Headaches, Hygiene and Pillows
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Houston Chiropractor comments: We hear about dental hygiene and how to eat right, but when was the last time you considered if you slept well; in a way that does not stress the spine. Most of us know it’s important to avoid head and neck trauma because serious and devastating injuries can occur. Less understood, are how minor and cumulative stresses over time, can affect the soft tissues in the neck.
If you have never suffered a neck trauma, then maintaining good neck habits is less critical. But most of us have had a few kinks in the neck over the years, and we tend to suffer when problems are not prevented in the first place.
Keeping your neck supple and flexible with daily stretches can help many patients. Others may need to do daily controlled exercises to keep the muscles strong. A doctor can advise you on your specific needs. It’s important to be diagnosed properly before starting any stretching or exercising program.
Ever wonder why your neck might be stiff in the morning? Maintaining good spinal hygiene while sleeping is also important. Eight hours of bad posture can be a significant problem.
Because there is naturally an arch formed in the neck when you lay on your back, a pillow can be designed to support the middle of your neck. The best type of pillow is a water filled pillow. These are superior to the typical cervical support pillows which are only good when you are perpendicular to the pillow. The problems arise from those types of pillows when you move during the evening, placing your head at an odd angle. This problem does not arise with water filled pillows since the water can shift with your head allowing optimum support at all times.
Our clinic provides patients with spinal hygiene exercises and advice to care for problems over time. This can be key to you avoiding re-aggravation of your condition and to prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Many headache patients seem to benefit when they pay attention to the stresses on their neck. It can be looking at a computer screen with the head down or something as simple as the type of pillow you use while sleeping.
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!
Low Back Pain: Getting Back Your Balance
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Clear Lake Chiropractor comments: Our sense of balance comes from a few different areas of the body. The inner ear gives us input on the position of our head and whether we are moving. This is combined with input from the eyes, which gives similar information. Most people think this is where it ends, but the spine is also integral to maintaining proper balance.
Tiny nerve endings in the spinal column send information about position and movement up the spinal cord, and into our brains where it is integrated with information from the ears and eyes. A person can become imbalanced through disease in any of these areas: eyes, ears, and spine. Inner ear infections, but also head and neck trauma can dislodge tiny particles in the inner ear that give us balance feedback. The spine can also be primarily injured through traumas to ligaments and muscles. In addition to neck trauma, patients with low back trauma can also have their balance affected.
Patients with chronic low back pain tend to have more sway to their posture, which means there is less margin for error if one trips or misses a step. There is also reduced response time, which is needed for unexpected events. Part of the rehabilitation of chronic low back pain involves getting back the sense of balance if it has been affected.
You may find when your postural muscles are strengthened, back pain is reduced. Even more important than this, strengthened postural muscles can help prevent falls, which occur more frequently when your sense of balance is affected by disease.
Can you stand on one leg for five seconds or twenty? Have you fallen or had a few near misses in the past month? Have you broken a bone due to a fall?
We can diagnose why you may be suffering from balance problems and low back pain. A home exercise and balance program can be prescribed to make sure your spinal muscles and joints give proper input into the brain. You’ll probably start by standing on one leg, if you can do that, and then progress slowly through more challenging postures, such as bending your knee, or moving one leg around. It’s important that a doctor evaluate you before commencing with balance treatments. You do not want to fall during your exercises.
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!
Low Back Pain & Work Injuries
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Nasa Area Chiropractor comments: About 1/3 of patients with low back pain will consult a doctor of chiropractic. People who injure their low back on the job also often consult a chiropractor. One study (J Occup Environ med 2007;49:1124;Wasiak R, Kim J, Pransky GS) looked at these on-the-job injuries and how chiropractic care was used. In this report from Massachusetts, about 89% of workers initiated chiropractic care within 30 days of the injury and about half (48%) were done with their care in the same time frame.
At work and during lifting the lower spine and disks are especially vulnerable to injury. Heavy loads or simply awkward or stooped positions can be risks and should be avoided. Of interest, more people tend to injure their back in the first two hours of a work shift. This may be because the disks swell up with water during sleep and are more 
pressurized first thing in the morning. Or perhaps we’re not as attentive to lifting with good form, first thing in the morning.
If you’ve suffered a back injury it’s important to get checked soon so that you have the best chance for getting back on
the job quickly. Bed rest and staying inactive are usually not healthy options for treating the low back. Inactivity can make back sprains worse by causing the muscles to weaken. Walking keeps pressure off of the disks and keeps the muscles engaged. If walking aggravates your pain, then it has to be avoided in the short term. Of course lifting following a back injury has to be limited. It’s important to lift with your legs and to avoid twisting motions.
Chiropractic adjustments are designed to improve the mobility of the spinal joints, improve posture and decrease tension on the delicate ligaments and nerves. In many studies chiropractic care has exceeded the results seen with conventional medical treatments such as medications or surgery.
When a back injury occurs, commonly the vertebrae move out of their normal position from the stretch of the supporting ligaments. Simply leaving the ligaments in this stretched-out position may not be healthful in the long run. Since the ligaments are injured, the vertebral joints tend to move abnormally. This is called a mechanical back problem and is one of the most common diseases of the lumbar spine.
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!
