Tips To Prevent Back Pain While Working From Home

With over a million Americans working from home due to coronavirus stay at home orders, more and more chiropractors are reporting a rise in clients with back pain problems. At Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center located in Nitro, WV, Dr. Jay McClanahan specializes in non-invasive procedures that help alleviate back pain and body aches. Here are some tips to practice while working from home to save your body from aches, pain, and long term health issues.

Avoid the Bed or Couch

While it may seem like one of the perks of not attending meetings in a traditional office, using your bed or couch as a workplace can wreak havoc on your posture and allow for back pain, especially if you’re doing this daily. Instead, try to create a separation from your work and rest spaces by using a desk and chair and mimicking your normal workstation at the office as much as possible. When sitting in a chair, make sure your feet can rest flat on the floor for blood to flow throughout your body without restriction. If your chair doesn’t have good lower back support, add pillows or a cushion for more comfort.

Incorporate Standing Work

Sitting for long hours at a desk and chair may strain your back and neck. A good way to lessen this strain is to alternate between sitting and standing while you work. Whether it's taking calls while you walk or installing a standing desk to rotate with a desk and chair, the important idea is to reduce the amount of time you’re spending in one work position.

Take Breaks

Frequent breaks to stretch and move around are beneficial for lessening the strain that comes from staying in a sitting position for long hours. Your Nitro, WV chiropractor states that simply taking a 15-minute break to stretch or to walk around the house will help relax your muscles, increase blood flow, and reduce numbness. Others recommend a change of scenery, like moving to a different workspace in the house.

Dr. Jay McClanahan is the owner and chiropractor of Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center. Our office is located in Nitro, WV. To schedule an appointment with Dr. McClanahan visit our website or call 304-776-1520.

Gout

According to Medscape, about 8.3 million people in the United States suffer from gout, and this rate is only growing. A debilitating form of arthritis commonly found in feet, gout interferes with a fulfilling life. But at Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center, Dr. Jay McClanahan is here to help manage this pain. Here are four different types of treatment we offer at our Nitro, WV office to empower gout patients!

What is Gout?

Gout develops from increased levels of uric acid in the body. When your kidney produces too much or not enough uric acid, uric acid crystals build up in your joints, producing hard needle-like shards in the body. This is why gout is characterized by intense pain and inflammation.

Treatment Options

Massage Therapy

Dr. McClanahan and his staff provide a variety of massage therapies at their Nitro, WV location. Designed to alleviate the inflammation caused by gout and stimulate blood circulation in the joints, massage therapy is a beneficial treatment plan to manage gout and other forms of arthritis. From Swedish and sports massage to deep tissue, we work with patients to select the best massage for their needs.

Laser Therapy

Many patients opt for laser therapy because of its painless procedure and healing results. At Dr. J Chiropractic Wellness Center, we use a low-level laser to target your irritated tissues and nervous system.

Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS)

Using comfortable levels of electric currents, EMS is a technique known to treat inflammation and swelling by healing tissue and relieving pain. While other traditional treatments for gout focus on the symptoms, this technology uses non-invasive treatments to target the root of the issue.

Dr. Jay McClanahan is the owner and chiropractor of Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center. Our office is located in Nitro, WV. To schedule an appointment with Dr. McClanahan visit our website or call 304-776-1520.

How Electric Muscle Stimulation Works

 

Spinal adjustments are an important technique for chiropractors working to relieve back pain. But they’re far from the only service we provide at the Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Nitro. Our office is dedicated to non-invasive, non-addictive complementary therapies that will enable the body to fully use its natural means of healing. Among our tools is electric muscle stimulation, so to get patients comfortable with it, we thought we’d pass along the basics of how it works.

Inflammation is a part of the body’s natural immune response. When tissues are swollen with blood, pathogens will have a harder time flowing out, and weakness in the cellular walls will allow antibodies to move between them more easily. But prolonged inflammation risks long-term damage to tissues, and is uncomfortable and may not be helping the patient. Electric muscle stimulation is a means of reducing inflammation by forcing the muscles to contract, pushing old blood out and allowing new, nutrient-rich blood in. This also signals the muscles to produce natural pain relievers called endorphins.

Electric muscle stimulation works by delivering a pulse generated in a machine through wires connected by sticky pads to a patient’s skin. The pads are placed over the part of the body that is inflamed, which would typically be the back or a limb. In addition to reducing pain and inflammation, electric muscle stimulation can also help train an atrophied muscle to respond to the sorts of electric signals that come from the nervous system. It is often used as a complementary therapy for people in physical therapy following strokes.

Dr. Jay McClanahan is the owner and chiropractor of Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center. Our office is located in Nitro, WV. To schedule an appointment with Dr. McClanahan visit our website or call 304-776-1520. 

Shoes for Good Posture

 

If there’s a problem with your feet, your ankles, pelvis, and lower back might all be thrown out of alignment. This could make you sore after a single day, and cause long-term pain if you’re constantly having to adjust yourself to try to get comfortable being forced into a strenuous posture. At the Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Nitro, we value preventive care and want all our patients to lead healthy lifestyles. Next time you go shopping for shoes, there are a few things you should keep in mind in order to provide your musculoskeletal system with support.

It’s very important to get shoes that fit. You shouldn’t need to “break them in,” to be comfortable in them, and you shouldn’t get any that will force your toes into a narrow or pointed box. This could cause them to curve inward or become permanently bent, which would prevent them from distributing your weight efficiently. Keep in mind, too, that your feet may not be the same size. Get them measured while you’re wearing the kinds of socks you’ll be pairing with them, and if you plan to wear them for long periods, get them later in the day, after your feet have spread out a bit from having borne your weight.

You may still be a bit confused about what it means for a shoe to offer good support. A supportive shoe will have a bit of a heel so that it will form an arch under the natural one in the wearer’s foot. But the sole of the shoe should not be easily bendable. The cuff of a sneaker should fit snugly around the wearer’s ankle, somewhat restricting it from rolling. It should also have treads, particularly if it’s meant to be worn in a workplace. Preventing jostling from slips can go a long way toward reducing strain on a person’s backs and hips.

Dr. Jay McClanahan is the owner and chiropractor of Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center. Our office is located in Nitro, WV. To schedule an appointment with Dr. McClanahan visit our website or call 304-776-1520.