Prevalence of Neck Pain
Got Neck Pain?
Does your neck hurt a lot? Does neck pain keep you from activities that you love? It’s always good to know that you’re not alone. In fact, neck pain is the third most common chronic pain condition experienced by adults in the United States. Not only does the pain impact your physical life, but it also impacts you in other ways.
Social Consequences of Neck Pain
When your neck hurts, you may not feel like going out as much. In fact, if you’re having a really bad day, you may not get out of the house at all. This limits the social engagements that you can commit to and enjoy. Over time, your neck pain may keep you more isolated than you prefer to be, and it may keep you from participating in activities that you love.
Neck pain can also make you grumpy and difficult to live with, which can impact all of your relationships. Whether you’re at home or at work, you want to have positive interactions with the people around you. This can be hard when you’re in constant pain.
Psychological Consequences of Neck Pain
Any kind of long-term chronic pain impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and your life. Over time, you may begin to thin of yourself as weak and tired, for instance, rather than as strong and capable. These can wear away at your self-esteem and self-image, causing you to feel badly about yourself and what you can do.
Long-term pain can also contribute to depression and anxiety. If you hurt all the time and it doesn’t get better, you may gradually lose interest in a life you once loved. When you can’t do many of the things you love to do, it’s easy to get discouraged and feel hopeless. And when you never know how badly things are going to hurt, it’s easy to get caught up worrying about when your pain might strike again.
Well-Being Consequences of Neck Pain
When you hurt all the time, you don’t feel great about your life and you can’t do as much. Over time, this wears away at your sense of well-being. Even if you are positive and try to stay engaged in your life, chronic neck pain is discouraging and that takes its toll. Most people find that they aren’t as happy when they hurt a lot.
Treating Neck Pain
One of the most promising ways to treat neck pain is through chiropractic work. Chiropractors all receive at least 7 years of post-graduate training, and much of that time is spent focusing on the neck. Through various techniques, they can treat many kinds of neck pain without medications or surgery.
Even if you feel like you’ve tried everything for your neck pain, chiropractic could help you. Call us for a consultation and we’ll let you know what is going on with your neck and how we can help you to feel better and live better! You may be able to get back to the life you love sooner than you had thought possible.
September is Drug-Free Pain Management Awareness Month
1.5 billion people worldwide are suffering from chronic pain, but chiropractic care can help. Call us today to discover how we can help with your chronic pain.
The Difference Between Medical & Chiropractic Doctor’s
Houston Chiropractor Comments: At a recent deposition I was asked what are the differences between medical and chiropractic doctors for the treatment of neck and back pain. While the simple answer would be that medical doctors treat the pain with drugs or surgery and chiropractic doctors treat the back and neck pain with chiropractic treatment and therapy…that is not completely accurate. The answer that I gave was that medical doctors usually treat the symptoms and doctors of chiropractic treat the cause of the problem.
Typically when a patient goes to a medical doctor for back or neck pain they will be given medication for inflammation, muscle spasms and pain reduction. If the pain does not improve they will be given injections, told to go to physical therapy or advised to have surgery.
Since chiropractors don’t prescribe drugs we typically try and figure out what is causing the muscle spasm, inflammation or the pain. Once we figure out the cause of the back or neck pain we can alleviate the pain. If a joint is out of alignment, we can realign it. If there is inflammation, we can do therapy to reduce it. If the muscles have become weak or overused, we can show the correct stretches or exercises to fix it.
If you look at back or neck pain like a room full of smoke, you can do one of two things. You can use a fan to remove the smoke from the room (medicine) or you can put out the fire in the trash can before removing the smoke (chiropractic).
Dr. Ward Beecher practices at Beecher Chiropractic Clinic at 1001 Pineloch, Ste 700 Houston, TX 77062. You can schedule an appointment at BeecherChiropractic.com or by calling (281) 286-1300. If you have any questions regarding this blog, please comment below!
Resultados a largo plazo para lesiones en el Cuello
Quiropractico en Clearlake comenta: Una lesion en el cuello tal como un musculo estirado o un “nudo” en el musculo es algo que todos hemos experiementado. Estos pequeños achaques y dolores usualmente desaparecen solos,o con un masaje de parte de un ser querido.En algunas ocasiones la lesion en el cuello es mas mas substanciosa,tales como un latigazo cervical o lesiones deportivas.Cuando hay efectos a largo plazo a causa del latigazo vertical u otras lesiones del cuello,los ligamentos como el disco pueden sufrir lesiones y los nervios inflamarse e irritarse..
El effecto a largo plazo a causa de dolor de cuello no es bueno.Los pacientes continuan sufriendo en años venideros.Un estudio realizado revelo que despues de 5 años ,alrededor del 50% de los pacientes siguen con dolor y muestran discapacidades..
Cuando los ligamentos y musculos de la espina cervical se lesionan,el paciente tiende a limitar ciertos movimientos y no usar ciertos musculos.Esto puede llevar a debilidad en los musculos a traves del tiempo. A medida que los musculos del cuello se debilitan,empieza a suceder lo mismo con el resto de la espina dorsal,o por lo menos eso es lo que revelan ciertas investigaciones. Los investigadores se enfocaron en ejercicios especificos que hacian uso de los musculos centrales del tronco. Los investigadores observaron esos pacientes con dolor de cuello por dos años y descubrieron que el dolor de cuello lleva a que el tronco muscular se debilite,y eventualmente esto causaba disfuncion en el tronco central muscular y dolor de espalda.
Lesiones traumaticas, es importante recibir una examinacion adecuada incluyendo radiografias. Poder dar un diagnostico preciso es lo mas importante para asi poder recibir el tratamiento adecuado.
Un estudio revelo que la intervencion temprana (4 primeros dias) cuando se sufre a causa del latigazo cervical, da mas alivio que cuando se demora el tratamiento (14 dias despues).
Como mencione anteriormente,muchos pacientes se vuelven cronicos y tienen dolor de cuello a largo plazo. Otros desarrollaran un dolor secundario en la espalda. Debido a estos efectos es que es muy importante buscar tratamiento para las lesiones en el cuello y darles la importancia debida. La terapia del hielo no sera suficiente. Estos problemas de tipo mecanicos tampoco son corregibles con medicamentos o collares de cuello.
Tratamiento quiropractico especifico para esguinces en el cuello podrian mover las articulaciones hacia un mejor alineamiento y asi aliviar la tension en los tejidos. Trastornos de movilidad tales como rango limitado pueden mejorar con la ayuda de ajustes espeificos .A medida que las articulaciones empiezan a moverse de manera normal ,se puede añadir ejercicios para asi mejorar el rango de moviento y la fortaleza
.Cuando se trata de trabajar problemas de dolores en el cuello y se hace en el tiempo indicado,el paciente que tiene mas oportunidad de tener un resultado positive a largo tiempo. appropriately and early on, the patient will be afforded the best chance for long-term success.
Dr. Ward Beecher practica en Beecher Chiropractic Clinic en 1001 Pineloch, Ste 700 Houston, TX 77062.
Usted puede hacer una llamada para hacer su cita al: (281) 286-1300. Si tiene alguna duda en relacion a este blog, deje su pregunta o comentario en la seccion de abajo.
“Hielo vs Calor”. ¿Cual es el correcto?
¿Helado vs caliente cual es el indicado?
Quiropractico en Houston comenta: Una pregunta muy comun que me hacen en mi clinica es “En que ocasion usar el hielo y en cual usar calor?’
Desafortunadamente esta pregunta me la hacen usualmente despues de que han utilizado el metodo equivocado. El paciente usualmente se ha basado en informacion que no esta actualizada, pero que ha sido utilizado por nuestros familiares anteriormente o por sugerencia de nuestros entrenadores.
Para entender cual tecnica utilizar debemos entender la fisiologia basica de lo que se quiere hacer. La terapia del hielo es el mejor tratamiento inmediato para lesiones agudas porque reduce la inflamacion y el dolor. El hielo es un vasoconstrictor (causa que los vasos sanguineos se estrechen) que limita el sagrado interno y la inflamacion en el area lesionada o con dolor.
Aplique hielo (envuelto en una toalla delgada) en el area afectada por 20 minutos a la vez. Se debe permitir que la temperatura de la piel regrese a lo normal antes de usar el hielo por segunda o tercera vez (alrededor de 40 minutos entre cada aplicacion) esto significa que se puede utlizar el hielo cada hora si es necesario. Si la lesion sucedio hace 24,48, o 72 horas es irrelevante, porque si hay inflamacion, dolor o ambas es necesario utilizar el hielo.
La terapia del hielo es es de mucha ayuda para tratar con lesiones de uso excesivo o dolor cronico en los atletas. Un atleta que tiene dolor cronico de espalda o cuello que se vuelve mas intenso despues de ejercitarse deberia aplicar hielo en el area lesionada para reducir o prevenir inflamacion. Aplicar hielo en una lesion cronica antes de ejercitarse no es de ningun beneficio.
La mejor manera de utilizar la terapia del hielo es con un paquete de hielo que se ajuste a la parte del cuerpo donde esta siendo aplicada. Tambien se puede obtener un buen resultado utilizando una bolsa de vegetales congelados, un masaje con un vaso con agua congelada o una bolsa de hielo.
El calor es un vasodilatador (causa que los vasos sanguineos se abran) que quiere decir que aumenta la circulacion en el area. El calor generalmente se utiliza en lesiones cronicas las cuales no tiene inflamacion o hinchazon. Cuando hay un musculo o articulacion adolorida entonces es ideal utilizar la terapia del calor.
Atletas con dolor cronico o lesiones podrian utilizar la terapia del calor en ocasiones antes de ejercitarse para aumentar la elasticidad de los tejidos conjuntivos en una articulacion y para estimular el flujo sanguineo. La terapia del calor ayuda a relajar musculos que estan muy tensos y espamos musculares.No aplique calor despues de ejercitarse.
Hielo vs Calor, despues de su rutina de ejercicio el hielo es la mejor opcion cuando hay una lesion cronica.
Debido a que el calor incrementa la circulacion y aumenta la temperatura de la piel, no se deberia utilizar en esas lesiones agudas que muestren signos de inflamacion o rojez.Con mucho cuidado aplique calor en esa lesion 20 minutos a la vez y utilice suficiente capas entre su piel y la fuente de calor para prevenir quemaduras.Antes de aplicar la terapia de calor debe dejar pasar 40 minutos before using it again.
La terapia de calor humeda es la mejor, se puede intentar utilizando una toalla mojada caliente.Las cremas que producen calor son recomendadas Tambien.En lo personal yo recomiendo Biofreeze a mis pacientes.Nunca deje una almohadilla termica por mas de 20 minutos o cuando duerme para asi prevenir quemaduras.
Debido a que algunas lesiones pueden ser serias o si su lesion no mejora (o empeora) en un periodo de 48 hours le recomendamos que visite su deberia ver a su quiropractico de Houton TX .Si no se ve un avance deberia buscar rehabilitacion en Houston.
Dr. Ward Beecher practica en su clinica de Houston Beecher Chiropractic Clinic localizada en 1001 Pineloch, Ste 700 Houston, TX 77062. Puede hacer una cita en en su sitio web en BeecherChiropractic.com o llamando al (281) 286-1300. Si tiene alguna pregunta acerca de este articulo deje su pregunta en los comentarios.
Meditation to Reduce Stress
Meditation is a simple and fast way to reduce stress and refresh your mind, body and soul. Take 10 minutes on your lunch break to decompress. Visit your doctor of chiropractic who can help you achieve and maintain optimal wellness.
Click here to read more about meditation
How Long Does It Take To Get Better With Chiropractic?
Clear Lake Chiropractor Comments: One of the common questions that I get as a chiropractor in Houston … sometimes the 1st question that I get … is “How long until I’m better or out of pain”? Usually, they ask this question before I even examine them. 🙂
This is actually a hard question to answer. There are a lot of variables to consider. One variable is how long has the problem been
there. Someone who slept wrong and awoke with neck pain might respond well with one treatment, while someone who slipped and fell a year ago and has gradually increasing low back pain might take a couple weeks to get relief. The longer that a problem has been present, the more the tissue and muscles around the problem have adapted to the change of the joint.
A second variable is the age or health of the patient. Typically I have found that the younger patients and healthier patients tend to respond quicker. The elasticity of the tissue in young people tends to allow them to respond at a faster pace. The health of the patient also needs to be taken in to account. People with arthritis and connective tissue disorders as well as diabetes tend to have a slower response to care. Special care has to be taken to prevent irritation of the joint or tissue while removing the cause of the pain.
The final variable is the fitness and follow thru of the patient. On some of the conditions, having good muscle tone and body awareness makes it easier to strengthen muscles that have become weak and to support the correction. I like to give my patients home-based exercises and stretches to aid in the correction and speed up the pain relief. Having a patient with flexible and pliable muscles makes it easier to manipulate the body. The patient benefits from following thru on the stretches and exercises on their time and not just performing them while in my office.
We will always try and alleviate your pain as quickly as possible, but not everyone heals at the same speed. You may also heal quicker or slower from a previous similar injury that you might have had. Your body changes every year.
Dr. Ward Beecher practices at Beecher Chiropractic Clinic at 1001 Pineloch, Ste 700 Houston, TX 77062. You can schedule an appointment at BeecherChiropractic.com or by calling (281) 286-1300. If you have any questions regarding this blog, please comment below!
Keeping Cool When The Weather Is Hot
Clear Lake City Chiropractor Comment: As the temperature gets in to the upper 90’s and the heat index is well into the 100’s, the weather goes from being uncomfortable to deadly. Working or exercising in hot weather puts additional stresses on your body. The activity, temperature and humidity can all increase your core temperature causing serious health problems.
When you get hot, your body brings more blood to the skin which leaves less blood for your muscles which will increase the heart rate. When the humidity is high, your sweat doesn’t evaporate which also drives up your core temperature. Normally, your blood vessels, skin and perspiration level adjust to the heat. But these natural cooling systems may not work if you’re exposed to high temperatures and humidity for too long, you sweat heavily, and you don’t drink enough fluids. The result may be a heat-related illness.
The most common heat-related illnesses are heat syncope, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Heat syncope is the lightheaded feeling or fainting that occurs after exercise, standing for a long period of time or arising quickly from a seated position. Heat cramps are typically exercise induced causing the muscles to feel firm, but typically with normal temperature. Heat exhaustion is when your core temperature elevates up to 104° causing cold, clammy skin with associated nausea, vomiting, headache or weakness. The final illness is heat stroke. This is a life threatening condition. In this case the temperature is above 104°. Typically your skin will be dry with associated confusion, irritability, heart rhythm issues, vomiting or nausea. Immediate medical attention is necessary to prevent brain damage or death.
If you have a heat related illness, promptly begin cooling yourself off and hydrating. Cool wet towels or an ice pack on the head or under the armpits helps as does spraying water on your-self. You need to stop exercising or working and get into the shade.
Just remember to acclimate yourself to the heat, drink plenty of fluids, watch the temperature and dress appropriately.
Dr. Ward Beecher practices at Beecher Chiropractic Clinic at 1001 Pineloch, Ste 700 Houston, TX 77062. You can schedule an appointment at BeecherChiropractic.com or by calling (281) 286-1300. If you have any questions regarding this blog, please comment below!
Positional Vertigo Treatment – Epley Maneuver
Dr. Beecher shares some techniques for dealing with Vertigo.
Vertigo… When The World Keeps Spinning Around
Houston Chiropractor Comments: A couple times a year I see a patient who has recently developed signs of vertigo and the result can be debilitating. Sometimes it feels like the world is spinning around you and sometimes you are spinning around the world. The dizziness can be mild or severe enough that you can’t drive or function. It can last a few moments, a few hours or it can just come and go.
The first thing that needs to be done is to realize that vertigo is a symptom not a specific condition. As such, we need to determine the cause of the vertigo. Is the cause more central (ie. from the central nervous system) or peripheral (ie. from the inner ear)? A proper examination will help immensely.
Possible causes of vertigo are benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). This occurs when little calcium particles (canaliths) clump together in the inner ear canal and move around during sudden motions.
Another cause is Meinere’s disease. This is a disease that increases the pressure and fluid in the ear resulting in vertigo and ringing in the ear (tinnitus).
The vertigo can also be caused by vestibular neuritis. This is usually due to a viral infection causing inflammation in the nerves of the inner ear.
Additional causes of vertigo are certain types of medication, a stroke or tumor, dehydration or head/neck trauma.
The type of treatment rendered will be determined by the cause. For BPPV it is bets to use a canalith repositioning motion, such as the Epley maneuver or the guidelines by the American Academy of Neurology. I will post a video next week showing a series of head motions designed to get the canaliths in the correct position that I have found to work and can be taught to do at home. Some patients require vestibular rehabilitation which is a therapy designed on improving the vestibular system by improving ones balance and stability and minimizing dizziness and gaze instability. Spinal manipulation will help if there was any incidence of head or neck trauma. Medication or supplements are beneficial to help minimize any inner ear fluid buildup or secondary nausea. If the cause is from a tumor or a stroke then the appropriate medical referral should be made.
Dr. Ward Beecher practices at Beecher Chiropractic Clinic at 1001 Pineloch, Ste 700 Houston, TX 77062. You can schedule an appointment at BeecherChiropractic.com or by calling (281) 286-1300. If you have any questions regarding this blog, please comment below!
