Auto Injuries

 

Auto injuries are one of the most common reasons for people to seek chiropractic care. If you’ve recently been in a car crash, we urge you to make an appointment with the Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Nitro. Our non-invasive, non-addictive treatments not only relieve injury symptoms, they also address problems before they become advanced enough to require more extensive interventions. Whiplash, the most common injury from car crashes, is of particular concern to chiropractors, so we want our prospective patients to understand how serious it is.

Whiplash is the term to describe injuries to neck tissue when the head is snapped forward and then suddenly snapped back. The soft tissues of the neck often become frayed, the cervical discs may rupture, and the cervical vertebrae themselves may be displaced. This would cause soreness and stiffness in the neck, but can have implications beyond it, as well. Nerves leading to the shoulders and arms, as well as back into the skull, emerge from the spinal cord in the cervical region, and pressure on their roots can cause pain or numbness to radiate along them. The muscles of the neck also connect to the shoulder bones, and if they fray, a person’s shoulders may tighten. 

At our office, we can help determine whether a patient is suffering from a dislocation in their neck that may be contributing to a pinched nerve or pressure on soft tissues. Treatment options include chiropractic adjustments, which are gentle uses of force to realign bones and soft tissues, as well as soft-tissue manipulation such as therapeutic massage and electric muscle stimulation. We can also help patients recover from other upper body injuries, such as shoulder sprain, through therapeutic exercise and extremity adjustments.

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. 

Backpack Usage

 

With school back in session, children are wearing backpacks again. And for many, that means an increase in neck, back, and shoulder pain. At the Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Nitro, we are happy to provide safe, fast-acting pain relief, but we also want to provide for our patients’ holistic health and to address underlying problems. Sparing children from shoulder and spinal column trouble is possible when backpacks are used correctly, so we wanted to provide a brief guide on how to do that.

To be clear, backpacks are the best option for carrying school supplies, causing much less strain than handbags or single-strap bags. But they need to be fitted so they rest on the midpoint of a student’s upper back, not dangling down to the lumbar region or off to the side. They should have wide, padded straps, and students should also use a strap across their chests. A backpack should not be loaded enough to equal more than ten percent of the bodyweight of the person wearing it. Heavier objects should be loaded first so they won’t shift around as the wearer moves, and all compartments should be used so that weight will be distributed as evenly as possible.

A backpack’s straps should not be tight enough to cause pins-and-needles sensations in the wearer’s arms. If possible, it’s best to get one with a pull-out handle and wheels, but if school rules don’t allow those to be used, they’re just dead weight and should be avoided. If a child does experience aches in their upper body, they need to stop putting as much in the backpack and not try to power through it. If they experience longer lasting symptoms, we can provide treatments such as therapeutic massages, but the problem will not go away until they use their backpack more efficiently.

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. 

Pulling a Lower Back Muscle

 

Have you pulled something in your lower back? If you’re looking up the Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Nitro, it’s probably because you suspect you have. Although chiropractors tend to emphasize problems such as herniated discs and subluxations, the most common back injuries are simple sprains to the soft tissues. But just because they are common does not mean they are not serious or that you shouldn’t seek help for them. This week, we’re going to take a closer look at what it means to pull a lower back muscle and what kinds of non-invasive, non-addictive treatments are available.

Muscles, tendons, and ligaments are all soft tissues that are made up of bundles of threads. Those threads may become frayed gradually, in the case of a chronic injury, or several may tear at once, during an acute injury. Injuries to muscles and tendons are known as strains and injuries to ligaments are known as sprains, although in practice, there is little difference and a person who has over stretched a tendon may have also over stretched a ligament. When soft tissues are injured, the body’s inflammatory response is triggered as a normal part of the immune system. This prevents blood that may contain pathogens from circulating as quickly through the body and makes cellular walls more permeable to antibodies, but also results in stiffness, swelling, and soreness.

Much of our treatment for strains and sprains is focused on pushing blood out of swollen areas so that nutrient-rich fresh blood may move in. This is what therapeutic massages are meant to accomplish, as are higher-tech options such as electric muscle stimulation. Therapeutic exercises are also recommended as a way to increase blood flow while strengthening injured muscles. Chiropractic adjustments can be used to take pressure off blood vessels, and if the underlying problem is that a displaced joint is contributing to wear, we can adjust the joint back into place.

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. 

Raking Safety

 

With fall officially here, the leaves have started to change color. Soon, we’ll be raking them up. Yard work is an excellent way of getting exercise, and at the Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Nitro, we encourage all our patients to find fun ways of staying active. But every form of exercise requires us to take safety precautions, and if raking is done improperly, it can put strain on our spinal discs and shoulder muscles. To help our patients avoid injury, we wanted to remind them of some raking protocols.

The first part of healthy raking is the rake itself. It should be lightweight and have a long enough handle that you don’t need to bend over to use it. Before you start raking, put on clothes that are warm, but breathable, and that are close-fitting enough that nothing will get caught or tangled. Rake while standing with one foot forward and one back, and pulling the leaves into a pile to your side. You should be changing which side of the pile you are standing on and which hand is higher on the rake about every five minutes.

Before you start raking, do a warm-up of dynamic stretches to loosen your muscles. You can further reduce strain on your back by squatting down to pick up leaves or bending by tilting over at your hips instead of bending at the waist. Be careful to avoid putting more in the leaf bag that you are able to carry, and try to rake when the leaves are dry so less of your energy will be wasted moving water. If you do feel sore while raking, stop, and we can help you determine whether it is safe to continue at another time. We also are available to help people feeling tightness or stiffness by providing chiropractic adjustments and therapeutic massages.

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. 

Stingers

 

The nervous system and the musculoskeletal system are closely linked. As chiropractors, we at the Dr. J Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Nitro spend a lot of time treating nerve impingements in the back that have consequences along the nerve’s length. But the spinal column isn’t the only place where nerves can be compressed, and our practice is devoted to the entire body. A stinger, also known as a burner, is a kind of radiating pain that moves along the arm due to a nerve injury, and since our own Dr. Jay McClanahan commonly encounters them as a sports physician, we wanted our patients to understand how they work.

The nerves that run down our arms and hands emerge from the bones in our lower neck, which are called cervical vertebrae. Although they emerge separately, they bundle together in the shoulder before dividing again. A stinger is what happens when those nerves are stretched by the head being suddenly forced to the opposite side while the shoulder is being forced down. Electricity discharges from the nerves and pain radiates along the arm. Usually, stingers don’t last long, and if one occurred during a sports competition, the patient quickly returns to play. But suffering one stinger puts a person at greater risk for additional ones. Repeated stress to the nerves, neck, and shoulder tissues can accumulate into tears, and stingers may be accompanied by subluxations of the cervical vertebrae that impinge the nerve roots.

An athlete who has suffered a stinger should not return to play until their neck pain is completely gone. Even afterward, they may need to wear extra padding on their neck and shoulder. However, if a person is suffering long-term pain, we can assist them with relief and help get them in a position to play again. We provide electric muscle stimulation and therapeutic massages to reduce inflammation in the neck and shoulder and improve those muscles’ flexibility. We also perform chiropractic adjustments to the neck to reduce pressure on nerve roots and the muscles running from the head to the shoulder. Athletes will need to stay active while recovering from stingers to prevent their muscles from stiffening, so we also provide advice on physical therapy.

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. 

Lower Back Pain and Deep Muscles

 

Back pain isn’t always caused by problems in the back itself. At the J Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Nitro, our experts in integrative medicine regard the musculoskeletal system holistically, and are trained to consider how each of its components interact with the others. Pain in the lower back, specifically, is often related to problems in the hips and upper legs. This week, we’re going to take a closer look at one kind of muscle dysfunction, Piriformis Syndrome, and how it relates to the spinal column.

The piriformis muscles are deep, wedge-shaped muscles that connect the lumbar vertebrae of the lower back to the tops of the femurs. There is one piriformis muscle on each side of the body. These muscles help to rotate the leg outward and stabilize the lower back when a person is walking on an incline or up stairs. The sciatic nerves, which run from the lumbar vertebrae down each leg, pass around or directly through the piriformis muscles. Swelling in the piriformis muscles could not only cause them to pull more on the lumbar vertebrae, resulting in local soreness when they are in use, but could also compress the sciatic nerves, leading to radiating pain down the lower half of the body.

Piriformis Syndrome is diagnosed largely through the process of elimination, although one tell-tale sign is that it tends to only show up on one side of the body. For immediate pain relief and removal of pressure on the sciatic nerve, we use techniques including spinal adjustments, deep tissue massages, and electric muscle stimulation. But for sustained reduction in strain on the piriformis muscles, patients will have to build up the strength and flexibility of other muscles supporting the lumbar vertebrae and femurs. This will mean doing core-strengthening exercises and hamstring stretches, as well as stretches that target the piriformis muscles themselves.

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. 

Spinal Spurs

 

If you regularly struggle with back and neck pain, spinal spurs may be to blame. These nubs of bone commonly develop in vertebrae as people reach middle age, and although many of them are harmless, they can put increased pressure on soft tissues and interfere with the spinal column’s integrity. At ACT Wellness Center in Woodbridge, our quality of life specialists provide a variety of non-invasive, non-addictive treatments for back pain, including helping people to live more comfortably with bone spurs without the need for surgery.

Bones are living tissue, and as such, they are constantly breaking down and regrowing. But there are certain conditions in which bones are more likely to grow back mishapenly, such as when they are exposed to inflammation or a bone needs more surface area to distribute its weight. One of the conditions that puts people at high risk for developing bone spurs is osteoarthritis. As the cartilage cushioning and lubricating their facet joints degenerates, the interlocking portions of their vertebrae grind into each other and develop spurs. People are also more likely to develop bone spurs when they have degenerative disc disease, meaning that the spongy discs between their vertebrae are losing water. As the ligaments connecting to the vertebrae become more strained due to the discs’ inability to bear their share of the weight, the ligaments become inflamed and spurs develop where the ligaments attach to bones.

Spurs may put pressure on nearby arteries and nerve roots and stretch muscles that are already overly tight. People with spinal spurs sometimes feel a dull, aching pain, but may find it gets better when they bend down. Spurs may appear on images such as x-rays, but we would want to perform range-of-motion tests before determining that they are the cause of the patients’ pain. If we determine they are, we may provide chiropractic adjustments to realign the patient’s joints and provide anti-inflammatory treatments such as low level laser therapy. Patients would also need to engage in therapeutic exercises to increase their back muscles’ flexibility, making spinal spurs less of a strain on them.

If you suffer from persistent back or neck pain, you may be a good candidate for chiropractic treatment. Visit Dr. Carmelino Caratozzolo at ACT Wellness Center, 14111 Minnieville Road, Woodbridge, Virginia. Call 703-491-9355.