASE STUDY
Tim is a 70-year-old retired geologist. He was diagnosed in 1999 with degenerative disc in his lower back. He says he had occasional back pain but had always been able to work through it, until one day while playing golf he had tremendous lower back pain that was unrelenting for three weeks. He took high levels of pain killers and muscle relaxers with no relief. Hunched over and using a walker, he lunged onto my examination table. X-rays showed he had Stage 3 degenerative disc disease (DDD) at L4-L5 and L5-S1. After physical examination it was clear he also had severe muscle imbalances in his hip flexor muscles and lower back musculature. He said his number-one goal was to return to the golf course and that he would do anything it took to get back to swinging a golf club. Our treatment consisted of computerized lumbar decompression therapy, lower back joint realignments, a heavy dose of muscle balancing therapy, and electrical stimulation treatment. After four weeks he was 80-percent improved. He is now back on the course, and once a month he comes in for a tune-up treatment. He reminds me he can still shoot his age.
Effective Treatment for Degenerative Disc Disease
Computerized lumbar decompression therapy • Joint realignment, which allows decreased pressure on the disc • Muscle balance treatments • Core exercises to strengthen the muscles that support that joint • Natural anti-inflammatory such as Boswellia, turmeric, and hot packs for temporary relief • Electrical stimulation • Lumbar braces with the goal of reducing pressure on disc • Self care in the form of stretching, lower back exercises, and ergonomic modifications
Just like Tim, we can help you to become pain free! Call today to schedule your appointment and lets get you back to being pain free again!
Tell the receptionist that you would like to come in for the New Patient Special!
Jake Morgan DC
325-695-9355
Don’t forget to download your very own copy my latest book 21st Century Back Pain Solution!
What’s Wrong With Your Back Pain
What’s Wrong With Your Back Pain
We cannot always control everything that happens to us in this life, but we can control how we respond. Many struggles come as problems and pressures that sometimes cause pain. Others come as temptations, trials, and tribulations.
—L. Lionel Kendrick
We have talked about different factors that cause back pain or dysfunction, and now we will discuss in further detail and name conditions that occur when the back system breaks down—either through postural changes, muscle imbalances, new or old trauma, nutritional or activity deficiencies or, yes, a cumulative effect of all. This is not a complete review of all conditions that can culminate in back pain, but we will discuss the most common disorders related to back pain.
What Is a Bulging Disc?
This complicated condition can also be known as a bulging disc, disc protrusion, or slipped disc. The disc is the cushion that sits between the stacked vertebrae that make up your spine. It has several functions, an important one being to act as a shock absorber. Visualize a disc like a jelly doughnut. Inside the disc is a jellylike substance that can attract water or gel-like substances to help absorb compressive forces. This is why we are actually taller in the morning than in the evening. After gravity pushes down on your spine throughout the day, the disc hydration decreases. When you lie down at night and take the compression forces off the spine, the disc rehydrates.
Many people have bulging disc but might not have any symptoms associated with it. Disc pain can occur when it is torn, irritated, or putting pressure on the nerve. The outer portion of the disc has painful nerve fibers, which can be a source of pain…and you can develop a bulging disc (or multiple bulging discs) when the inner portion of the disc. In terms of the jelly doughnut example, the jelly breaks through the outer ring of the doughnut and can put pressure on the nerves in your lower back. When the nerve is compressed, it can cause sharp shooting pain, numbness or tingling that might radiate into your buttocks, thigh, back of your leg, and even down into your lower leg and foot. If a herniated disc happens in the neck, you might experience numbness, tingling, or sharp shooting pain in one or both arms.
The source of disc herniations can be an injury from a car accident, or lifting and twisting your lower back, which creates extreme compression and torsion on the spine. But many disc herniations occur due to muscular imbalances that occur over time, creating slow abnormal pressure on the disc and spine, which allows a weak region of the disc. This condition in chronic situations responds well to computerized spinal decompression therapy, a muscle balance treatment.
SUCCESS CASE STUDY
Janet is a 45-year-old city administrator, suffering from persistent lower back pain, as well as pain that travels into her right buttocks and the back of her lower leg. For two months, she hoped the pain would resolve on its own and had been, as she says, “eating Aleve every day.” She was unable to get comfortable at night and couldn’t bend over to put on socks in the morning. X-rays and an MRI revealed multiple disc bulges. She had seen her primary care doctor, who was giving steroids but with minimal relief. She began treatment that included computerized lumbar decompression therapy, joint realignments, muscle balancing therapy, and electrical muscle/nerve stimulation treatment in our clinic. She had a 50-percent reduction of pain in eight visits, and was 80-percent pain-free in 12 visits; she had no pain by 24 visits. She told me the best part of her treatment was that she gained knowledge of how to stay pain-free.
Effective Treatment for Bulgingor Herniated Disc
Computerized lumbar decompression therapy • Muscle balance treatments to allow your body to take pressure off the disc • Core exercises to strengthen the muscles that support that joint • Natural anti-inflammatory such as Boswellia extract or turmeric • Lumbar braces with the goal of reducing pressure on disc • Cold laser therapy • Electrical muscle/nerve stimulation
If you want to learn more about becoming pain free from a bulging disc and/or would like to schedule a consultation to see if you are a candidate for treatment at Advanced Chiropractic & Spinal Rehab
Call Today! 325-695-9355 Ask about our New Patient Special!
Jake Morgan DC
Download a copy of my latest book 21st Century Back Pain Solution Book.
Debilitating Nerve Pain
Different Types of Pain
Over the next few blogs I will discuss the different types of Pain you may have.
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
—Lance Armstrong
Nerve Pain
Nerve pain usually feels like numbness, tingling, pins-and-needles, sharp shooting, burning, or weakness. Usually the nerve or nerves are compressed, pinched, stretched, or injured in some way. This can be a tight muscle squeezing the nerve. For example, a condition called “piriformis syndrome” is a muscle spasm in your buttocks that creates sciatica or pressure on your sciatic nerve. The source of the problem is not in the back at all. You might have numbness, or tingling in hands or arms, which can be from nerves being irritated in the neck or arm.
There are small canals or openings in your spinal column that allow room for your nerves to live. These nerves are extensions from your spinal cord, and the nerves control the functions of your organs. Any pressure or inflammation around the nerves can create pain and dysfunction to the organ that it supplies. Several conditions can cause compression on nerves. These include stenosis, a narrowing of the canal due to arthritic or degenerative changes in the spine. You might have a disc herniation, a bulge that puts pressure on the nerve. You could have a disc or ligament that is torn or injured and the swelling is irritating the nerve. A vertebra in your spine can misalign or become out of proper position, putting pressure on a nerve. Nerves that are compressed long periods of time can be permanently damaged, leading to muscle weakness, a loss of muscle tone. A condition called “foot drop” is one in which the nerves, those that connect to the muscles that lift your foot while walking, are no longer functioning. Sometimes there’s compression in one area of a nerve and the far end of that nerve is where the patient feels the symptoms. To be clear, compression of the nerve might be in your back, but you can feel numbness, tingling, burning, or pain in your toes or feet. These can lead to peripheral neuropathy, which is a topic for another book.
SUCCESS CASE STUDY
Paul is a 55-year-old truck driver, who has been driving for 15 years. He came into the clinic with searing pain traveling down the back of his right leg. He was certain he had herniated a disc in his lower back. I asked him why he believed that, and he said that his coworker, who referred him to my clinic, had the same thing happen to him and it was a herniated disc putting pressure on his sciatic nerve. After examination and X-rays of his lower back, no real sign of any problems were found in his lower back. As I was examining his lower back, I saw a three-inch wallet in his right pocket. I asked Paul if he typically removed the wallet while he was driving or sitting, and he responded “no.” I removed the wallet and felt a muscle, called the piriformis, which is located in the buttocks right where the wallet was setting. He just about came off the table when I touched the area. “What the hell was that, Doc?” he asked. I think we found the problem. It is known as piriformis syndrome, a compression of the sciatic nerve due to irritation of the piriformis muscle that lives in the buttocks. The piriformis muscle was choking his sciatic nerve—the problem was not in his back at all. I have seen many medical providers misdiagnose or run up medical bills on MRIs of the lower back and other diagnostic tests, all of which come back normal. Many just think a patient must be exaggerating the symptoms, but it’s an issue in how some of these medical professionals are trained. Paul’s condition improved after six weeks of muscle balance therapy, pelvic realignment, electrical nerve stimulation to heal the nerve, and laser therapy. Oh, and removing his wallet while driving is key in not making the sciatic nerve mad again.
For 10 days only, I’m running a very special offer .
What does this offer include? Everything I normally do in my new patient evaluation.
Just call here’s what you’ll get…
An in-depth consultation about your health and well-being where I will listen…really listen…to the details of your case. A complete neuromuscular examination, full set of specialized x-rays (if necessary), and a thorough analysis of your exam and x-ray findings so we can start mapping out your plan to being pain free.
You’ll get to see everything first hand and find out if this amazing treatment will be your solution to pain, like it has been for so many other patients.
Life is too short to let pain slow you down. Call now 325-695-9355.