Category Back Pain

Foot Pain and Spine Pain Related

Foot pain is one of the more common problems that people will deal with. According to healthyaging.org, more then 87% of people will have foot pain at some time in their lives. Older adults are more likely to have foot pain but it can hit at any age. Just so you know, I don’t treat most of the problems related to the foot. I don’t treat toe nail fungus, bunions, hammertoes, ingrown toe nails and the like. I do treat the joints of the foot and ankle. Your foot will generally have 26 bones, 33 different joints, and 120 muscles that all make the foot do what it does. Then we stuff all of that into a shoe that doesn’t breathe and compresses the joints. That’s just a recipe for trouble.

Foot Joints

I treat the larger joints of the foot and ankle. Pulling on toes to get them to release is a fairly simple process and I don’t need to do that for you. Adjusting the talus, the navicular, cuboid, and cuneiform bones, now that’s where I come in. Even the metatarsals all need some tuning up from time to time. When the foot is painful the joints become swollen and really difficult to move so icing the foot is a great process. I suggest either an ice bath for the feet or ice massage for individual sore spots. A lot of the adjusting I do is with the activator but I prefer to manually adjust the foot joints when possible.

Foundation for the body

If the foot and ankle joints are messed up, the knees, hips, and pelvis all will follow. When the pelvis tilts, the rest of the spine develops a curve that then effects the nervous system. Without this cascade of events, the legs and spine all become more stable and the nervous system works better.

Feet are not my cup of Tea

To be perfectly honest, feet are not my thing. I am willing to glove up and work on feet because people get so much relief and it really changes the workings of the spine. So, I’ll adjust feet for the betterment of your spine.

If you have foot pain or know of someone who is dealing with this pain, please let them know that there’s another option for getting relief. It’s one more tool for dealing with foot and leg problems.

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• Hip Pain Makes Me Stop

If your hip pain is stopping you from doing your daily activities, something needs to be done and now. People find the acetabulum an easy joint to ignore, but it shouldn’t be. It’s a big ball joint with a large socket in the pelvic bones that has a lot of joint motion. When a person ignores hip pain, the body forms a scar in the joint. Because there is so much motion, it takes a lot of scar tissue building up before the joint pain becomes oppressive. At that point, it is getting too late. The joint has already lost articular cartilage, and we start to see the bone on bone type of pain.

What causes these joints to stop working right?

Usually a new injury will change the way that the joint works. As the injury ages, micro tears of the joint capsule and the supporting muscles lead to scar tissue. When the scars form, there is a significant chance that the hip will take a long time to heal. The injury can heal, when the joint is released. Healthy ligaments replace the scar and tendons allow for full range of motion. The hip, left in the fixed state, will develop scar tissue that becomes permanent. Then no amount of work will change it. Frequently, hip replacement with mechanical fasteners are the only way to reduce pain and get full movement back.

The Chiropractic Approach

As chiropractors, we adjust joints of all types. The hip, while a really mobile joint, is a fairly easy joint to adjust. We will use several techniques to adjust the hip. A straight osseous adjustment involves a high velocity thrust with distraction of the joint allowing for an increase in motion. An activator adjustment involves a mechanical instrument that delivers a super fast thrust with low force, making the adjustment less painful. The Charette technique of extremity adjusting, that I have used for nearly 20 years is one of the more effective techniques that I have used. All restore the joint motion and can give back some degree of pain free movement.

Like I said before, the earlier we catch the injury, the easier it is to restored the joint to normal. So, athletes who are either competing or training hard should be having maintenance adjustments done occasionally to any joint that has suffered injury. This is one of the reasons to have kids adjusted, especially once they have entered competitive sports. Then keep getting maintenance adjustments 4-6 times per year as you go on. Your future, very likely, depends on it.

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I’ve had a lot of people ask about Inversion Therapy and what it does.

What it is and What it does

If you’ve been in my office in the past several months, you will have noticed the inversion table sitting prominently inside the door. Basically, on this table, you set your height, hook your feet into the bar at the bottom, raise your arms over your head and lean back. If it’s set properly, you should have a gentle tip backwards until the bar stops you from going any farther over.

This table I have is safe for people up to 300 lbs. but some of the others I have seen only go to 250 lbs. I usually recommend no more than 5 minutes like this because of the blood pressure that goes toward the head. You will feel it and not want to stay over too much more than that. When you are done, bring your arms back down to your waist and you should slowly tip back up to the upright position. At that point, take your time and let your body get used to being upright again.

Why use Inversion Therapy?

There are a couple of great benefits.

1. It reverses the forces of gravity so muscles can stretch out and the spine can decompress. This opens up the discs and allows new fluid into them through diffusion and blood vessels. As more of the spine loosens up, the fascia can stretch slightly and loosen some of the adhesions that develop.

2. There’s a structure in the lower back called Batson’s Venous Plexus. It is a larger area where several veins come together. These veins are the only area in the body where the veins don’t have valves to help push the blood up toward the heart. Thus, there is pooling of used blood in this grouping of veins and toxins build up there. These toxins cause a lot of lower back pain and need to be drained. Inversion allows this venous plexus to drain to the heart and exchange the blood.

Warning about Inversion…

Inversion is not for everyone. If you have a lot of extra weight, it can be hazardous to invert. Those who have hypertension can have problems with it. It can be hard on the ankles, so if you have weak ankles it’s not for you. If you have a really painful lower back, definitely don’t go there. Going over doesn’t hurt but coming back up is crazy painful.

Kind of a long article, but it gives you the basics about how I feel on the subject of inversion. Here’s to your health.

Dr. Roy

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This little office device the story.

One of the first big cases that I had involved a gentleman with a totally messed up shoulder.  I adjusted, worked the muscles, stretched the joint but nothing seemed to work.

I started talking with him about his office set-up and his work, because something else had to be causing all these shoulder problems.  Turns out he was an engineer for a major multinational corporation and supervised several departments of other engineers. I started talking with him about his office set-up and his work, because something else had to be causing all these shoulder problems. Turns out he was an engineer for a major multinational corporation and supervised several departments of other engineers. 

He was on the computer all day long responding to emails and otherwise on the computer.  The shoulder problem was his right shoulder, his mouse arm, so I suggested a track ball. Once he started using the trackball, his shoulder pain started to ease and the joint relaxed a bunch. We could then adjust the shoulder, remove the adhesions, and relax the muscles.  Given our current circumstance with everyone working from home and on the computer all the time, I thought this information might be interesting.  There’s also an article in the news letter for February 17, 2021, about ergonomics in the office place. If this sounds familiar or you have another problem that needs solving, make an appointment or stop by for a visit and we’ll see what we can do.

Google Review

If this little office device article helped you, please write a Google review for me. I have been rewriting my website, trying to get it up in SEO rankings. Just by visiting my website and clicking on a few pages, you can help my rankings tremendously.  If you are not so inclined, I completely understand.  Here’s my wish for you… find peace, family, and hope in your day today. 

Dr. Roy

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Text Neck

In these days where everyone has a phone that they spend countless hours on, we need to start being concerned about the reversal of the neck curve. I see text neck syndrome a lot and the numbers of people with neck pain are increasing.

Cause of Text Neck

So, countless hours on a phone or device. The problem is not the device, it’s how you hold it. If you’re going to be on your phone for a long period, get the phone up at eye level. By simply sitting at your desk or table and putting your elbows on the table, you bring the phone up. When working on a computer, use a stand and separate keyboard to get the screen up even with your eyes. If you wear bifocals like I do, you can have the screen down a little. Don’t ever prop a pillow up and lean your head back so your neck is at 90 degrees while on your phone. This is a sure way to reverse that curve.

Solutions

First, get adjusted. One other way to help yourself at home is to lay on the bed and hang your head over the edge. Let gravity do the work for you and just relax. Of course don’t do this if you have a heart condition or are susceptible to a stroke. The first time you do it, have someone who will check on you and help you if you can’t get up. Use common sense and know your health conditions before you try this. It can help to elongate the neck, stretch the muscles, open up the discs, and ease the tension on the joint capsules. It’s something I do when my neck starts to feel bound up.

Prop a neck roll behind your neck while laying down and bring the phone into your field of vision. There should be really good support for your neck and almost feel like you have it tipped backwards.

This problem will only get worse as the computer age advances. One thing I can see in the future is the heads up display (HUD) glasses there your screen is built right into the glasses. This might wreck your eyes, but your neck should be great. We’ll see what technology does for us in the future.

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Getting relief from Sciatic Nerve Pain becomes super important when you have this type of pain. The pain is generally one of the worst conditions of the lower back and the pain is very intense. The pain is described as a burning hot poker going down the back of the leg. I have seen the pain shoot a short distance into the upper thigh area or all the way to the foot. The sciatic nerve originates from the lumbar spine at levels L2 down to L5 and S1 or S2 segments. This nerve is about the size of your little finger, and carries impulses to the lower leg and foot. With sciatic pain, you can have numbness, weakness, or pain in the lower leg and foot. That pain could feel disconnected from the pain in the lower back.

In order to understand how to relieve sciatic pain, you need to know where the pain is actually coming from. There are several sources of impingement that can cause the sciatic type of pain. The first and most hazardous is a space occupying lesion in the low back.  A space occupying lesion in the lumbar neural canal can be a secondary cancerous tumor. Or it can be a disc bulge. Both of these possibilities need to be considered when dealing with sciatic pain. Another possibility is what has been called pseudo sciatica. This condition stems from the hip rotator muscle like the piriformis muscle. The sciatic nerve sometimes goes through the muscle belly of the piriformis can pinch the sciatic nerve. An easier condition to work with, but is no less painful for the patient.

Relieving Sciatica

Relieving the pain should begin with an examination by a physician trained in neuromuscular pain. A neurologist or orthopedist can easily order the tests (MRI) to diagnose the presence of a space occupying lesion (disc bulge or tumor). The chiropractic physician is also highly adept at identification of these types of lesions also. Chiropractors work with the spinal joints to relieve the pressure on a disc, or relieve the trigger points in the hip rotator muscles.

Your medical doctor will prescribe muscle relaxers and pain medications that can help reduce the spasm in the muscles. Then the body can heal the condition on its own. Home remedies include ice for inflammation, heat on the side of the pain to relieve muscle spasm, massage lower back or buttocks, or specific stretching exercises.

Sciatic Nerve pain can be extremely debilitating. If you are trying to relieve the pain with home remedies, try it but if they don’t give you results within a day, consult a physician to make sure it’s not a more serious problem. It has been said that this condition will resolve on its own in four to six weeks, but can you wait that long to get relief? Most chiropractors and orthopedic surgeons will look for the underlying source of the problem and not simply allow an adaptation of the body to bypass the damage that is done. Pain is present for a reason; please consult someone who can help you resolve the cause.

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Defining Herniated or Bulging discs

A herniated disc and a bulging disc are the same on some levels and completely different on other levels.

A bulging disc is an inflamed disc and has a broader based outward expansion from its normal state. As the swollen fibers push outward, contact with nerves, the spinal cord, or bony structures occurs. As the inflammation spreads, the pain begins to encompass more tissues and nerves, transmitting more pain signals to the brain.

A herniation is more of a rupture that goes through the outer disc material and allows the nucleus of the disc to extrude outside of the disc margins. We see similarities between the two types of pain, though the compressed tissue makes a difference. The degree of inflammation plays a role in pain also. Herniation is a worse scenario to treat due to the openness of the disc nucleus to the outside. 35% of men and 45% of women having this pain at some point in their lifetime.

Causes of Herniation

These disc events happen most often with repetitive flexion stresses to the lower back or lower neck. One study (Adams & Hutton et al, Spine 1982) suggests that 28,000 repetitions of flexion are required to herniate a disc. If there is compression on the disc with flexion, fewer cycles are required to herniate a disc. Bending forward at the waist over a life time can cause this bulging or herniation. Most recently, we have been seeing an increasing problem with neck discs bulging due to working on screens for a long time.

Types

There are different types of herniations. The worst being the sequestered disc herniation. In this case the nucleus material pushes out, breaks away from the disc, and becomes a free floating mass. This mass is near the spinal canal and the only solution is surgical removal of the disc fragment.

The most frequent type of herniation has the nucleus material remaining attached to the disc. If we can take the pressure off the disc, the nucleus will draw back into its normal position. During this process we have to keep the inflammation down so healing can take place.

Main symptoms

Disc pain is characterized as a pain that radiates from the lower back into the leg. Disc pain from the neck radiates into the arm, or can go down the spine. A disc can be painful in and of itself. It will feel like a deep localized sharp pain which is more intense in flexion and relieved by extension.

This is a simplified look at disc herniation. The only true way to determine disc herniation is via advanced imaging techniques like MRI. Your chiropractic doctor works with these conditions and will be able to help you determine the next course of action.

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The main neck conditions that I see for older folks relate to arthritis and loss of range of motion. The most common sign is the inability to turn the neck far enough to back the car out of parking places. This becomes dangerous and problematic when in a highly traveled area like a grocery store parking lot. If you are noticing that it is harder to get backed out and is difficult to see because you can’t turn your neck, it’s time for an assessment.

Arthritis Causes

When looking at the cause of the arthritic neck, we look at past history. Some people spent their youth “cracking” their necks and now, the scar tissue has caught up with them. Other causes include past trauma, which can be from car accidents, sports injuries, or work related overuse injuries. Previous history of surgical intervention in the neck can cause additional scar tissue. If you have had a previous surgery involving a fusion, often times this will preclude you from getting a neck adjustment at all. When you come in, if you have had a fusion, please bring x-rays of the post surgery neck so I can see what I’m dealing with. With some fusion cases, it is possible to adjust with the light force instrument adjusting technique and get some relief.

Neck Adjusting

Often times the arthritic neck conditions can be adjusted in the same way as the non-degenerated neck. The forces necessary are very different in these circumstances. I have found, especially with arthritis, it is better to use less force and better technique. There is also potential for using lower force instrument adjusting to relieve the fixations and restore the motion desired. Most often, I combine very specific adjusting by hand with instrument adjusting to get a maximal outcome with each visit. Additionally, I usually will suggest a stretching regime to decrease the fascial restrictions between muscles, increase pliability of scar tissue, and increase muscle length.

Many arthritis types can be dealt with and respond nicely to chiropractic care.

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I see a variety of childhood neck conditions and some of the main ones include torticollis, sports injuries, and ear aches. Kids are rough and tumble so there are lots of chances for minor injuries. Most childhood spinal injuries go undetected until later in life.

Kids Spines

Let’s talk about kid’s that are older than 2 years and younger than 12 years of age. During these years the bones of the spines experience rapid growth and the ossification centers begin to deposit more calcium. The necks of children in this age group are more pliable than their teen counterparts but more stable than in infancy. I am aware of some of the medical criticism of chiropractors for adjusting necks in childhood. In my experience, if the adjustment is done using lighter forces they are perfectly safe.

Talk to your children about the adjustment. Kids at this age are pretty scared of doctors and need some reassurance. Let them know that a chiropractor is a different kind of doctor. I try to explain what I will be doing, show them the tools, and be really honest about when it might hurt. If I can treat a relaxed child, the adjustment is that much less ouchy.

Conditions

Torticollis

Torticollis is a condition where the vertebra in the neck slip out of place, causing muscle spasm. The sternocleidomastoid muscle that runs from behind the ear to the collar bone and the sternum is the culprit in this case. Children with torticollis wake up in the morning in pain. They are unable to move their neck and will have their neck in a flexed and rotated position.

Ice is the first line of defense followed by an adjustment of the vertebrae when things relax a little. This adjustment is not very pleasant if done too early in the healing. With movement of the neck, the nerve is allowed to heal and the cycle is stopped. This is an acute condition that will get better with time, a bit of ice, and some age appropriate anti-inflammatories. Keep your child calm, limit activity and move the head around in the pain free ranges of motion. If we can get some movement going, the adjustment gets easier.

Ear Infections

Ear infections is another common condition that I treat in children. The eustachian tubes for younger kids are more parallel to the horizon and really don’t drain well. When the top bone of the spine (atlas) is rotated, this can put pressure on the upper neck and throat area, blocking the eustachian tubes. There is a buildup of fluid and bacterial infection behind the ear drum. With an adjustment of the atlas the pressure is relieved and the ears drain. The bacterial infection most often will clear up on its own and the ears should do better. Keep in mind that once a vertebra has gone out of place, it will go there again.

Sports Injuries

Sports Injuries are the last category I want to cover for this age group of children. Kids this age, are not known for generating great speeds or forces in their athletic activities, but accidents do happen. Falls from bikes, play structures, or swings have potential to cause significant injury. Kids at the upper ends of this age group are participating in organized sports that can have potential for injury. Obvious injuries like fractures and head traumas should be seen at urgent care. Later in the treatment process, it’s wise to have them checked for subluxation. This is the age group where some of these lifelong injuries happen that with a simple adjustment, we can restore them to full function without the long term effects.

Minor bumps and falls should also be checked by a chiropractor to restore any fixed vertebra that may go undetected. For optimal health, children should be checked once per month to once per quarter as a preventative to keep their spines in the best possible shape for growth and maturation.

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Infants Necks

The birth process is pretty traumatic for baby necks. The first body part to present is the baby’s head. The doctor will use the head to start the rest of the body through the birth canal. We see infants that cry unceasingly, have colic, and will only turn their head in one direction. These symptoms suggest neck trauma that should be checked out by a qualified chiropractor. Nothing against Obstetricians, they are doing what they need to do. There are follow-ups that need to be done by a chiropractor and most people don’t consider that.

Adjusting

Adjusting baby necks is one of the least invasive procedures that I do. The forces needed to make a change in the spine of an infant are extremely small. Parents are usually unaware of then the adjustment actually happened. The change for the baby can be night and day.

I had one patient that brought her infant son in to me because she was at her wits end. She told me, “fix this,” as she handed me her baby. I adjusted him with a very light force neck adjustment and sent them home. She told me three days later it was like having a new baby. Her baby slept through the night, was happy, and seldom cried.

It’s not always that profound of a difference. Most of the time, a neck trauma like this takes more than one adjustment. Over the course of a few weeks, the infant can have a life changing experience with chiropractic adjustments. Parents can also have a life changing experience in how they relate to their baby.

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