Santa Barbara Chiropractor

I’ve always loved the old saying, When you consider the alternative, getting old isn’t so bad.” But, if the aging process is creating pain in your body, you know that aging is no joke! As a Santa Barbara chiropractor, when it comes to musculoskeletal challenges, I see too many age-related breakdowns that likely wouldn’t have taken place if the primary cause had been addressed earlier. Poor posture, improper gait, and repetitive overuse often create needless stress in the back, neck, hip, knees, and even the feet that can result in painful challenges over time. But, as another saying goes, “Hindsight is 20-20.” If we only knew years ago how our aging body would feel today!

As you can see from the list areas of pain above, there are plenty of musculoskeletal conditions that can, and frequently do, take place as we get older, however painful back problems are one of the most prevalent. Back pain that is age-related is most commonly the result of a degenerative disorder known as Spondylosis (spine osteoarthritis).

Spinal osteoarthritis is caused by increased deterioration and weight-bearing pressure on the spine that eventually does harm to the discs, joints, and surrounding ligaments. The location and degree of the degenerative process of spondylosis varies from person to person. It is likely to affect the cervical (neck), thoracic (mid-back), or lumbar (low back) areas of the spine. Depending on the severity of degeneration, Spondylosis symptoms vary from person-to-person as well, and can range from minor pain and numbness to extreme sensory loss and muscular atrophy.

Repetitive stresses antagonistically affect the cartilage around the joints and can encourage calcium to deposit in the tissues around the vertebrae. These calcific deposits, known as bone spurs, can constrict adjacent nerves, blood vessels and soft tissue. This kind of compression is at the root of Spondylosis.

Regular chiropractic care and overall chiropractic management is beneficial in significantly slowing the aging process of the spine whether or not you are suffering from spondylosis. Even though “you can’t un-ring a bell” or “turn back the hands of time,” but it isn’t too late to give your spine the good treatment it deserves. Chiropractors are experts when it comes to treatment of the spine. See your Santa Barbara Chiropractor today, for the health of your spine.

Technorati Tags: age-related back pain, chiropractic, chiropractor, spine osteoarthritis

As a chiropractor I treat many people who suffer from arthritis, and I also help individuals who have sustained sports injuries. With the former, I use chiropractic adjustments and with the latter, in conjunction with the adjustments, I often use kinesio taping. Now, it appears that athletic tape can also be beneficial in treating patients with arthritis. Read on…

Athletic Tape May Relieve Certain Arthritis Pain

via Current Arthritis News and Research

 

Athletic Tape

Researchers in Australia have found that athletic tape can be used to improve pain from patellofemoral osteoarthritis, a form of osteoarthritis found around or behind the kneecap.

 

This was a small study, to be sure, involving only 28 people, 14 with and 14 without patellofemoral arthritis. Yet the findings may provide another therapy option for people with this knee pain. This finding may also benefit people with chronic patellofemoral pain, which is relatively common in runners and can oftentimes be related to a misalignment in the knee joint.

The researchers from the University of Melbourne enlisted the 28 participants, all adults with an average age of 57. The researchers took MRI scans of the participants knees and discovered that the arthritis sufferers had a higher incidence of misalignment of the knee joint, including an inclination for the kneecap to be positioned toward the outside of the leg.

Using athletic tape to wrap the patient’s knees, the researchers were able to improve that misalignment. This contributed to improvement in reported pain during a squatting exercise.

According to lead researcher, Dr. Kay M. Crossley;

“Our results confirm that patellar taping is an excellent technique which can be recommended for people with (patellofemoral arthritis).”

The tape must be applied correctly to achieve the benefit, and not to worsen the condition. The researchers indicated that a physical therapist would be the most appropriate to wrap the knee, but that with instruction and practice, the patient would be able to successfully tape their own knee.

Using tape may not be the best solution for everyone with patellofemoral pain. Many people may require other forms of therapy or a combination with taping. Dr. Crossley stated that she and her colleagues are currently conducting a clinical trial which is studying the outcomes of knee taping with other treatments.

The results of the taping study were published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.

 

Posted via email from chirohealthnews’s posterous

Seeing a chiropractor in San Jose is genuinely among the very best things that you can do to assist your arthritis and back pain. Chiropractors are doctors who focus exclusively on working on the musculoskeletal system, and arthritis is a joint condition. Chiropractic assistance has aided many people in decreasing the process of arthritis by getting their joints moving. Movement is crucial for joint health. A good chiropractor is very knowledgeable in caring for back pain, even when it is because of arthritis

If you have never gone to a chiropractor in the past, you could be somewhat concerned about what will happen once you are in the office. It may be beneficial to offer a quick overview of what you can anticipate. You may be asked about your medical history, that will most probably include a family account of arthritis. The chiropractor is likely to ask about your daily diet and lifestyle and may suggest explicit changes that may be very helpful in reducing the inflammation attributable to arthritis. And, lastly, you will receive a in depth examination. After the assessment is done, the chiropractor will let you know if chiropractic assistance can assist your lumbar pain, and also eliminate your debilitating arthritic symptoms. visit Then you will learn about the actual course of action you will should have.

A chiropractic adjustment relieves pain safely and organically, and it is a painless procedure. And, the most terrific factor of going to a chiropractor for your lumbar pain and arthritis is that you can feel positive that the source of your pain is being attended to, and that the relief you experience has not been masking the warning sign of pain, but authentically eliminating the origin of your problem.

Technorati Tags: arthritis, back pain, chiropractor, SAN-JOSE-CA