Our patients come to us for advice and treatment for many different conditions. These are mainly musculoskeletal in nature, however, there are so many benefits to chiropractic care that we are now seeing many people come to us who may have previously sought advice from a GP or simply resorted to a cocktail of painkillers.
Here are some of the main conditions that we see at our clinic.
Back Pain
When most people think of a chiropractor, they often think of back pain (with 1 in 6 people in England suffering from some type of back pain) it makes sense that this is one of the most common conditions we see. Low back pain, in most cases, is associated with spondylosis, a term that refers degeneration of the spine. Other causes can include sprains and strains, herniated discs, sciatica, spinal stenosis, trauma or accidents.
Neck Pain
This is most commonly caused by poor posture. Bad postural habits are on the rise due to the increase in devices we use, how we work and the lifestyles that we lead these days. We concentrate on treating the underlying cause of neck pain and headaches, which is often related to the lack of movement in the joints of the upper spine. There can often be a common connection between restrictions in the neck and headaches as well as arm pains. This is why we will often work on the neck if you have a shoulder, elbow, wrist or nerve pain.
Headaches and Migraines
There are several different kinds of headaches including:
● Tension headaches
● Migraine headaches
● Cluster headaches
● Cervicogenic headaches (caused by neck spinal tension)
Many people suffer from headaches, but unfortunately because they are so common, people think that they are normal, but just because they are common it does not mean they are normal.
Headaches can stem form a variety of causes, however most are related to restrictions and imbalance of the neck movement. This is why your chiropractor will always check your upper spine when you have a headache.
Shoulder, elbow, wrist, hips, knee and ankle pain
Some of the conditions we work with include types of tendonitis, rotator cuff injuries, sprains/strains, tennis elbow, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive strain injuries and plantar fasciitis. Although many of these conditions are caused by inflammation of the muscles or tendons, there is often a large component which is related to how the joints in the area are moving too. If the joints are stiffer than they should be, this causes the muscles to have to work hard which in turn can then trigger swelling and inflammation. As chiropractors, we will check all the tissues and joints involved. This can often extend into us assessing the spine too as the nerves from the spine control everything in your arms and legs.
Sciatica or disc injuries
This is one of the more common injuries we see in practice. Sciatica is triggered when a nerve in your lower back is pinched or trapped, often referring pain into your buttock or down your leg. This can often cause severe pain and can be associated with sensory changes such as numbness, pins & needles and tingling. Sometimes the nerve in the low back is pinched by too much imbalance in the low back or pelvis, wear and tear, accidents or poor posture. All of these imbalances can also lead to abnormal load and pressure on the disc causing it to swell or bulge (often known as a slipped disc). This is a common, albeit a very painful injury, that we often see in clinic and can be helped greatly with the correct personalised approach. As nerve and disc tissue has a naturally slow healing time, these injuries often take longer to heal than many other conditions. By delivering the correct spinal adjustments we can speed up that recovery process.
Sports Injuries
Many of our patients are pro and amateur athletes who really understand the benefit of chiropractic treatment both for injury prevention and optimal performance. In fact, many professional sporting teams have their own designated team of chiropractors! If an area is out of balance (just like any finally tuned mechanism or structure), it undoubtedly has to work harder, and when something works harder over a period of time it breaks down, wears down or gets broken more easily. When your body is functioning well with the correct muscle tone and spinal movement, it allows your body to have more power and endurance during sporting activity but also reduces the risk of injury because the tissues are less strained.
Posture Improvement
We provide guidance and advice to all groups on how to improve your posture and be aware of those bad habits that slip into everyday life. Increased slumping and poor posture are becoming a real issue in our desk- sitting, tech-addicted society. Our body is designed to move and therefore works best when we are active, so when we are overly sedentary, the lack of movement is incredibly stressful on our body and loads the muscles, discs and joints to a much greater degree. The stress of this over time will lead to the increase likeliness of posture related injuries with the most common being, neck and low back pain, trapped nerves, headaches and muscle pains. A Nobel Prize winner – Roger Sperry – stated that ‘90% of the stimulation and nutrition to the brain is generated by the movement of the spine’. This essentially means that your brain needs spinal movement to generate energy and activity. This is often why we can feel more tired and sluggish when we’ve been too sedentary.
Pregnancy related discomfort
Pregnancy is wonderful but also brings about a huge change to a woman’s entire body. It can also trigger many aches and pains they may have not experienced before or they may be told that they have PGP (pelvic girdle pain) or SPD (symphysis pubic dysfunction). Hormones and a growing tummy often change the pressure on the spine and muscles. Our specialist pregnancy chiropractors are highly trained to be able to check and correct these imbalance in a safe and gentle manner so mum can experience a pain free and more comfortable pregnancy and birth. Research has not only confirmed that balanced pelvic mechanics help for a more comfortable labour and birth, but it also influences the baby to be able to move to a head down position, ideal for birth.
Wellness and preventative care
Once our patients have completed their course of care they tend to want to avoid going back to being in pain again and so choose to have regular wellness maintenance care to prevent those problems from re-occurring. There are so many benefits to the entire body by having regular chiropractic care. Much like going for regular dental check ups, why should a check up for your spine be any different? Our spine and body gets exposed to a huge amount of daily stress so its no surprise that tension can build up, but how we look after it is what makes the difference between feeling okay or feeling great.
If you know someone who could benefit from this blog post, please share it with them. We offer a complimentary spine check to anyone who is interested in how chiropractic may be able to help them. You can book this online, or by calling 02082951733.
