Chiropractic treatment has been associated with pain relief ever since it became part of the public consciousness. If you have a sore back, shoulder, or neck you head to the chiropractor for an adjustment and all-natural pain relief. But is pain the only reason to see a El Paso chiropractor?
Drawn In By Pain
The main reason people make that first visit to see a El Paso chiropractor is because they are in pain. They may have a persistent headache, lower back pain, radiating pain from the neck, sore shoulders, knees, or some other type of pain. The common denominator is pain and the need for relief. Some patients will be trying out a chiropractor as a last resort after exhausting all conventional options, and others will be looking for chiropractic treatment right from the start.
Chiropractors are experts at adjusting spinal misalignments, which is a major cause of pain throughout the body. And while many patients are drawn in to see chiropractors in El Paso because of pain, they quickly discover there is a lot more to it than just pain relief.
A Host of Other Benefits
Chiropractic treatment has the potential to improve and eliminate scores of different health issues and related problems. Some health problems and other factors that you probably haven�t associated with chiropractic treatment before, include:
Ear Infections
Increased Range of Motion
Colic
PMS Symptoms
High Blood Pressure
Various Behavioral Issues
Improved Productivity
Improved Immunity
Stress Reduction
Decreased Need for Pain Medication
Improved Sleep Quality
More Comfortable Pregnancy
Allergy Relief
When you visit a El Paso chiropractor it is important to clearly detail why you are there and explain every health issue that has been plaguing you. Many patients don�t bother telling the chiropractor about certain health conditions because they feel chiropractic treatment is only effective for pain. Much of the time whatever you are experiencing is just a symptom of a more complex issue. Chiropractors are trained to treat causes, not just symptoms, so you may notice improvements in several different areas after treatment.
The goal of our El Paso chiropractic office is to create a comprehensive treatment plan that will restore your body back to its original balance. It might take only a few sessions, or it may take longer, but in the end you�ll be free of pain and you�ll feel like your old self. �We are happy to help answer any questions that you might have.
At Jimenez Chiropractic and Wellness our team is here to help answer your questions.� Please feel free to contact us today.
Seeing a doctor of chiropractic, otherwise called chiropractic physician, a chiropractor or DC, might be a beneficial step towards effectively treating low back pain. Below is a quick description of what chiropractors do and how they help patients solve their low back pain.
What Chiropractors Do
Chiropractors use a string of treatments designed to manipulate tissues of the entire body, joints, and the spine to alleviate pain and improve functional ability. Usually, this will be referred to as spinal manipulative therapy (SMT), but you’ll find many other chiropractic treatment procedures.
A chiropractor tailors her or his treatment approach based on the individual needs of a patient, utilizing a traditional doctrine of starting off together with the more natural, less-invasive therapies before continuing to some more aggressive approaches.
At each stage throughout the process, chiropractors preserve a strict emphasis on communicating together with the patient precisely what’s going to happen. The chiropractor makes sure the patient comprehends everything that happens during a diagnosis, evaluation, and also the planned procedures, to be able to educate the patient and receive direct acceptance to commence the treatment process. This emphasis on informed consent is vital because stuff threat*, which means there could a danger, however, unimportant, that a certain process perhaps could cause an injury may be carried by some chiropractic techniques.
* state may vary by state.
Nonetheless, a chiropractor additionally advises a patient of the potential risks attached to abstaining in the task, totally. Nevertheless, none of this is intended to frighten a patient. Make sure the patient, who has full control over her or his body can make an educated choice and always it truly is simply intended to remove mistakes.
Before making any type of analysis or treatment strategy, a chiropractor will analyze a patient thoroughly. The evaluation can include various facets, including wellness history.
Look at the characteristics of the pain, keeping an eye fixed out for “red flags,” which suggest that further diagnostic testing ought to be conducted to be able to exclude any potentially serious medical problems which can be related to neck or low back pain-like neurological disorders, fractures, diseases, and tumors.
There are lots of reasons why low back pain happens. A chiropractor will find out those reasons to configure the treatment that is best suited, including: physical examinations, such as neurological and orthopedic evaluations and analyzing sensory nerves, the reflexes, joints, muscles, along with other regions of the body.
Advanced Diagnostic Testing
Imaging and laboratory tests usually are not recommended for nonspecific LBP, however they could possibly be required if there are indications of a serious underlying illness. A chiropractor logically classifies them based by how serious and examines ailments and the symptoms of an injury or sickness they are, and how long they last.
Symptoms are subdivided into degrees of severity: mild, moderate, or severe. With regards to duration, pain (and other symptoms) can be referred to as:
Acute – lasts for less than 6 weeks
Subacute – lasts between 6 and 12 weeks
Chronic – persists for at least 12 weeks
Continuing/flare-up – the same symptom(s) reoccurs sporadically or because of exacerbating the initial harm
An average chiropractic healing trial is 2 to 3 weekly sessions on the course of 2 to 4 weeks, going up to 12 complete sessions per trial, if a patient is suffering from acute or subacute low back pain. Often, this could be sufficient to completely solve the pain. Other times, additional treatments might be necessary, especially if a patient is suffering from other problems.
Outcome measurements certainly are a valuable instrument for a chiropractor because they are able to help determine when the treatments are showing significant progress. Some means a chiropractor can quantify the outcomes of the treatments including having a patient speed the pain. With a pain diagram so a patient can describe nature and the place of the pain, which increases (or declines) in daily living practices, as in the capacity to work (employment), exercise and sleep. Such as for example lifting ability, strength, flexibility, and endurance analyzing functional capacity
Some patients’ low back pain may have lasted into and beyond the 12-week mark, which makes it persistent pain. During examination, chiropractors will seek out signs to find out whether a patient is prone to developing chronic pain- the “yellow flags” of chronicity so to speak.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Lower Back Pain After Auto Injury
After being involved in an automobile accident, neck injuries and aggravated conditions, such as whiplash, are some of the most commonly reported types of injuries, due to the force of the impact. A study discovered, however, that the seat of a vehicle can often lead to injuries as well, causing lower back pain and other symptoms. Lower back pain is also among one of the most common types of automobile accident injuries in the U.S. alone.
(HealthDay News) � Chronic lower back pain affects millions of Americans. Many try steroid injections to ease their discomfort, but researchers now say this remedy provides only short-term relief.
In their study, investigators from France focused on 135 patients with back pain seemingly caused by inflammation between the discs and bones (vertebrae) in the lower spine.
The researchers found that a single steroid injection eased pain for one month. After that, however, effectiveness waned. Virtually no difference was seen one year after treatment between patients who did or didn�t get the injection.
�Our results do not support the wide use of an injection of glucocorticoid in alleviating symptoms in the long term in this condition,� said lead researcher Dr. Christelle Nguyen.
The findings are consistent with earlier studies, said Nguyen, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Paris Descartes University.
Nguyen said she and her colleagues had hoped that targeting local disc inflammation with an anti-inflammatory steroid would help alleviate long-term pain.
To test their theory, they selected patients with chronic lower back pain and signs of disc inflammation on an MRI. On average, participants had suffered from back pain for six years. Half were assigned to a single steroid shot; the other half got no injection.
Patients rated their pain severity before the injection and again one, three, six and 12 months after the treatment.
One month after treatment, 55 percent of those who got the steroid injection experienced less lower back pain, compared with 33 percent of those who weren�t treated.
�However, the groups did not differ for the assessed outcomes 12 months after the injection,� Nguyen said.
For example, patients who did or didn�t received a steroid injection ended up in similar circumstances, with the same incidence of disc inflammation, lower quality of life, more anxiety and depression and continued use of non-narcotic pain pills, she said.
Overall, most patients found the steroid injections tolerable, and would agree to have a second one if necessary, Nguyen said. �We had no specific safety concerns and found no cases of infection, destruction or calcification of the disc 12 months after the injection,� she added.
The results were published March 20 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Byron Schneider, of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, noted there are many different causes of back pain.
In this study, the patients suffered from chronic back pain, he pointed out. �Patients with chronic lower back [pain] probably have more than one cause of their pain, which may be why the good results they found at one month weren�t there a year later,� said Schneider, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation.
The study results don�t mean steroid injections should be avoided altogether, he noted.
Patients with a sudden episode of back pain � so-called acute pain � probably don�t need a steroid injection, he said.
Chiropractic Care Boosts Surgery Avoidance
�But if they�re not getting better after a month or two the way we would expect them to, at that point it would be reasonable to discuss the pluses and minuses of a steroid injection,� said Schneider, co-author of an accompanying journal editorial.
Chronic (long-term) back pain is a different situation, he said. Treating chronic back pain means treating the pain itself, but also using cognitive behavior therapy and �pain psychology� to help patients cope with pain, he said.
�For chronic pain, physicians need to address the musculoskeletal reasons that cause the hurt, but also other reasons that patients may be experiencing pain,� Schneider said.
According to the editorial, psychological distress, fear of pain and even low educational levels can affect pain levels.
The Schroth Method is a non-surgical principle of scoliosis treatment using scoliosis-specific exercise based on curve-pattern.
The scoliosis exercises do not resemble traditional exercises and the Schroth method includes a proprietary corrective breathing technique known as rotational breathing also known as rotational angular breathing (RAB). Each patient with scoliosis has a unique curve pattern and the goal of the Schroth method is to de-flex and de-rotate the trunk allowing a return to a more �normal� physiological position.
The term scoliosis exercise leads people to think it�s easy to manage scoliosis via exercise � well it can be, once mastered. It is important that training is conducted by an experienced and knowledgeable expert in Schroth methodology. With focused instruction in the newest evolution of the Schroth method, it is possible for the patient to learn the skills needed for lifetime management, to incorporate those into daily life.
Schroth Method Goals
Patients incorporating the Schroth Method into their lives can expect a few, many, or all of the following:
Spinal stabilization and better balance via improved body mechanics
Halt scoliosis curve progression � in adolescents we strive for reduction
Improve lung capacity via corrective breathing and active rib mobilization
Relieve or reduce pain as a result of scoliosis
Improve strength and flexibility
Prevent or avoid surgery
Improve postural appearance
Learn to maintain spinal corrections during daily activities
Empowerment given the knowledge and tools to manage one�s own unique scoliosis
For post-surgical scoliosis patients, the Schroth Method helps to improve posture and create stability above and below the fused spinal segments
The scoliosis treatment programs are comprehensive outpatient Schroth Method programs for those with mild, moderate or severe scoliosis:
Adolescent scoliosis
Adult scoliosis
Post-surgical scoliosis
Scheuermann�s Kyphosis
Rotational Breathing
Why Schroth rotational breathing for scoliosis?
�During physiological respiratory movement, all regions of the trunk, thorax and abdomen expand, with the purpose of increasing the volume and the air intake to the lungs. The thoracic cage and inhalation muscles on one side and the lung mass on the other, form two elastic systems in opposite directions, joined by two sheets of pleural space. The scoliosis deformation process causes morphological changes to the trunk. some areas of the trunk protrude or become convex, and others sink in or become concave. Breathing mechanics do not function normally. The deformity causes an imbalance in all muscles of the trunk.�
� from “Best Practice in Conservative Scoliosis Care”, by Dr. Hans-Rudolf Weiss
Corrective rotational breathing is the proprietary feature of the Schroth Method and Schroth Best Practice� scoliosis exercise protocols.
During Schroth instruction, the patient learns how to change their breathing pattern in order to decrease the risk of scoliotic curve progression. The focus is on expansion of the collapsed concave areas during inspiration. This enhances mobility and promotes a more balanced posture.
According to the conclusions of various research studies, the physiotherapy program as developed by Schroth can be regarded as highly effective for the prevention or treatment of secondary functional impairment, particularly with respect to the restrictive ventilatory disorder. It has also already been shown to have a beneficial effect on scoliosis related pain.
Schroth Method Exercise Examples
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Lower Back Pain After Auto Injury
After being involved in an automobile accident, neck injuries and aggravated conditions, such as whiplash, are some of the most commonly reported types of injuries, due to the force of the impact. A study discovered, however, that the seat of a vehicle can often lead to injuries as well, causing lower back pain and other symptoms. Lower back pain is also among one of the most common types of automobile accident injuries in the U.S. alone.
With summer officially just weeks away, many of us are dreading bathing suit season because we’ve packed on pounds — especially around the mid-section. But you won’t get those washboard abs by doing sit-ups, say experts. Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym, as the saying goes.
In other words: It’s what you put into your gut that helps banish belly fat.
“Visceral fat, or what we commonly call belly fat, is more than the fat you see on your body and can pinch between your fingers,” notes Tara Gidus Collingwood, the team dietitian for the Orlando Magic basketball team.
“It’s the layer of fat deep inside the body that forms between your organs. And even though you can’t see it, if you have an increased amount of subcutaneous fat, the fat you CAN see and pinch, it’s likely that that you also have a large amount of visceral fat.
Collingwood, co- author of the “Flat Belly Cookbook for Dummies,” tells Newsmax Health the more belly fat you have, the more dangerous it is to your health.
“Visceral fat is so toxic that research has linked it to everything from an increased risk of heart disease, to metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, gallstones, certain cancers, and even dementia,” notes.
Now for the good news: Gidus says that science has uncovered foods that actually help blast away belly fat. Here are her top 10 choices:
Salmon. Inflammation caused by an imbalance in your gut which can turn on your fat genes, leading you to gain weight around your belly. Salmon is a super anti-inflammatory food and also contains omega-3 fatty acids which have been shown to reduce belly fat storage. It also helps to control the hormone levels like cortisol, a common culprit of increased fat storage in the midsection.
Apples. These summer and fall favorites are great belly-fat fighters because they are high in fiber. This allows foods to be slowly digested, which controls the response of insulin and helps stabilize blood sugar — giving an added boost to the fight against fat.
Almonds. Not all fats are created equal, and some are actually helpful in reducing belly fat. Stock up on almonds for snacking because they are high in monounsaturated fat which reduces the accumulation of fat around the belly.
Popcorn. Here’s another handy snack food that is a great belly-flattening treat and you can eat a lot of it. Purchase loose corn kernels or low-fat and low- sodium microwave popcorn to help reduce your sodium intake and keep calories in check for a flat belly all season long.
Green tea. This powerhouse beverage contains the flavonoid quercetin which not only boosts the immune system and promotes heart health but also helps fight belly fat. It works by blocking fat cells from maturing and inhibits the rate of new fat cell formation.
Eggs. One of the best ways to protect yourself against visceral fat is to strengthen and protect your muscles. Muscle burns energy on a regular basis, so it steals energy away from fat cells — especially belly fat cells — to sustain itself. For under 80 calories, an egg provides six grams of muscle-building protein.
Spinach. This leafy green contains a unique long-chain sugar molecule called sulfoquinovose (SQ). According to a study in the journal Natural Chemical Biology, SQ feeds the good or beneficial bacteria, which in turn promotes their growth in the gut. When these bacteria are strong, they provide a protective barrier in the gut preventing the growth of bad bacteria which can cause inflammation and increase belly fat.
Greek yogurt. The Society for Endocrinology presented a study by researchers who found that when protein is digested and broken down into amino acids in your body, one of those amino acids called phenylalanine, triggers hormones that help reduce appetite, which ultimately leads to fat burn and weight loss.
Bananas. When you are sleep deprived, the levels of ghrelin called the “hungry hormone” skyrocket while the levels of leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, plummet. As a result, studies show you are more likely to eat more the next day and the foods you choose are the ones that typically increase belly fat. So if you are having trouble falling asleep, eat a banana which is an excellent source of the muscle relaxing ingredients magnesium and potassium. This handy fruit also contains tryptophan, a chemical which can help summon the Sandman.
Cayenne pepper. This popular spice doesn’t only burn your tongue, it helps burn away belly fat. Daily consumption of one of the compounds found in pepper seeds, called capsaicin, speeds up abdominal loss by boosting the body’s ability to convert food into energy, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
You’re probably already incorporating strength moves such as squats, planks, and burpees, into your workout routine. But there are a few additional moves you’re likely missing. These�strength exercises below target commonly overlooked muscle groups, says Karen Litzy, a spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association. Adding them to your regular workout routine will not only improve your strength in your lower body and core�but also help keep injuries away.
Stability Ball Hamstring Curl
Lie faceup with lower legs and heels on a stability ball, knees straight. Lift hips off the floor (A). Slowly bend knees to pull the ball toward hips (B), then slowly return to the starting position. Do 3 sets of 15.
Fire Hydrant
This exercise targets the gluteus medius (a.k.a. the upper part of your butt), says Litzy, which helps support your pelvis. “Any weakness there can cause hip strain that leads to pain.” Start on all fours (A). Raise left thigh to the side, keeping knee in line with foot (B). Hold for 30 to 60 seconds. Repeat on other side.
For good posture, it’s important to tone the erector spinae muscles along the back of your spine. From all fours (A), simultaneously extend left leg at hip height and right arm at shoulder level (B). Hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat the move with right leg and left arm. That’s 1 rep. Do 10 reps.
This routine from the Brave Body Project does just that. Founded by trainers Lindsey Clayton and Amber Rees, the Brave Body Project is an “online community and fitness membership program for people who share a passion for feeling strong, being bold, and finding the brave within.” Put another way, these ladies know how to help you get fit—and feel great about it.
That’s precisely why we asked Lindsey and Amber to share their favorite exercises for head-to-toe strengthening. They brought 10 moves that deliver a serious “full-body beatdown.” Sound intimidating? Yes. But is it an amazing sweat session? Double yes.
In this video, the energetic duo will lead you through a workout that targets the arms, legs, core, and glutes. Here’s how it goes: Each move is done for 50 seconds, and followed by 10 seconds of recovery. Once you complete all 10 moves, you get 30 seconds of rest, and then do it all over again.
The best part about these moves is that they sculpt and stretch different body parts simultaneously. For example, a walkout tricep push-up with a hip opener not only targets the upper arms, but also creates space in the hips. Similarly, a side lunge with a lateral raise works the muscles in the thighs and challenges balance too.
Want to break a sweat in just 20 minutes? Watch this video for a full-body workout you can do at home. Press play, get strong, repeat.
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