San Diego Chiropractic Blog

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 every 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

Here’s To Your Health

Call (619) 280-0554 for an appointment

San Diego Chiropractic

Dr. Jones Your Mission Valley Doctor for :

• Whiplash Doctor
• Treating Whiplash Mission Valley SD
• Whiplash Treatment San Diego
• Whiplash Personal Injury Claims
• Work Related Injury
• Sport Injury Pain Relief

Have you ever had chiropractic care for injuries from an auto accident?

At my San Diego based Chiropractic Clinic I provide treatment for many patients with neck pain, back pain and headaches. In many cases, the cause of these aches and pains are related to auto accidents or other types of personal injury.

More often than not, the accident in question occurred years earlier and the initial symptoms were not taken seriously by the patient. Most people don’t take the time to seek treatment for themselves yet they scramble to get their cars fixed. This thought process extends into other injury / treatment scenarios as well. I once had an acquaintance who smoked but proudly proclaimed that she didn’t smoke inside her car because she didn’t want to ruin the interior!

I don’t know why so many of us carry these kinds of thought processes. In the case of auto accident injuries, the little bit of neck pain or the slight headache or the lower back pain is often overlooked or dismissed and minimized as being un-important. This is flawed thinking. Imagine if we treated other health conditions with such disregard.

The injury mechanisms in whiplash type accidents are complex. Muscles are stretched and torn, ligaments can sometimes partially tear or rupture, intervertebral discs can become herniated and spinal fractures can occur. These injuries can lead to a vast number of symptoms that can cause anything from slight irritation all the way to severe disability.

While the mechanism of injury in whiplash cases is complex, the typical resulting spinal injuries follow a well established path. Initially, the muscles and ligaments in the injured area are irritated. This irritation leads to inflammation. Inflammation is not only responsible for many of the initial symptoms that you experience but it is also responsible for scar tissue formation which can make your symptoms permanent or chronic.

Statistically, 25% of all auto accident / injury victims will suffer from some ongoing symptom related to their accident. Chiropractors are experts in dealing with the types of injuries that occur as a result of auto accidents. The best way to insure that you are not a member of this group of 25% is to get an examination and possibly treatment, if recommended by your chiropractor.

Yours In Good Health

Dr. Jones

San Diego Chiropractic Care
Chiropractor San Diego Blog

Here’s To Your Health

Call (619) 280-0554 for an appointment
San Diego Chiropractic
Dr. Jones Your Mission Valley Doctor for :

• Whiplash Doctor
• Treating Whiplash Mission Valley SD
• Whiplash Treatment San Diego
• Whiplash Personal Injury Claims
• Work Related Injury
• Sport Injury Pain Relief

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

My Chiropractic office in San Diego, California provides treatment for many patients who complain of lower back pain that is accompanied by leg pain. The term for this leg pain is sciatica and it implies that the leg pain is due to a compression of the sciatic nerve.

More often than not, sciatica is due to compression of the nerve at the point where it exits the spine. The typical scenario is that one of the five joints in the lower part of the spine will become misaligned, irritated and inflamed, putting pressure on the sciatic nerve and causing leg pain.

Because so many cases of sciatic pain are caused by spinal misalignments, in many cases this condition is effectively treated with chiropractic care.

Chiropractic treatment for sciatica can involve spinal adjustments, hot packs, ice packs, electrical muscle stimulation, ultrasound, traction and specific stretches / exercises. Typically, chiropractic treatment for this condition requires a course of care rather than a single visit.

Although many cases of sciatica are due to simple spinal misalignments, there are other causes of this condition that must be examined. Some of the other leading causes of sciatic pain are as follows.

1) Bulging Disc: A bulging disc is also known as a slipped disc. This means the gel-like center of the disc bulges up against the nerve root. Disc bulges can cause pain, numbness, tingling, and muscle weakness. Typically, disc bulges generate pain with sitting, bending and twisting motions.

2) Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: Spinal stenosis is a type of nerve compression that most often affects older people. Leg pain similar to sciatica can occur as a result of lumbar spinal stenosis. The pain is usually brought on by activities such as standing or walking and relieved by sitting down.

3) Spondylolisthesis: Spondylolisthesis is a disorder that is characterized by one vertebra slipping forward over the vertebra below it. When the vertebra slips and becomes displaced, spinal nerve root compression occurs and often causes sciatic leg pain. Spondylolisthesis has many possible origins including developmental (found at birth, develops during childhood) or acquired as a result of degeneration, trauma or physical stress.

4) Trauma: Sciatica can result from nerve compression caused by external forces from such things as motor vehicle accidents, falls, work injuries and sports injuries.

5) Piriformis Syndrome: Piriformis syndrome derives its name from the piriformis muscle and the pain that arises when the muscle irritates the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve runs beneath the piriformis muscle and develops pain when muscle spasms develop compressing the sciatic nerve. It may be difficult to diagnose and treat due to the lack of x-ray or MRI findings.

6) Spinal Tumors: Tumors are abnormal growths that are either benign or cancerous. Fortunately, spinal tumors are rare. When a tumor develops in the lower back, there is a possibility for sciatica to develop as a result of nerve compression.

More Coming Soon

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

You are on my last nerve!

When I was a kid my mom probably said that to me a hundred times. Now my patients in my San Diego chiropractic office complain of other types of nerve issues. Sometimes, pinched nerves accompany neck pain, back pain and headaches.

Pinched nerves always result in pain traveling down either an arm or a leg resulting in what is called radiating pain. Many patients come to my San Diego chiropractic office complaining of a pinched nerve but my exam reveals simple neck pain or back pain.

There are many causes of pinched nerves. One of the worst scenarios involves a herniated disc in the spine that is putting pressure on the nerve. Herniated discs don’t always mean that surgery is required but it usually results in stretched out, more intensive treatment plans.

One of the more common causes of pinched nerves results from irritated and inflamed joints in the spine. Poor lifting habits, awkward sleeping positions, poor posture and many other aggravating activities can inflame the ligamentous capsule that surrounds the joint. As the capsule swells, it cause local muscle spasm and can cause compression or pinching of the nerve.

Like I wrote earlier in the article, pinching of the nerve causes radiating pain that travels down the leg, into an arm, down the back or sometimes up to the back of the head. Either way, pinched nerves can make you absolutely miserable.

There are several things that you can do for a pinched nerve at home. To begin with, pinched nerves almost always involve inflammation and swelling. By applying ice packs to painful areas you can reduce the inflammation and relieve some of the pain. In addtion to ice pack use, you have to acknowledge and respect your pain. That means rest as much as you can - working through pain rarely works out well for the patient. Try your best to stay out of painful positions and don’t “test” it.

Chiropractic treatment is very effective at relieving the symptoms of a pinched nerve. Instead of masking the pain with drugs, chiropractic care improves the mechanics of the joint which helps relieve the pain and improve your range of motion.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com

Several years ago, Florida Sate University was selected as a site for the newest Palmer Chiropractic College. While this blog post revolves around a story that takes place thousands of miles away from my San Diego Chiropractic Office, it is relevant because it would initiate a study that would explore current beliefs and opinions regarding chiropractic care. After all, this would be the first general studies university to have a chiropractic college integrated into its campus. As with most changes, there were both accolades and anger. As a result of the divide between those in favor and those against the addition of Palmer College (my school by the way), an intensive study of chiropractic was launched by the Florida State University to find out exactly what chiropractic care was and why so many people seek out chiropractic treatment.

The following findings are taken directly from the overview found on the first few pages of the FSU report.

Reasons and Conditions for Patients Seeking Chiropractic Care

The primary reasons that patients seek chiropractic care are for illness related to back pain, headaches, and neck pains. Other types of illnesses for which chiropractic treatments are sought include lower and upper extremity pains, chest pains, and abdominal pains.

The primary causes of patient conditions for which chiropractic care is sought are activities of daily living, motor vehicle accidents, overuse/repetitive stress, work and sports/exercise/recreation.

Almost 10 percent of the patients seeking chiropractic care do so for wellness and preventive care reasons.

Consumer Use and Satisfaction with Chiropractic Care

Consumers of chiropractic care have expressed overwhelming satisfaction with the services. A survey of Floridians revealed that over 90 percent of those who have used chiropractic care during the past three years were satisfied with those services.

Nationally, the percentage of the U.S. population who has used chiropractic services has increased from 5 percent in 1980 to over 45 percent in the late 1990s.

A 2000 Florida survey revealed that over 29 percent of Floridians have used chiropractic care just within the past three years.

The survey also revealed that 92.3 percent of those who previously used chiropractic care would do so again if they had illnesses that chiropractors treat.

Research Proves Effectiveness of Chiropractic Care for Selected Conditions

During the past 20 years, over 100 studies of the effectiveness of chiropractic care, both alone and in combination with other treatments, have been conducted by reputable researchers. The studies have included clinical trials, research of medical records, consumer surveys, and chiropractic surveys. Very little research has been conducted on the wellness/preventive effectiveness of chiropractic care. Thus, no evidence currently exists either supporting or denying the hypothesis that chiropractic care improves the overall health of an individual.

The research has shown that chiropractic care is either more effective or as effective as comparable pharmaceutical and surgical treatments for back and neck pains and for certain types of headaches.

Perhaps of even more importance, the research has shown that chiropractic care is significantly safer than comparable pharmaceutical and surgery treatments, producing far fewer (about 4,000 times fewer, according to one study) negative side effects such as chronic pain, disability, or death.

This is just a small piece of the FSU study on chiropractic care. In future posts I will provide more details from this document. I hope you enjoyed it!

Yours In Good Health

Dr. Jones

San Diego Chiropractic Care
Chiropractor San Diego Blog
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractor
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Workstation Considerations

The study of workstation ergonomics tells us that the objects that we use most often should be located closest to your body and accessed easily, without awkward body positions or movements. Repeated reaching or prolonged fixed postures that involve leaning forward from your chair are stressful and fatiguing.

Some people are aware of computer ergonomics and have purchased various ergonomic devices. These devices, such as keyboard trays, gel mouse pads, and ergonomic keyboards rarely provide solutions to the big picture of computer ergonomics. These items must work with each other in order to produce a significant reduction in postural stress. For example, an ergonomic mouse is of little use if it is positioned in an area that requires reaching and stretching in order to operate it. Limiting reaching and stretching for desk items is essential to maintaining a healthy ergonomic environment.

The most frequent complaint that I have seen in my office is due to computer work is the combination of mousing and reaching to the desk for the mouse.

Most computer stations are designed in a way that involves the worker operating the computer mouse on a pad on the desk. Reaching to the desk for the mouse places direct stress on the joints and soft tissues of the neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand. Additionally, reaching forward for the mouse stresses the lower and middle back.

So How Does Reaching for the Mouse Set the Stage for Injury?

Reaching for the mouse causes you to lean forward in your chair, extend your arm and support the weight of your body through your extended arm.

The stresses placed on the human frame when reaching for the mouse are easily identified. Contrary to popular belief, sitting, which most people believe is relaxing, is hard on the back. Sitting for long periods of time can cause increased pressure on the discs of the spine.

In recent years, studies on postural stress have indicated that we should be sitting upright with our hips flexed at 90 degrees. As it turns out, the most up to date studies show that a slightly reclined sitting posture with the hips flexed at 100 to 115 degrees is ideal if you have to sit at a desk. If your mouse is not positioned close enough to your body, you will have to reach for it. Reaching for your mouse stresses your back by reducing the angle of your hips.

Next, we have to look at the effects of reaching on the neck and shoulder. When the mouse is being operated at a distance that makes the operator reach, the shoulder extends forward and the shoulder blade abducts (rotates forward). This position stretches the muscle groups that connect the medial portion of your shoulder blade to your spine and the superior portion of your shoulder blade to your neck. In the short term, this stretch aggravates the affected muscle groups causing spasm, fatigue, headaches and stiffness in the neck and shoulder. In the long term, this position creates a condition called a “stretch weakness” resulting in muscular imbalance, trigger points and chronic variations of the conditions listed in the prior sentence.

Lastly, placing the mouse too far away, too low, or too much on one side can cause shoulder, wrist, elbow, and forearm discomfort. When the operator is forced to reach for the mouse, his / her body weight shifts forward and ultimately results in weight bearing stress on the extended arm. Spending prolonged periods of time leaning on an extended arm is an unnatural and destructive posture that will eventually lead to the development of a repetitive stress syndrome; likely resulting disorders would include tendonitis of the wrist, elbow or shoulder.

Yours In Good Health

Dr. Jones

San Diego Chiropractic Care
Chiropractor San Diego Blog
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractor
Car Accident Whiplash Injuries Pain Relief
Back Pain Relief & Treatment
Work Injury & Workplace Safety Advice
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Prenatal Health & Pain Relief

Does acute or chronic back pain have you down? Looking for alternatives to what your current back pain management plan is? Read on!

Practicing chiropractic in San Diego has exposed me to a patient base that is more interested in their health then in other areas of the country. In addition to traditional chiropractic treatment for neck pain and back pain our office offers our patients a host of recommendations for self care of their pain that can become part of a healthy lifestyle.

In order to help control episodes of back or neck pain, immediately drink several glasses of water. In some cases, dehydration will cause muscular aches and back pain. The rule of thumb of drinking eight, eight ounce glasses of water per day is healthy in general. Incidentally, headaches can be caused by dehydration as well. If you have headaches on a regular basis, increasing your water consumption may give you relief.

Ice applications to the area of pain can also be beneficial. Ice helps reduce inflammation which not only causes pain but can trigger local muscle spasms that lead to functional losses. There used to be an old rule concerning icing that suggested ice for the first 48 hours and then apply heat after that. Modern clinical studies indicate that as long as you have pain, you have inflammation. Inflammation always responds better to ice than it does to heat. We recommend that our patients ice their back pain or neck pain 20 minutes at a time at least two times per day with at least a 20 minute break in between sessions. Ice with a soft gel pack through a thin piece of clothing. Lastly, watch for frostbite - if the skin over the area that you are icing turns red or brown and scabs over you did too much.

Try to not sleep on your stomach. Stomach sleeping puts your back into extension which compresses the joints that run down the back of your spine. You should either sleep on your back with your knees supported with a pillow or sleep on your side in the fetal position. Either of these two positions may be comfortable for you and allow for a better nights sleep.

Do not try to exercise out of the pain. Exercise is vital to strengthening your back and providing stability but it needs to begin when your original pain has subsided and or is no longer aggravated by physical activity. The joints in our spines are supported by the ligaments and muscles. Once injured, ligaments heal slowly and may never provide the support that they did before the injury. We can improve our muscle tone, however, through exercise to regain pre-injury stability.

One last bit of advice that I will mention in this article is nutritional supplementation. Nutritional supplements can not only help you heal faster but can help control pain and inflammation as well. Among the common supplements that we recommend are essential fatty acids, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, SAMe and vitamin C.

Yours In Good Health

More Coming Soon Here’s To Your Health Yours In Good Health
Dr. Jones

San Diego Chiropractic Care
Chiropractor San Diego Blog
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractor
Car Accident Whiplash Injuries Pain Relief
Back Pain Relief & Treatment
Work Injury & Workplace Safety Advice
Web Design Hillcrest - San Diego - California
Prenatal Health & Pain Relief

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a healthy and strong spine?

Being a Chiropractor in San Diego, I see many types of injuries. These injuries result in symptoms such as neck pain, back pain, chronic headaches, etc. The cause of these injuries ranges from car accidents and work or sports injuries to injuries caused by more domestic duties that result from around the house chores and sometimes things as simple as sleeping in an awkward position.

Of these injured patients, I would say that at least for the moment, while they are in pain, at least 75% 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 in this post.

To begin with, pain is a great motivator. 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, the best thing that you can do while your injury is new is to apply ice packs to the injured area and rest. More often than not, over my 15 plus years in practice I have seen enthusiastic patients ignore this advice and end up giving their conditions major set backs. 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 which allows you to build confidence and strength at the same time.

This is a sensible approach to exercising after a back injury. Slow and cautious - and under the advise of a health care professional. Strong muscles add strength and support to your spine and can only serve you in a beneficial way.

Yours In Good Health

More Coming Soon Here’s To Your Health Yours In Good Health
Dr. Jones

San Diego Chiropractic Care
Chiropractor San Diego Blog
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractor
Car Accident Whiplash Injuries Pain Relief
Back Pain Relief & Treatment
Work Injury & Workplace Safety Advice
Web Design Hillcrest - San Diego - California
Prenatal Health & Pain Relief

Have you ever had an episode of low back pain? How about low back pain with sciatica? Neither of these is good.

Many patients are seeking back pain relief when they visit my San Diego based chiropractic clinic.

That is not unusual since most people consider chiropractors as back pain specialists. That being said, we treat patients for a variety of ailments including neck pain, headaches, sciatic pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc. While all of these conditions sound like very different conditions, they are actually very similar.

Most of my patients that suffer with headaches also complain of neck pain or stiffness. In fact, many headaches are related to muscle tension that originates in the neck. The muscle tension or spasm in the neck triggers the headache. Therefore, by treating the neck with a combination of chiropractic adjustments, hot packs, ice packs, muscle stimulation and ultrasound; the muscle tension in the neck can be resolved preventing the headache.

This is just an example of how one problem in a specific region of the body can be responsible for symptoms in a separate area. Likewise, sciatica is most often related to irritation of joints and muscle spasms in the lower back. Similarly, carpal tunnel syndrome results from a process involving joints in the wrist and the surrounding muscles and ligaments.

All of the conditions that I listed above as well as many unlisted conditions follow the same path to becoming symptomatic. Either through some specific injury or ongoing trauma (such as keyboarding, mousing or improper lifting techniques), the joint becomes irritated and inflamed causing pain and muscle spasm. If the pain and spasm affects a specific nerve, the patient may experience additional symptoms such as sciatica or arm / hand pain.

Any pain that travels from the back or down down an arm or leg is an indication of a more advanced problem that requires immediate evaluation and treatment.

Yours In Good Health

More Coming Soon Here’s To Your Health Yours In Good Health
Dr. Jones

San Diego Chiropractic Care
Chiropractor San Diego Blog
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractor
Car Accident Whiplash Injuries Pain Relief
Back Pain Relief & Treatment
Work Injury & Workplace Safety Advice
Web Design Hillcrest - San Diego - California
Prenatal Health & Pain Relief