San Diego Chiropractic Blog

Chronic pain is defined as pain that persists longer than 90 days beyond the course of the natural expected healing time. As a chiropractor in San Diego, I get calls from both new and established patients on a regular basis who complain of back pain, neck pain, etc. One of the factors that comes into play when planning a chiropractic treatment program is the duration of the patients pain. In general, the longer that a patient suffers with a painful condition, the longer / more intense the treatment is needed in order to fix it. Acute or recent episodes of pain respond much quicker than do chronic conditions.

Pain is very difficult to quantify by any practitioner. Pain is subjective in nature and completely defined by the person experiencing the symptoms, the fact that chronic pain can exist without an obvious cause makes it much more difficult to treat.

I see the difficulties that my chronic pain patients have with their conditions on a daily basis. Aside from the actual pain that they experience, those who suffer with chronic pain often limit their activities for fear of exacerbating their conditions. They also have a much harder time focussing on mental tasks as the pain is a constant source of distraction. The more severe the pain, the more difficulties these people have with attention demanding tasks.

While we strive to avoid pain, pain is a wonderful tool of the nervous system. Pain lets us know of actual or potential tissue damage with an unpleasant sensation that directs our attention to the affected area so that we can either immediately take action to stop the process or focus on healing the injured body parts. Chronic pain sensations are a bit more insidious.

Chronic pain often involves a decrease in the sensitivity of the nerve fibers that send messages of pain from the damaged area. With a decreased sensitivity (threshold), the nerve is much more likely to transmit painful sensations to the brain then a healthy nerve / tissue combination. This activity within the nervous system is know as a wind up phenomenon and it is very difficult to stop once it has been established. In some other cases, nerve fibers that normally don’t carry painful sensations not only begin to transmit pain signals but it is thought that they may actually generate the signals themselves.

In my office, chronic pain is often the result of untreated sprain / strain type injuries of the joints. In untreated or under-treated sprain / strain injuries, the joint or the muscles that move the joint are laden with scar tissue that acts to either limit or alter motion of that joint. With time, the awkward, unnatural bio-mechanics of the scar tissue laden joint results in irritation, inflammation and finally pain and spasm. While chiropractic care is often successful at re-establishing “clean” bio mechanics of a joint, it is always better to get the care in the beginning of an injury versus waiting for that injury to become chronic, with a requiring more care with a decreasing chance of complete recovery.

Because of the possibility of an acute painful condition becoming a chronic one, I always encourage my patients to take care of themselves immediately when they first start to experience pain. I have practiced chiropractic care for almost two decades now and I can say that chronic painful conditions of the spine are devastating. Not only do they make you experience pain, but in most instances they limit your physical activities creating a situation that can easily degrade from inactivity secondary to pain, to de-conditioning and eventually to obesity and ill health in general leading to a dissatisfying lifestyle.

The bottom line on chronic pain is this - avoid it if you can. Don’t ignore your pain. Painful acute conditions that are left untreated can easily spiral into a chronic condition that has the potential to alter your lifestyle in a negative way.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones San Diego Chiropractor

www.JonesPainRelief.com

Is Chiropractic Care Addictive? I am asked this question on a regular basis.

There are many people who are under the impression that once you begin chiropractic treatment you have to keep going - almost like something bad is going to happen to you if you stop your care.

I understand how some people would come to think that chiropractic care could be addictive, after all, almost all medications that people get from their medical doctors for pain is addictive. I suppose that if you are in pain, are concerned about the addictive nature of the medications that you have taken in the past, and are going to the chiropractic for the first time that you may think that chiropractic care for pain may be addictive as well.

I can assure you that chiropractic care is not addictive but feeling good can be as powerful as an addiction. There are certain people that are more “in tune” with their bodies than others. Restrictions in joint motion and flexibility typically occur slowly over time and are not normally perceptible. Once these people start care they experience full, free range of motion of their joints without neck pain, back pain or headaches - and they like it. After formal care ends, a percentage of these people notice when their joints begin to lose their range of motion. Since they felt better under chiropractic treatment, they like to continue their care simply to feel better.

This is about as addictive as chiropractic care can be. It is really no different from those who exercise and / or diet and feel better and therefore continue with their plan.

In closing, you can receive chiropractic care with no fear of developing a physical or physiological dependency on the treatment. Most chiropractors, myself included, know that chiropractic care is of great benefit to the health of your spine. Keeping your spine well adjusted is akin to keeping your teeth brushed and flossed - but it is not addictive.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones San Diego Chiropractor

www.JonesPainRelief.com

“Hey Doc, is it OK if I crack my own neck?”

In my San Diego chiropractic clinic, I treat many patients for neck pain, back pain and other joint pains. A few of these patients ask me if it is OK if they crack their necks and backs by themselves. A few of them will tell me that they have their kids or the wife walk on their back. And a few of them are in my office because either they cracked their back or neck by themselves or they had someone else do it for them which resulted in an injury.

The funny thing about some of these people who were injured by a non-chiropractic adjustment is that they are nervous about me adjusting them for their neck pain or back pain.

The truth about cracking your own neck or back is that it is not very safe. Usually people develop pain or stiffness in the spine because of an injury or some ongoing condition. Chiropractors are trained to specifically diagnose and provide treatment for these conditions or injuries.

Through the course of my fifteen year career, I have seen patients who have broken vertebra by adjusting their own necks and backs. I have seen broken ribs as a result of having someone walk on their backs, I have seen two patients who suffered mild strokes from cracking their own necks and I had one patient whose brother suffered paralysis from the chest down because his partner walked on his back resulting in a crushed vertebra and a seriously damaged spinal cord.

Some people crack their own joints daily for years without suffering obvious serious consequences. Even these people are doing themselves a disservice. In no normal situation should you feel as though you have to crack a specific joint every day. Those who do crack the same joints everyday for years will develop arthritis in those joints resulting in pain, dysfunction and possibly disability.

In most cases cracking or as we chiropractors call it “adjusting” a joint is fairly easy once the skills are acquired. However, the one of the most important things regarding the delivery of any type of health care is when not to deliver it. In every case that I have seen when a patient was injured by a non-chiropractic adjustment, the injured patient “thought” that they knew what was wrong.

Don’t make the same mistakes. If you need to get adjusted, go to the chiropractor!

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com