Neck pain is not only limited to the cervical region but can affect your head and shoulders.  The pain can be quite significant and reduce the range of motion quite dramatically.  There are many factors than can effect the health of your cervical spine.

Whiplash

Whiplash is a term describing a range of injuries to the neck caused by a sudden forced movement of the head or neck in any direction and the resulting quick return of the head in the opposite direction.  The sudden “whipping” motion injures the surrounding and supporting tissues of the neck and head.  The muscles react by tightening and contracting, creating muscle fatigue.   Some symptoms include neck pain or stiffness, pain between the shoulder blades, blurred vision, fatigue, headache, and dizziness, just to name a few.  A severe whiplash can also be associated with injury to the intervertebral joints, discs, ligaments, muscles, and compression of the nerve roots.  Whiplash is most commonly associated with motor vehicle accidents but can be sustained through sports or even slips or falls around the house.

Repetitive Strain

While technology continues to improve our lives in many ways,  the hour after endless hour typing, texting and scrolling has put the younger generations at risk for injuries.  The poor posture caused by hunching over a keyboard or peering into tiny hand held screen is putting our computer generation at risk for neck injuries.  The number of  injuries has become so apparent that an increasing numbers of companies have not only ergonomically modified their offices but incorporated spinal wellness programs.  They realized that the investment has had great return.  An article from the American Journal of Health Promotions noted that, for every dollar that a company invested in a company wellness program, they generally received a return of between $2.13 and $10.10. Not a bad investment! An estimated 75% of companies in the Fortune 500 have a wellness program, as do 81% of companies with 50 employees or more.

Life Experiencs

Poor posture, obesity, and weak abdominal muscles often disrupt spinal balance, causing the neck to bend forward to compensate.  The postural stress can contribute to not only chronic neck pain but symptoms that extend into the upper back, arms, and frequently the low back.

Prolonged stress and emotional tension will also cause muscles to tighten and contract and our posture to pull forward which may hunch our shoulders.  Sustained stress and emotional tension results in pain and stiffness.

How Can Chiropractic Treatment Help?

During your visit, your doctor of chiropractic will perform exams to locate the source of your pain and will ask you questions about your current symptoms and remedies you may have already tried. For example:

• When did the pain start?
• What have you done for your neck pain?
• Does the pain radiate or travel to other parts of your body?
• Does anything reduce the pain or make it worse?

Your doctor of chiropractic will also do physical and neurological exams. In the physical exam, your doctor will observe your posture, range of motion, and physical condition, noting movement that causes pain. Your doctor will feel your spine, note its curvature and alignment, and feel for muscle spasm. A check of your shoulder area is also in order. During the neurological exam, your doctor will test your reflexes, muscle strength, other nerve changes, and pain spread.

In some instances, your chiropractor might order tests to help diagnose your condition. An x-ray can show narrowed disc space, fractures, bone spurs, or arthritis. A computerized axial tomography scan (a CT or CAT scan) or a magnetic resonance imaging test (an MRI) can show bulging discs and herniations. If nerve damage is suspected, your doctor may order a special test called electromyography (an EMG) to measure how quickly your nerves respond.

Chiropractors are conservative care doctors; their scope of practice does not include the use of drugs or surgery. If your chiropractor diagnoses a condition outside of this conservative scope, such as a neck fracture or an indication of an organic disease, he or she will refer you to the appropriate medical physician or specialist. He or she may also ask for permission to inform your family physician of the care you are receiving to ensure that your chiropractic care and medical care are properly coordinated.

Neck Adjustments

A neck adjustment (also known as a cervical manipulation) is a precise procedure applied to the joints of the neck, usually by hand. A neck adjustment works to improve the mobility of the spine and to restore range of motion; it can also increase movement of the adjoining muscles. Patients typically notice an improved ability to turn and tilt the head, and a reduction of pain, soreness, and stiffness.

Of course, your chiropractor will develop a program of care that may combine more than one type of treatment, depending on your personal needs. In addition to manipulation, the treatment plan may include mobilization, massage or rehabilitative exercises, or something else.

Research Supporting Chiropractic Care

One of the most recent reviews of scientific literature found evidence that patients with chronic neck pain enrolled in clinical trials reported significant improvement following chiropractic spinal manipulation.

As part of the literature review, published in the March/April 2007 issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, the researchers reviewed nine previously published trials and found “high-quality evidence” that patients with chronic neck pain showed significant pain-level improvements following spinal manipulation. No trial group was reported as having remained unchanged, and all groups showed positive changes up to 12 weeks post-treatment.

Spinal decompression therapy is a treatment option for people with long-term back pain, sciatica, leg pain, degenerative disc disease, herniated discs, numbness and other conditions that have not responded to initial treatments such as chiropractic adjustments, manipulation and physical therapy. Compressed discs can lead to herniation,  bulging or brittleness of the discs. The problem is often perpetuated because the compressed disc restricts the flow of nutrients to itself which it needs to heal. In addition to the pressure and compression, the nerve itself may not be able to receive the nutrients it needs to heal and work properly.  Often, surgery is used to decompress the spine, which is invasive, painful, and carries significant risks. Medications to reduce pain are also often used, but they do not treat the source of the pain and only mask it.

Spinal decompression therapy is considered to be a non-invasive, non-surgical alternative that offers gentle decompression of the spine through the use of specially designed, FDA-approved equipment. Prior to treatment, patients are thoroughly examined both manually and through the use of imaging technology in order to determine which spinal discs are compressed, and if the treatment is suitable and has a high likelihood of success.

Patients are placed on a decompression table in a comfortable posture that depends on which area of the back needs treatment.  The treatment applies a specific force to the compressed discs, and a computer alternates the decompression force with relaxation periods. Usually, there is a series of 10-20 alternating decompression and relaxation cycles, for an individual treatment times between 15-30 minutes. This process serves to gently elongate the spine and to create a vacuum that pulls the disc back into its proper location and shape within the vertebrae. Realigning the discs in this manner can reduce pain and promote healing. However, on average it will require 20 treatments to experience significant improvement with a compressed disc.

Is everyone with back pain a good candidate for spinal decompression therapy? Of course not. Research has shown it to be very effective for high percentage of patients but some patients it is not effective at all. At this point it is not entirely clear which people it will work best on. Therefore, it is important to work carefully with your chiropractor to be sure you have a good chance of successful treatment. Your chiropractor may precede each treatment with soft tissue muscle work to reduce the body’s natural reflex reaction and prepare the muscles for the traction forces. He or she will also work with other health professionals as needed to determine the precise nature of your back pain and the type of treatments that are most likely to resolve your pain at its source.

Oh those teenage years of frustration

If you have ever wondered why the teenage years are so difficult for parents (and often the teens themselves) you need look no further than their brain. The brain undergoes rapid and profound development during the teen years, much more so than during most of childhood. It is a time when the areas of the brain involved in the calculation of risk, rewards and decision making go through increasingly major changes. This may explain why late adolescence (between ages 15 and 19) has a six times greater mortality rate than those in late childhood and early adolescence (between ages 10 and 14).

Research conducted by scientists using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from early childhood through adulthood has mapped the many changes that the developing brain makes as it matures. They have found that the brain continues to develop into a person’s early 20s, with the frontal lobes that are responsible for reasoning and problem-solving being developed last.

Although the teenage brain is more impulsive and willing to take risks, it is also dynamic, vulnerable and stimulated by positive feedback. The reason for this is that the reward centers in teenage brains are highly responsive, while at the same time, the region of the brain associated with self-control is still not developed fully.

Dr. Jay Giedd, Chief of Brain Imaging at the Child Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, says “The most surprising thing has been how much the teen brain is changing. By age six, the brain is already 95 percent of its adult size. But the gray matter, or thinking part of the brain, continues to thicken throughout childhood as the brain cells get extra connections, much like a tree growing extra branches, twigs and roots.”

Although the brain grows in gray matter significantly during childhood and early adolescence, the amount of gray matter actually begins to fall in mid-adolescence, which researchers say is a normal process of brain maturation.

Giedd says, “… the pruning-down phase is perhaps even more interesting, because our leading hypothesis for that is the “use it or lose it” principle. Those cells and connections that are used will survive and flourish. Those cells and connections that are not used will wither and die. So if a teen is doing music or sports or academics, those are the cells and connections that will be hard-wired. If they’re lying on the couch or playing video games or MTV, those are the cells and connections that are going [to] survive.”

Studies have shown that experiences early in life have a profound effect on the development of the teenage brain. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that children who received a lot of cognitive stimulation and parental nurturing had a brain with a thicker outer cortex, which is important in thinking and memory. Another long-term study from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London discovered that there were major structural changes in the areas of the teenage brain that relate to empathy.

Adults should perhaps give teenagers more of a break. As Giedd says, “It’s sort of unfair to expect teens to have adult levels of organizational skills or decision-making before their brains are finished being built.”

The apparent dangers of high blood pressure and the frequent recommendation of prescription drugs to reduce the problem create a seemingly constant flood of both media warnings and advertising. Now, the results of a recent study could shed an entirely different light on the source of the problem.

A study recently concluded in Chicago found that a one-time Chiropractic adjustment could produce a quite dramatic blood pressure reduction. The decrease in pressure was equal to a person taking two blood pressure reducing drugs at the same time.

Fifty persons were selected for the study. The requirements to participate were a high blood pressure condition and a misalignment of the Atlas vertebra. The Atlas is the top vertebra, the highest one in the body, located at the top of the neck.

George Bakris, MD, is the director of the hypertension (high blood pressure) center at the University of Chicago Medical Center and served as the lead author of the study. He pointed out that the Atlas, unlike the rest of the vertebrae in the body, relies only on soft tissue (muscles and ligaments) to hold it in place. For this reason, displacement can occur without pain, so misalignment often goes undetected and untreated.

Patients for the study were all treated by a Chicago area Doctor of Chiropractic. Prior to treatment he performed a variety of tests, including X-rays, to determine the exact adjustment needed for each patient. The subjects were then divided into two groups. Half received an actual adjustment while the other half received a very similar “sham adjustment.”

Each participant was fully assessed after their alignment and at the end of 8 weeks. The study authors said those receiving the actual adjustment had their blood pressure lowered by the amount of someone taking two different blood pressure-lowering drugs at the same time. The reduction continued through the 8 week period of the test. No significant heart rate change was noted in this group.

Why blood pressure changes occurred to this degree was beyond the scope of the study. “The mechanism as to why this improvement in blood pressure occurs is unknown and cannot be determined by this study,” they said. More study is needed to see exactly how a misaligned Atlas might cause hypertension. Also, more work is needed to see if an incorrectly aligned Atlas is an additional risk factor for the development of hypertension.”

Not many people like doing housework. For most, it’s a real pain in the aaah … what’s the word? Sacroiliac. But it’s not just the disruption it causes to your longed-for life of leisure; it really can be a pain. Literally.

The activities you carry out around the house may not seem too physically demanding, but if you don’t pay attention to how you are doing them, even something like washing the dishes can put a strain on your back and cause debilitating pain.

One of the chief culprits in housework, and generally, is lifting. It doesn’t matter what you are picking up, if you do it incorrectly you can injure yourself. The correct approach is to bend at the knees, not from the waist. The item you’re picking up should be held close in to the body, and there should be no twisting, which can hurt the spine; if you want to turn in another direction, take a step that way once you have straightened up.

Tips to Save Your Back

Here are some tips that will help you take the strain out of your household duties:

• Washing the dishes, try opening the cabinet under the sink, bending a knee and placing a foot on the raised shelf inside. Also try leaning forward against the counter to transfer some of your weight forward for a little support.
• Similarly, with ironing, use a small stool and raise one foot onto it to take some of the strain from your back.
• When using a vacuum cleaner, adopt the same stance you would see combatants take in a fencing match, one foot stepped back behind the other. Move your weight from one foot to the other as you push the machine back and forward, and pivot on the back foot when you wish to turn.
• Even talking on the telephone can be a problem if you are prone to cradling the handset between your ear and your raised shoulder. Quasimodo was the first one to notice this. The spinal joints in the neck and upper back can lock when you do this. Fortunately, as humans, we have opposing thumbs and can very easily hold objects in our hands. Either that, or use a speaker phone.
• Watching TV with your head resting on the arm of the sofa is not good, because the angle is too acute for your neck joints.
• When your back does start to hurt, use a cold pack. To avoid leaping through the ceiling, first moisten a towel with warm water before encasing the cold pack in it. That way, there will be a gradual transition from warm to cold. A bag of frozen peas is a good alternative, and is easily moldable to your contours.
• If you suffer with pain for a couple of days without relief, or you feel weakness, numbness or tingling in your hands or feet, a visit to your doctor of chiropractic is in order.

The fact is that you did get a measurable result – you were just measuring the wrong things: New Membership, New Clothes and New Equipment. Of course, that wasn’t what you had intended but in today’s culture we have a tendency to throw money at things in an effort to buy a solution. Unfortunately it doesn’t really matter how much money you throw at your fitness – it’s tough to buy regular exercise. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make the experience more pleasant by buying a few comforts but the first thing that should be on your to do list is a commitment to what you want to achieve with your regular exercise, in what time frame you want to achieve this goal, how you benefit by achiving this goal and an action plan. You can get very specific on this point.

What Does Your Goal Look Like?

My Regular Exercise Goal: Walk Continuously for 30 minutes 4 days per week
Time Frame to Achieve My Goal: 6 weeks (this is a good time frame to start with)
Benefits from Achieving My Goal: Increase Cardiovascular Fitness, Improved Sleep, Lower Stress and More Life
Action Plan: Walk Continuously for 5 minutes 4 days per week and increase by 5 minutes each week.

Learning to Leverage Yourself

Now it’s time to leverage yourself to ensure that you actually achieve your goal. Decide on a reward that you will give yourself for achieving it. Don’t go over the top on your first goal but it should definitely be something that you really want.

Reward for Achieving My Goal: 2 hour Full Body Spa Treatment

Don’t wait until you achieve your goal to buy the reward – go out and buy it now! This is the best way to spend money on achieving better fitness; on a reward for doing it.

Now the last and most important step to really leverage yourself. Call someone that knows you have been struggling with your exercise and let them know what your goal is and that you have already bought your reward. Tell them that you are so committed to achieving this goal that if you don’t do it that you will be giving them your “reward”! This works even better if you would hate to give this person your reward.

We All Love to be the Winner

As small children we were well conditioned to work hard toward a goal when there was a perceived reward for achieving the goal. We also understood that if we didn’t win that someone else would get the reward for winning. For the vast majority of us that desire to achieve the goal and to get the reward is still present. Learning how to access this built in desire to achieve the goal and reward as part of your regular exercise program can help to get you off of the merry-go-round. The trouble with regular exercise is that we very often can’t perceive the goal or reward and as a result we have a hard time understanding why we are continuing to do this regular exercise. By building in your own goals and reward system I can promise that your commitment to achieve your goals will be much more sustainable.

Once you achieve your first goal and receive that reward be sure to celebrate it because you are in the “Winner’s Circle”! Then turn around and set your next goal. Initially you will want to keep your goals simple to achieve so that you can be the winner again and again. Keep your time frames beteen 4 and 6 weeks so that you can maintain your intensity for achieving the goal. Make each successive goal a bit more difficult but still attainable and one goal at at time you will see your level of fitness continuing to improve.

Is Walking Really Beneficial to My Health?

Remember that general exercise is a key factor in maintaining overall health and well being. If you’re committed to the long-term health and well-being for yourself and your family, regular exercise is essential. Starting with walking as your form of regular exercise is one of the best possible choices. Walking avoids the vast majority of pitfalls associated with other types of exercise. Walking is low-impact, requires minimal equipment, and no gym memberships. Walking can be done outside in the fresh air and sunshine which provides many additional benefits beyond those gained from the exercise itself.

Starting slowly is the main consideration. If you haven’t done any vigorous physical activity for months or years, 5-10 minutes of walking at a modest pace should be sufficient for your first day of walking. 3-5 minutes out and 3-5 minutes back. Make 10 minutes your limit even if that amount feels like it is too little. It’s always better to start with less exercise and gradually increase over time than to start with too much and suffer from muscular soreness or injury. Adding approximately a minute eacj day, until you’re doing a thirty minute walk at a modest pace. With this quantity of comfortable walking, you can now begin to increase your pace. Ultimately, 30 minutes of walking at a brisk pace will provide sufficient health benefits for most people, based on 4 to 5 walking sessions per week.

Consistent regular exercise can help to lower blood pressure, prevent heart disease, reduce the incidence of stroke, reduce the incidence of diabetes and obesity, and it can even improve the outcomes of patients receiving cancer treatment. Walking for exercise is an efficient, enjoyable, and easy way to enable you and your family to begin obtaining these long term health benefits.

As a child, you were probably told a few times to “Stand up straight!”, “Sit up straight!” or my favorite “Stop Slouching!” Good posture isn’t really about being “straight”. The basis for good posture is a “neutral and balanced” position that minimizes asymmetrical strain on the various joints of the body. That means that we should try to carry the same amount of weight through our joints on both sides of our body as well as from the front to the back.

Why is Posture So Important Today?

Posture has always been important. Historically much more so than in modern times. This importance was passed down from teacher to student, parent to child or grandparent to grandchild through those wonderful affirmations, “Stand up straight!” I not sure that our teachers, parents and grandparents necessarily knew how important posture was in relationship to our health but they did know that their teachers, parents and grandparents reinforced it for them – so it had to be good enough for us. However, in more recent times this “importance” of reinforcing posture has been slipping for various reasons. Over the last 30 years we have witnessed a significant change in the teacher to student, parent to child and grandparent to child dynamic. Telling a student, child or grandchild to “sit up straight” or “stand up straight” to reinforce their posture is no longer an integral part of our cultural experience.

When we couple together the facts that today’s children are not receiving positive postural reinforcement along with regularly taking part in activities that reinforce poor posture such as: television, computers, and video games it is no surprise Doctors of Chiropractic are regularly treating young patients suffering from repetitive strain injuries (RSI). Twenty years ago RSIs were primarily reserved to people working in the data entry or secretarial services. Problem like carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic pain in the hands, back pain, neck pain, headaches and shoulders pain which are symptoms normally related to bad workplace ergonomics. Today we are seeing these conditions rising at an alarming rate in high school students.

A New York Times article reported that over 70% of America’s elementary school students are now regularly using computers in school. It is only a matter of time until the other 30% of students will also be using computers. While this is good for the minds and the future work prospects of these children, it can be damaging to their bodies.

Researchers from Cornell University published a study revealing that 40% of the elementary school children they studied were using computer workstations that created a significant postural risk. While all of the students in the study used work stations that at the very least raised “some concern” about the affects on the students posture.

It is not enough to teach children how to use computers; more emphasis has to be placed on teaching them how to properly use the actual workstations. These are the formative years for an individual, mentally, emotionally and physically. Poor work habits when young can lead to serious health effects that plague that person for the rest of their life. While parents know to watch out for signs of substance abuse in their children, few have any idea of the long-term health effects that can arise from postural problems.

What can you do?

Thankfully, there are certain things you can do to lessen the chances of your child suffering painful and potentially disabling injuries. First and foremost ensure that your child understands how important their posture is by reminding them to “Stand up straight” and “Sit up straight” in a loving way but regularly.

To maintain good posture while standing, it is important to:

• Position your head directly over your shoulders, which should be positioned directly over your pelvis
• Keep some space between your feet, one foot slightly in front of the other
• Keep your abdominal muscles taut (tighten the “core” muscles) and your bottom tucked in
• Bend slightly at the knees

To maintain good posture while sitting, remember to:

• Keep your feet flat on the floor with your hips and knees at a 90 degree angle
• Keep your chin level – practice with a book on your head if it helps!
• Keep your lower back slightly arched – use a “lumbar roll” to maintain proper posture in the lower back if you sit for long periods of time
• Remember to take periodic breaks from sitting and move around a bit or adjust your sitting position from time to time to prevent stress on your spine

If you or your child are suffering from posture related pain despite your best efforts to avoid it, your next stop should be a doctor of chiropractic to prevent the injury worsening and to promote healing. Having your posture and spine fully evaluated if the first step to designing a program to help your body recover.

Our feet carry us everywhere that we want to go. They come in virtually every size and shape and are thrust into narrow spaces or raised up on four-inch heels to give us height. Victimized by bunions, calluses, plantar warts, and blisters. Subjected to hot sand, hard gravel and stones in the summer and occasionally treated to a pedicure – very nice! Believe it or not they can also be the cause of that chronic low back pain! Yes, we are talking about your feet!

Normally, the arches of our feet are designed to be strong and flexible and like the shock absorbers in your car they help to absorb the impact of every step, which is an important feature if you plan to do any walking. Our feet also provide the balance necessary to support the body. When arches are flat, the muscles in the lower back become strained as they work harder to balance the body over both feet and absorb more of the impact of each step.

One way to compensate for low arches and to reduce back pain is to invest in some good foot orthotics. Worn in each shoe, orthotics bring back form and function to the feet so that proper balance can be restored. In order to heal, it’s important to wear orthotics in your shoes whenever you’re standing, walking, running or biking. Orthotics are not a solution for everyone but for the person that needs orthotics they can be a true blessing.

Most orthotics are specially designed to fit the specific needs of a patient and can be made to accommodate any size foot. Typically, you can replace your current shoe insole with the orthotic very easily. By changing the mechanics of your feet work more efficiently can offer significant relief to the muscle strain in the lower back. If the source of your lower back pain comes from poor foot mechanics this one step can offer significant improvements for your lower back. Many notice more energy and less fatigue almost immediately.

Of course, it’s important to remember that orthotics are are designed as an adjunct to support your chiropractic adjustments! Be sure to contact us for a thorough examination if you are experiencing low back pain regardless of the source.

We look forward to serving you!

Have you ever woken up after a full night’s sleep and felt more exhausted than when you went to bed? Of course you have, but what is the difference between good sleep and bad sleep? The difference is in our sleep cycle and most importantly about the REM our brain was able to experience during this time.

What is REM?

REM or Rapid Eye Movement is one the two main cycles in our sleep. During REM sleep our voluntary muscle groups become temporarily paralyzed by the base of the brain. By turning off the neurons in our spinal cord we do not actively act out the dreams that we are experiencing.

It was first given this name by scientists who noted the rapid, jerky movements of the eyes through closed lids, as if the persons asleep were seeing something. When an electroencephalogram (EEG) was attached to volunteers in a sleep study, it showed that the levels of brain activity were nearly identical to those who were awake. They also noted an increase in heart rate and breaths per minute.

While we sleep we cycle between REM and non REM with four stages of NREM sleep preceding one stage of REM. NREM sleep is the stage at which our body repairs itself, energy is replenished and our immune system is boosted. A complete cycle of sleep takes between 90 and 110 minutes in total, with approximately a quarter of that time being spent in REM sleep. It is also the stage during which dreaming almost always takes place. Scientists are still trying to discover the extent to which REM sleep affects our health and mental well-being, but they do know that REM sleep is important for the development of creativity and problem solving ability, and is how we learn to adapt to our world.

Age Difference

The percentage of time spent in REM sleep is the greatest among babies and children. Babies can spend as much as 50% of their sleep time in the REM stage. And while it has been thought that the dreams we experience during REM sleep are a consolidation of the memories that we have experienced during the previous day, babies in the womb (who experts believe have few or no real world memories) spend most of their sleep time in a state of REM.
Although we are still unclear of its true dynamics, a Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at Harvard University, J. Allan Hobson, says the purpose of REM sleep is: “A reinforcement of basic knowledge—knowledge that precedes any waking-state learning: how to be a person, how to be an ego, how to exist in a space, how to move in a space, how to feel. It’s not environmental memory; it’s genetic memory.”

Persons with fibromyalgia have so many symptoms that an uninformed physician may find it easier to refer such patients to a psychologist or psychiatrist but the physical symptoms of fibromyalgia are real. The sufferers have widespread pain on a chronic basis. Additional symptoms include fatigue, sleep disturbances, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet, joint stiffness, and cognitive dysfunction (brain fog). Depression is also common in those with fibromyalgia as it becomes difficult for them to see an end to their pain.

Fibromyalgia is notoriously difficult to treat because even gentle treatment can result in very significant changes. Quite often fibromyalgia sufferers are using multiple medications, prescribed by multiple specialists attempting to combat the problems that fall within their particular branch of medicine – pain management, rheumatology, and psychology/psychiatry. Unfortunately, even trying to comprehend the various interactions between these medications is mind boggling.

Despite seeing a variety of specialists and taking the variety of medications they have been provided, most fibromyalgia patients tend not to show signs of improvement. Depression and chronic pain can take a profound toll as their daily living becomes quite burdensome. Many fibromyalgia sufferers give up hoping for even a partial solution.

Attempting to address fibromyalgia by treating the various symptoms will almost always fail. To date the exact physiologic causes of the disorder is classified as unknown. However, many holistic approaches have offered a greater likelihood of success. Multidisciplinary approaches to treatment are often needed to impact this type of systems-wide disorder. Many fibromyalgia sufferers have reported great responses to chiropractic care. Chiropractic care combined with nutritional recommendations designed to help the patient get back to normal levels of physical activity has offered some of the most consistent relief. Because many fibromyalgia sufferers are significantly delayed in getting on the road to recovery they may also require some psychological counseling or support to help them regain their confidence and to stay positive while in a program of care.

When the physiologic cause for a condition is unknown it is virtually impossible to identify a cure. However, adding activities to your lifestyle that are known to improve health and well-being can be beneficial regardless of the health condition from which you are afflicted. Improving your diet, improving your movement, improving your posture, and improving your hydration all have been shown to be beneficial for your health regardless of your current health condition.

We are always available to answer questions and to see if we can help. Give our office a call today.