Posts Tagged ‘pain’
Careers with Back Pain: Nursing
Each job comes with its own set of occupational hazards for the spine
Which means that it is important to identify those risks that are particular to your job. And while it may seem apparent that construction workers face a higher incidence rate of injury to their back, you may be surprised to find that nurses suffer more pain as a result of their job. What is responsible for this? It turns out that the lifting involved in nursing is a critical factor in creating back pain. Helping patients move from lying to sitting, boosting them from gurney to examination table and preventing patients from falling are all movements that can damage ligaments and create dysfunction in the spinal motion segments. Here are our tips for preventing back pain as a nurse.
Flexion-Distraction Technique for Back Pain
Chiropractic uses a wide variety of modalities to treat back pain
Because every case of back pain is unique, each person’s spine will respond to a different protocol for care. At Holmes Chiropractic, we begin with a comprehensive medical history and physical examination to determine what is causing your specific pain or dysfunction. Once we have pinpointed the root of the problem, we can move forward with a plan for treatment that utilizes one or multiple of the modalities in which we specialize.
How to: Feel Great in Old Age
The longevity of your spine is important
Here is why we love our spine:
- It lets us move: your spine is what allows for the initiation and success of almost every movement that we do on a daily basis.
- It provides our network for nerve signalling: in this way, your brain communicates with every cell, tissue and organ in your body. This allows us to feel sensations, react and do the things we want when we want.
- It supports us: it keeps us upright and connects to all the important structures and muscles that allow us to move and function on a daily basis
Now what happens when this great structure begins to falter?
As our bodies age, the spine can become a make or break factor in how we feel
The truth is, the lifespan of our spines is finite and most often, it is not designed to function as long as we are now able to stay alive. However, more and more we are treating more and more people whose spines have degraded as early as their twenties. Obviously this was not purposeful but, whether through injury or poor posture, it is a frightening precedent to set for a spine that (hopefully) needs to last you another 50 years.
At Holmes Chiropractic, we protect the longevity of spines in the Houston area
Chiropractic care is integral to supporting the spine- by receiving regular assessments and adjustments we can make sure your spine is aligned and your nervous system is working properly. By gaining a feeling for how good it feels to have a straight and upright spine, you subconsciously begin to take the health of your spine more seriously. This usually means paying attention to posture and the strengthening of muscles that lend support to the vertebrae, especially in the lower back. If you are interested in maintaining the health of your spine long into the future, give our office in Houston a call to schedule an appointment today.
Keeping your Spine Aligned: What you can do
Houston, why do you want to keep your spine aligned?
First of all what determines “good alignment?” A properly aligned body refers to a position in which the head, shoulders, spine, hips, knees and ankles align in a position that puts minimal pressure on the spine. Let us give you some reasons why this is important:
- Good spinal alignment contributes to better body mechanics and fewer injuries
- Good spinal alignment protects and aids in the functioning of the central nervous system
- Good spinal alignment facilitates the optimal functioning of all your major bodily systems
What can you do outside the chiropractor’s office to keep your spine aligned
After the Adjustment: Taking Care of your Spine
Chiropractic care does not end when you leave the office
Chiropractic adjustment seeks to apply a controlled force to a spinal joint in order to move it back into alignment with the rest of the spine, thus alleviating compression from nearby nerves, correcting the body’s physical function and structural alignment and balancing the muscles in the back. Many people find that they experience significantly less pain and enjoy a greater range of motion immediately after a chiropractic adjustment. By alleviating nerve compression and aligning the spine, significant improvements are made in a person’s range of motion and, thus, flexibility. But what happens when you leave the office?
Headaches
Headache is among the most common reasons for doctor visits in America. People are quick to reach for pain-numbing over-the-counter medicine, which is a short term solution that will only cause the pain to dissolve temporarily. A one-off headache is something that we all experience at different points in life; however, if you are suffering from chronic (defined as recurring regularly or persisting for a long period of time) headaches, it is worth searching for an underlying cause.
The Doctor of Chiropractic is concerned with the type of headache that is derived from musculoskeletal imbalance. At Holmes Chiropractic, we offer the chronic headache sufferer a thorough examination to determine whether their condition may be partially or fully related to spinal misalignment, muscular tension or joint malfunction. Subluxation, in particular, causes headache because the pressure on the nerve creates pain that can be referred, and therefore felt, in the head. Our treatment corrects subluxation and releases accumulated tension that may be causing you pain. Furthermore, we focus on enhancing blood circulation to ensure that the brain (as well as all the functioning systems in your body) is receiving an adequate flow of oxygen and nutrients.
We are not naive enough to proclaim that our treatment will solve every headache. We can offer you an honest evaluation that will determine whether your headaching could benefit from an adjustment or attention to a problematic region in the back. Give our office in Houston a call and let us help you reduce the grip that headaches have over your life.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Sciatica
Sciatica is a disorder that is most commonly characterized by mild to intense pain in either the right or left leg. The sciatic nerve is the largest single nerve in the entire body, running from the sacrum through the buttock and through the hip into each leg. Five sets of paired nerve roots combine to form the sciatic nerve and an impingement to any one (or more) of these roots can lead to sciatic nerve pain.
Spinal disorders that lead to impingement on the sciatic nerve roots include:
- Piriformis syndrome
- Herniated disc
- Spondyloisthesis
- Lumbar spinal stenosis
If the disorder that has led to your sciatic nerve pain is structural, chiropractic can help relieve the pressure to the nerve. At Holmes Chiropractic, we use a combination of modalities to treat your sciatic nerve pain.
- Ice/cold therapy to reduce inflammation and control pain.
- Spinal adjustment: to restore misaligned vertebrae to their proper position, stopping them from impinging on nerves.
If you are tired of living with sciatic nerve pain, call our office in Houston at (713) 862-2440 to get an evaluation and find out how we can get you on the path to living pain free.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
How to get Moving
Think about what you put your spine through on a daily basis: the twists, the turns, the bends and dips and, those dreaded lifts. These are all putting pressures on the muscles and vertebrae in your back that can lead to misalignment and pain, but the most insidious of all might be not moving at all. Sitting is becoming epidemic in America, and spines are suffering.
Your spine on sitting:
- Muscles atrophying due to lack of movement
- Spinal discs absorbing fluid and tightening
- Range of motion restricting
- Circulation stagnating
- Pain accumulating
The modern office is a fear-inducing place for the modern spine. The body needs to move; it yearns to move. But hours and weeks and, ultimately, years of sitting in the office train the muscles into a state of tightness that can only be detrimental to your overall well-being. At Holmes Chiropractic, we want to help you rediscover the joy of movement and how good it makes your body feel. From a simple walk to a jog or swim, the activities can be fun and uplift your mood while simultaneously refreshing your body.
We promise to help you return strength to underutilized muscles and treat the structures and tissues of your back which may be damaged from years of misuse. Call our office in Houston to schedule an appointment today.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
Cervicogenic Headache
Cervicogenic headaches are among the most unusual headaches because the pain is not originating in the head. This happens to make them the hardest to diagnose. But for people who have experienced trauma to the neck, back or head at any point in their lifetime, cervicogenic headaches are worth considering as a root cause if you suffer from chronic headaches.
How it works:
Whether because of trauma, repetitive stress or poor posture, nerves in the neck are impinged due to misalignment of the spine. These nerves are sending signals which travel up the spinal cord and merge with nerves in the brain. When the pain is manifest from nerves in the brain rather than the neck, a headache is the logical outcome. The idea that pain can manifest in a place different from where it originates is called reference: nerves in the neck are referring pain to nerves in the brain. Cervicogenic headaches are often misdiagnosed unless the neck is examined for misalignment. There are also over 20 muscles in the upper back and cervical region that can refer pain to the head if they are tightened or strained.
Regardless of where headaches begin and end, it is important to approach them with the right attitude: headaches are not just a part of life. They are a clear signal that something is wrong, that a dysfunction exists within your body. Diet, exercise and nutrition are great ways to manage your symptoms, but sometimes it takes a little more research and treatment. That is where we come in: call our office in Houston at (713) 862-2440 to schedule an appointment today.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.
In Pursuit of a Good Night’s Sleep
At Holmes Chiropractic we believe that sleep is integral to immunity.
A good night’s sleep is priceless: the influence of sleep on mood, attitude, cognition and health is something you have to feel to believe. Unfortunately for many, they don’t know what they have until it’s gone: lack of sleep is a leading contributor to stress and depression, symptoms that are all too real. Lack of sleep can also leave weaken your biological systems and contribute to elevated stress levels. Adult insomnia, the condition whereby people find it difficult to fall or stay asleep, is on the rise, and although there are many sleep medications on the market, most only treat the symptoms and not the cause.
To this end, we pledge to dive deep to derive the underlying cause of your sleeplessness. Sometimes, all it takes is a conversation to discover that unhealthy habits are obstructing your sleep patterns. We help you to institute healthy practices that reduce stress such as monitoring and limiting caffeine, alcohol and tobacco intake, increasing exercise and creating routines that give your brain a semblance of order.
If back pain is making it impossible to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in, we diagnose and correct the cause of the pain through adjustment and massage.
Massage also helps to increase blood flow and heal injuries, and reduce muscle tension that may have accrued due to stress or poor posture.
For sufferers of insomnia in the Houston area, we offer a composite strategy for wellness. Call us today at 713-862-2440 to schedule an appointment.
Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.