San Diego Chiropractic Blog

Have you ever noticed how tight your neck, upper back and shoulders are after a long day of sitting at the computer?

There are a number of factors that contribute to this tightness. Simply the stress of deadlines, an overbearing boss or an annoying co-worker can make your shoulders rise up and your head push forward. And this stress is the result of just the emotional stress of work. When you add the real physical strains of a poorly designed work station on top of the emotional stresses that already exist you have a perfect recipe for a repetitive stress injury.

A large part of designing an ergonomically friendly workstation revolves around limiting the “reach” for items that are frequently accessed.

The distance that you have to reach for any object in your workspace can have major implications on your health. In general, workers should have the items that they use on a regular basis through the day such as the mouse and keyboard for computer users or the telephone for a receptionist or a sales person, positioned close to their bodies so as to avoid awkward or overreaching.

As a general rule, the best positioning for your keyboard and mouse allows you to operate them while your shoulders hang straight down at your sides and elbows are slightly extended. This position reduces the stress of overreaching and allows for completion of your tasks with less muscular effort.

There are many ergonomic apparatus that allow for proper placement of your computer input devices. Pull out keyboard trays, split keyboards, mouse platforms and even foot controls help reduce the ongoing stresses of computer input.

Even with these devices, it takes awareness to maintain an ergonomically friendly work environment.

For a nice selection of high quality ergonomic office products you can visit www.comfortkeyboard.com.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

Why do I have back pain?

Being a chiropractor in San Diego, I hear this question all the time. Back pain and neck pain are the two most common complaints that my patients experience. The fact that my practice is in San Diego probably decreases the frequency of these complaints compared to what doctors in other parts of the country deal with. People in San Diego tend to be more active which actually lowers the incidence of low back and neck pain.

Over fifteen years ago when I first started practicing chiropractic care in San Diego, most of my low back pain patients and neck pain patients for that matter were not related to office work. Most of the cases that I had when I first started practicing were do to injuries like car accidents and falls or heavy work.

In the mid to late nineteen nineties, I started to see a trend in injury mechanisms among my patients. They were starting to attribute their pain to long hours of sitting at the computer.

Sitting all day at the computer not only causes back pain but it also causes neck pain, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, pinched nerves and various arm problems.

Lower back pain is primarily due to poor sitting posture. When we are standing up with good posture, our lower backs have a sweeping forward bowing curve that resembles a stretched out letter “c”. This shape distributes our bodies weight evenly throughout the spine. When we sit, this curve reverses, greatly increasing the stress on the joints and discs in the spine.

With time, this postural stress results in irritation and inflammation resulting in pain and muscle spasms.

Once the low back has reached a point of pain and spasms, chiropractic care is necessary to relieve the pain, improve the biomechanics of the spine and relax the muscles.

In addition to chiropractic care for back pain, the patient must seek out an ergonomic chair and have it adjusted properly for their body. In many cases, I suggest a complete workstation analysis to help prevent future problems with other computer related stresses.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

In my San Diego Chiropractic clinic, I provide treatment for many types of injuries. Typical injuries that result in neck pain, back pain, chronic headaches, sciatica etc., include auto accidents, work related injuries, injuries caused by domestic chores and sometimes things as simple as sleeping in an awkward position.

Of these patients suffering from neck pain, back pain and other injuries, I would say that at least 50% of them ask, “what can I do for myself to make sure that this doesn’t happen again?” This question served as the inspiration for this article and I will address it in this post.

To begin with, neck pain and back pain are great motivators.

When people are in pain they take a proactive approach to their health. People often inquire about what kind of stretch or exercising that they can start right away. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm has to be placed on hold because the best thing that you can do while your injury is new is to apply ice packs to the injured area and rest.

Over my 15 plus years in practice I have seen a large percentage of enthusiastic patients ignore this advice and end up giving their conditions a major set back. The time to start exercising and stretching your back for most of us is when it is out of its acute stage of pain.

My biggest struggles in practice have been dealing with my patients exercise and diet habits. Exercise is one of the few things that a patient can do at home, outside of chiropractic care, to help prevent or diminish the chances of developing back pain.

After an injury, you should approach exercise cautiously - almost to a point where the exercise that you are performing feels like it is doing nothing. If you can get through a few low intensity exercise sessions like this without aggravating your condition, you should slowly add resistance, time or distance allowing you to build confidence and strength at the same time.

You have to remember to incorporate a sensible approach to exercising after a back injury. Be sure to exercise and stretch under the advise of a health care professional. Strong and flexible muscles add strength and support to your spine and will provide much needed stability.

I have always tried to help the patients of my San Diego Chiropractic office with their neck pain and back with stretches and exercises. The combination of chiropractic care with stretches and exercise allows for quicker, more complete healing.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

I had a new patient that was visiting San Diego from Hawaii the other day. She was in her mid forties and had severe neck pain. She was referred to my chiropractic office in San Diego for treatment of neck pain that began after sleeping funny on the airplane.

The first thing out of her mouth when she walked into my office was “I need to tell you that I have never been to a chiropractor before and I am really nervous!”

I found out later on that she also told my assistant the same thing when she called for an appointment only at that time she used the word “scared”.

Of course my response was “why in the world are you in my office?” After all, she was on vacation, in pain and in a type of doctors’ office that she had never been to before and really wasn’t comfortable with.

It turns out the people that she was visiting were patients of mine and they thought that I could help her and she followed their lead. I also promised her that I would not recommend treatment if I wasn’t sure that I could help relieve her neck pain. I also promised her that I would keep evgery portion of my treatment within her comfort zone.

I examined her and found that she had the typical, “slept wrong” kind of neck pain. She couldn’t tilt her head backwards or turn it to the right side without wincing in pain. She definitely had a classic pinched nerve.

I asked her if she had done anything for it since it started hurting and she said that she had been using heat to help sooth it. I hear this often. People use heat because it is soothing. I explained to her that heat actually causes more inflammation and that she should switch to ice packs right away.

I could tell that she was getting more and more comfortable with me and she was getting more comfortable with being at the chiropractor.

I told her that getting a chiropractic adjustment would help restore her range of motion, that it probably wouldn’t hurt and that I would not need to see her more than 5 to 6 times based on what I saw in the examination.

With nervous anticipation, she let me adjust her neck. She let out a little yelp when I adjusted the joints on the right side of her neck and then immediately said “THAT FELT GOOD - IT FELT LIKE EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED”.

I ended up treating her three times - Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. She told me that she was completely healed after Tuesdays’ treatment but she wanted to get treated one more time “just to make sure”.

She told me that she gets the stiff neck five or six times a year and normally it takes about ten days to totally resolve. She was elated that it only took two days this time and she said that she was so happy that she tried chiropractic care.

The patient also said that she was going to find a chiropractor in Hawaii to begin maintenance treatments. I thought that was an excellent idea.

More Coming Soon

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

There comes a point in every ones life when it is time to try something new. This is what we (chiropractors) have been seeing with our patients over the years. When you look at the vast range of doctors and what they specialize in, Chiropractors fill that slot that specializes in pinched nerves that typically cause neck pain, back pain, headaches etc.

Despite this general categorization that people associate chiropractors with, as recent as the early 1980s only about 5% of the U.S. population had visited a chiropractor. My last post gave some figures taken from a recent FSU study of Americans and their choices of healthcare providers and found that the percentage of U.S. residents that had been treated by a chiropractor had risen to nearly 45%. Of that 45% of people who had been to a chiropractor, over 90% reported a satisfactory experience and stated that they would return for chiropractic care in the future.

Aside from the fact that I am a Chiropractor and I know that my treatments are of considerable help to my patients, I am thrilled that some of the negative stigma regarding chiropractic care as a whole is fading. Between the many established benefits of chiropractic care and the many dangers of medications and other medical treatments (4000 times more dangerous according to the FSU report), public opinion has swayed to a supportive stance toward chiropractic treatment.

Chiropractic treatment plays an essential role in natural health care. I have practiced in San Diego for over 15 years. During that period, we have treated many patients for conditions that they had been treated for by their medical doctors with drugs, surgery and other uncomfortable procedures.

More often than not my office is the last stop for these patients. These people usually respond very favorably to our therapy, making improvements that were not realized with traditional medical treatment. I have always wondered how many patients take dangerous medications or undergo surgical procedures that would have experienced full recovery with natural chiropractic treatment.

Almost 100% of our population has been treated with traditional medical doctors. Only 45% of you have been to a chiropractor. Considering that nearly 80% of our adult population suffers with some form of neck pain or back pain, the percentage of patients who have been to a chiropractor are much to low considering how effective and safe chiropractic treatment actually is.

Next time you find yourself complaining of neck or back pain, do yourself a favor and seek out safe and effective chiropractic treatment.

More Coming Soon

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

What if I told you that over the last 15 years I have helped countless low back pain sufferers overcome their pain with a fast, natural, drug free therapy? In addition, that therapy is reasonably priced and covered by most insurance companies.

Of course I am writing about safe and effective chiropractic care.

At this point, some of you will be thinking “Chiropractic doesn’t work!” or “I wouldn’t go to one of those guys!”

I have heard all of these arguments in the past. I was even one of those people. I was raised in a semi anti chiropractic household.

My opinions changed after a car accident I was involved in back in 1984. After a mild fender bender, I slowly developed neck pain and stiffness. Before long that pain was “creeping” into my left shoulder and arm. I began to go to my primary physician at Kaiser for treatment. I followed his advice but nothing worked.

Early on in my treatment, I told my Kaiser doctor that my chiropractor uncle told me that I should see a local chiropractor. My Kaiser doctor dismissed that thought with some derogatory remark and told me to stick with his care - which I did.

Kaisers’ treatment was not helpful!

Eventually I saw a chiropractor who had my condition completely turned around in about 3 weeks. Mind you that the chiropractic care followed 5 months of pills and occasional physical therapy from Kaiser - that didn’t work.

My chiropractic treatment was so successful and actually enjoyable that I switched my college studies to pre-med and later attended Chiropractic College.

What does this have to do with low back pain you ask?

Everything.

Chiropractors are known for treating low back pain, it is what my profession is associated with. The reason that we are associated with low back pain treatment is because of my professions’ tremendous success rate with delivering fast, safe, natural, drug free back pain relief.

I recently read a study that indicated that the use of chiropractic care for low back pain relief is nearly 4000 times safer than using medications or other traditional western medicine inspired treatments.

Most cases of low back pain occur as a direct result of injury or dysfunction involving the joints and muscles of the low back. These are biomechanical problems that are not efficiently treated with medication (drugs). Biomechanical joint problems account for 80% of low back pain cases and usually worsen with age.

Chiropractic care and its use of specific joint adjustments is the logical and efficient treatment for biomechanical joint problems that are responsible for most cases of low back pain.

More Coming Soon

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

Being a Chiropractor in San Diego, my office provides treatment for many whiplash accident victims. One of the reasons for these accidents is wet weather driving. Since we don’t have rain throughout the year in this desert community, when it does rain, oil and debris that has been sting on the road all year long loosens resulting in a very slick driving surface.

Auto accidents are serious! You may not be aware that approximately 25% of all auto accident victims never make a full recovery. That could mean a lifetime of neck pain, low back pain, headaches, etc.

The best defense for accident prevention in wet weather is defensive driving. The following paragraphs were found on the National Safety Council website and specifically target safe wet weather driving techniques.

“Losing control of your car on wet pavement is a frightening experience. You can prevent skids by driving slowly and carefully, especially on curves. Steer and brake with a light touch. When you need to stop or slow, do not brake hard or lock the wheels and risk a skid. Maintain mild pressure on the brake pedal.

If you do find yourself in a skid, remain calm, ease your foot off the gas, and carefully steer in the direction you want the front of the car to go. For cars without anti-lock brakes, avoid using your brakes. This procedure, known as “steering into the skid,” will bring the back end of your car in line with the front. If your car has ABS, brake firmly as you steer into the skid.

While skids on wet pavement may be frightening, hydroplaning is completely nerve-wracking. Hydroplaning happens when the water in front of your tires builds up faster than your car’s weight can push it out of the way. The water pressure causes your car to rise up and slide on a thin layer of water between your tires and the road. At this point, your car can be completely out of contact with the road, and you are in danger of skidding or drifting out of your lane, or even off the road.

To avoid hydroplaning, keep your tires properly inflated, maintain good tread on your tires and replace them when necessary, slow down when roads are wet, and stay away from puddles. Try to drive in the tire tracks left by the cars in front of you.

If you find yourself hydroplaning, do not brake or turn suddenly. This could throw your car into a skid. Ease your foot off the gas until the car slows and you can feel the road again.

If you need to brake, do it gently with light pumping actions. If your car has anti-lock brakes, then brake normally; the car’s computer will mimic a pumping action, when necessary.

A defensive driver adjusts his or her speed to the wet road conditions in time to avoid having to use any of these measures. Reprinted with permission from the National Safety Council”

If you do happen to get into a fender bender, get to the chiropractor ASAP. From a statistical standpoint, the best way to avoid becoming one of the 25% of auto injury patients that never fully recover is to undergo an examination with a licensed chiropractor and follow up with any recommended treatment as soon as possible.

Drive Safe, More Coming Soon!

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

Are You A Runner?

I used to be. I ran all through high school, college and up to about six months ago. I was finally forced to stop because of ongoing ankle pain, knee pain, low back pain and sometimes even neck pain. I was pain free and healthy if I kept my running to grassy areas or on the beach. A serious lack of free time kept my runs on asphalt and concrete which finally took their toll. I have read that with each stride a 200 pound runner can generate over 2000 pounds of impact force through the legs and into the low back. I suppose that 30 years of running was all I could take.

Over the years, my San Diego Chiropractic Center has provided treatment for hundreds of people suffering from back pain, neck pain and leg pain that is easily attributed to their running habits. I have read in various journal articles that running becomes detrimental if your distance is greater than 15 miles per week or further than 3 miles per run. The conclusions that these articles drew to is that running beyond the guidelines previously mentioned does the joints more harm than the aerobic benefit of the exercise does your body good. It seems that these studies indict long distance running as an exercise of diminishing returns.

That being said, for those of you who do run, there is good news concerning the health benefits of running. Researchers reported in the July 2001 issue of American Journal of Public Health that men in their 30s who jog a minimum of ten times monthly develop a bone density that is at least 5 percent higher than that of men who jog less frequently.

The study analyzed answers to questions in a health survey of over 4,000 men, including 954 joggers and 3,300 who did not jog at all. The study included results of hip joint X-rays taken of each man to determine bone density. The researchers then compared the findings from joggers with results from non-joggers.

Dr. Michael E. Mussolino, a researcher at the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention office said the results showed that, “The men who were jogging nine times a month were doing much better than those who were jogging only one to eight times a month. Even those who jogged eight or fewer times a month had a higher bone density than those who did not jog at all.” He also noted that the study showed that it does not require marathon-like running to build strong bones.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and another 18 million are at risk of the disease. Eighty percent of these people are women. The NIH estimates that one out of every two women and one in eight men will break a bone as the result of osteoporosis within their lifetime. The report states that building dense strong bones in young adulthood is considered by experts to be an important factor in preventing osteoporosis.

The bottom line is this, if you are a runner, run smart. Keep your runs fairly short and off of hard surfaces. Running is like most other things in life. Running can be healthy but if you take it to an extreme it can become detrimental to your well being.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

I hear the patients of my San Diego based Chiropractic Clinic talk about digestive disorders and the effects of probiotics on a regular basis. This may surprise some of you who think that the only chiropractors deal with are neck pain, back pain and headaches.

Probiotics are the “good” bacteria that are similar to those found in the human digestive tract. With more and more frequency, probiotics are found in foods such as milkshakes, baby food, yogurts, smoothies, snack bars, cereals, baby formula and even chocolate. These foods carry labels of major companies like Dannon and Kraft.

The experts say that these probiotics are safe and probably helpful but more research is needed in order to fully understand the benefits of these nutrients. The fact that these experts even exist is a reflection of the growing understanding of the role that naturally occurring intestinal bacteria play in our health.

Adding to the health trend created by probiotics is the development of probiotics which contain fiber and other nutrients that feed probiotic bacteria. In 2007, more than 150 probiotic and prebiotic commercial food products were introduced into the U.S. market, compared with 100 in 2006 and just 40 in 2005.

Many probiotic products haven’t been put to a rigorous scientific test, but there is plenty of evidence that in large amounts, some kinds of “friendly” bacteria can be quite helpful.

Studies have shown that certain probiotics help treat or prevent some types of gastroenteritis, diarrhea and allergic skin reactions, and the probiotics are being investigated for many other ailments.

Just recently the National Institute of Health declared the study of gastrointestinal bacteria and probiotics a major research initiative.

Probiotics have been subject to studies all over the world.

A Canadian study published last month suggested that fermented milk containing Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus casein could help prevent antibiotic-related diarrhea.

A study from Finland published this year found that an oat drink containing Bifidobacterium lactis bacteria helped bowel function in nursing home residents.

Scientists in Argentina are investigating whether milk fermented with lactic acid bacteria might reduce amounts of cancer-causing substances in the intestine.

University of California at Los Angeles researchers are looking at whether probiotic supplements can treat allergy-induced skin rashes in babies.

Israeli scientists are studying whether these supplements can improve complications in liver disease.

Probiotics are not a new concept. We have known for years that yogurt with acidophilus can help with digestive issues. These new ways of utilizing probiotics help emphasize the benefits of a wider range of foods.

More Coming Soon

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

Have you ever injured your back and scratched your head and wondered - how did this happen when my back has felt fine up until now?

Patients present to my San Diego Chiropractic clinic on a regular basis with neck pain, back pain and other related symptoms that not only lack a history of pain in that area but also have no recent injury or accident to explain their current painful symptoms.

This is frustrating for the patient yet a typical presentation that I see in my Chiropractic office.

When patients come in for care with this type of history recent injury, my inquiries usually lead to a situation that involves excessive postural stress for that patient.

Ongoing postural stress affects our body much like the old analogy of the straws on the camels back. Our bodies are capable of compensating for quite a bit of stress before symptoms appear.

This is good and bad.

The good part of this situation is that if we didn’t compensate for all the little stresses that we are subjected to, we would be uncomfortable all the time. The bad part about compensation is that we often are not keen enough to recognize when our bodies are being exposed to ongoing low levels of stress.

Once the stress levels build to a certain point, the body part in question reacts with irritation, inflammation and muscle spasm. This combination produces pain and tightness and usually is the reason that patients call my office.

Postural stress can place an amazing amount of stress on your spine. One of my reference books has a chart that describes how different body positions affect the amount of pressure on your discs in the low back. The differences are amazing.

When standing straight up with ideal posture, the pressure in the discs of the low back is 100%. When lying flat on your back the pressure is at 24%. While sitting straight with good posture, the pressure is at 140% but when slouching forward with poor posture the disc pressure goes to a staggering 190%.

Considering that most of us sit for a good portion of the day, simply sitting becomes a significant source of stress for the lower back.

This kind of ongoing stress combined with an awkward twist or bend can generate a crisis for the low back leading the patient to wonder exactly how turning to pick that cup of coffee off the desk behind him / her lead to such a severe back pain and spasm.

Here’s To Your Health

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com