Is Pain Your Obstacle to Fitness? Chiropractic Can Help

Are aches and pains getting in the way of your weight loss goals? Schubbe Resch Chiropractic and Physical Therapy Centers in Appleton and Neenah can help. This fall, doctors of chiropractic across the country will highlight how they can help patients focus on getting past the roadblocks to fitness and better health during National Chiropractic Health Month. The theme for the 2010 observance is “Why Weight? Get Healthy!”

More than 60 percent of adults in the United States are either overweight or obese, according to CDC statistics, and obesity is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and some types of cancer. However, many people are unaware that even modest weight loss, such as 5 to 10 percent of a person’s total body weight, could improve blood pressure as well as blood cholesterol and blood sugars levels. That’s only 10 to 20 pounds for a person who weighs 200 pounds.

Yet losing weight can be a struggle, and many people wonder where to begin. The answer for some may be in the office of a doctor of chiropractic (DC). “Diet pills and extreme diets do not offer long-term solutions,” says Dr. Rick McMichael, president of the American Chiropractic Association. “Doctors of chiropractic, on the other hand, offer natural approaches such as exercise, diet and hands-on care to help keep you active and able to achieve your weight-loss goals in the short term, and also help you maintain your fitness level and thereby avoid some chronic conditions down the line.”

Consultation with a DC is particularly important when you consider that the effects of obesity on the musculoskeletal system—osteoarthritis, back pain, neck pain and joint pain—often cause overweight people to avoid physical activity and exercise when they need it most.

“If you’re carrying more weight than the load-bearing structures of your body—spine, legs, etc.—can handle, there’s going to be pain, loss of movement and degeneration in the joints,” adds Dr. Peter Schubbe. “Particularly if you’re carrying most of your weight in your abdomen, the low back and the spine will need to work harder to hold you upright. This adds extra stress and tension on your muscles, which in turn creates stiffness.”

Sponsored by ACA, National Chiropractic Health Month is held each October. The event helps raise public awareness of the benefits of chiropractic care and its natural, whole-person, patient-centered approach to health and wellness.

Over the years, Schubbe Resch has built an exceptional reputation with local patients and physicians that is unsurpassed in the Fox Cities region. For more information about how Schubbe Resch can help you achieve better overall health and wellness, please visit www.schubberesch.com or contact patientservices@schubbeappleton.com .

Chronic Pain

If you suffer from chronic pain, chiropractic care may help you.  While you may be able to struggle through your essential duties, there is not much you can enjoy when your head aches or your back or neck hurts constantly.  To get on with life, many people take pain relievers like aspirin or the newer but similar drugs including Advil, Motrin, Aleve, and other brands.  Unfortunately, these do nothing but cover up the problem.  Worse yet, these drugs can have serious side effects if taken regularly over time.

There is a better way to handle chronic pain - chiropractic care gets to the cause of the pain and has virtually no side effects.  Chiropractic care is well know to work wonders with chronic and acute pack pain, but it is also effective with many headaches, neck pain, whiplash injuries, on the job injuries, and other painful conditions.  The best part is that chiropractic care gets to the root of the problem rather than covering it up like drugs.

Heat Therapy for Back Pain Relief

Ice massage and ice application is generally most helpful during the acute pain phase following an injury that strains the back muscles. After this initial period, heat therapy is probably more beneficial to the healing process. For some people, alternating heat therapy with cold application such as ice massage therapy provides the most pain relief. Cold therapy should be utilized as long as acute pain is present – not just during the first 48 hours following an injury.

Benefits of heat therapy

Moist heat, such as a warm bath or whirlpool, is thought to aid the healing process by increasing circulation and relaxing muscle spasms. Whether one uses moist heat or dry heat, the desired effect is for the heat to penetrate down into the muscles. When warmth and heat penetrate the injured and sore muscles, this provides the dual benefits of:

• Relaxing the back muscles (to reduce painful spasms)
• Facilitating stretching the injured tissues to reduce stiffness.

In addition, heat therapy is both inexpensive and easy to do.  Several types of heat application are readily available and include heating pads, hot water bottles, commercial heat wraps, hot baths, warm gel packs, and more.

Precautions for heat therapy

As with ice application, when applying heat therapy, care should be taken to avoid burning the skin. Any type of heat source should be “warm”, not hot, to avoid burning the skin. Also, it is cautioned never to fall asleep with the heating pad on. As with ice therapy, it is important to always use a protective barrier, such as a towel, between the heat and the skin to avoid burning the skin.

Please note that heat should not be used in certain circumstances. For example, if the lower back is swollen or bruised, heat should not be used and it is better to use a cold pack to reduce the inflammation or swelling in the area. Patients should consult with their chiropractic physician if they have heart disease or hypertension. In general, heat therapy should also not be used if the patient has dermatitis, deep vein thrombosis, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, an open wound, or severe cognitive impairment. There is no exact prescription for ice and heat therapy, but common usage is 20 minutes on followed by 45-60 minutes off – repeating this cycle as often as possible.  If either ice or heat therapy cause an increase in pain, stop using the pain causing therapy immediately, and continue to use the other one alone.

Ice Massage Therapy for Back Pain Relief

Ice massage therapy
For patients experiencing back pain, ice massage therapy is quick, free, easy to do, and it can provide significant pain relief for many types of back pain.  In a world of sophisticated medical care, a simple ice massage can still be one of the more effective, proven methods to treat a sore back or neck, either alone or in combination with other treatments.

Most episodes of back pain are caused by muscle strain.  The large paired muscles in the low back (erector spinae) help hold up the spine, and with an injury, the muscles can become inflamed and spasm, causing low back pain and significant stiffness.

Common causes of muscle strain to the low back muscles include:

• A sudden movement
• An awkward fall
• Incorrect lifting of a heavy object
• A sports injury

While it sounds like a simple injury, a muscle strain can create a surprising amount of pain.  In fact, this type of injury is one of the most common reasons people go to the emergency room.  However, not much can be done for a strained back muscle except for rest (up to two days), pain relief medications, and to use ice and/or heat application.  This article discusses how and when to use ice massage therapy  for quick relief of back pain caused by muscle strain.

How ice massage therapy provides pain relief

Ice massages can help provide relief for back pain in a number of ways, including:

• Ice application slows the inflammation and swelling that occurs after injury.  Most back pain is accompanied by some type of inflammation, and addressing the inflammation helps reduce pain
• Ice massage therapy numbs sore tissues (providing pain relief like a local anesthetic)
• Ice massage therapy slows the nerve impulses in the area, which interrupts the pain-spasm reaction between the nerves

Ice massage therapy is most effective if it is applied as soon as possible after the injury occurs.  The cold makes the veins in the tissue contract, reducing circulation.  Once the cold is removed, the veins overcompensate and dilate and blood rushes to the area.  The blood brings with it the necessary nutrients to allow the injured back muscles, ligaments, and tendons to heal.

As with all pain relief treatments, there are some cautions with applying ice and using ice massage therapy.  Never apply ice directly to the skin.  Instead, be sure that there is a protective barrier between the ice and skin, such as a towel.  Limit the ice application to no more than fifteen or twenty minutes.  Additionally, ice should also not be used for patients who have rheumatoid arthritis, Raynaud's Syndrome, cold allergic conditions, paralysis, or areas of impaired sensation.

The Benefits of Vitamin D

There are few foods that naturally contain vitamin D – salmon, tuna, mackerel and fish oils are the best sources.  Thankfully, you can also get Vitamin D from a daily dose of sunshine, or from supplements.

If you are trying to get your vitamin D from exposure to the sun, you will need about 10-15 minutes per day outside in the sun.  Sunscreen will prevent you from getting adequate exposure, so try spending the first 10-15 minutes outdoors without sunscreen.  Just be sure to apply after that to prevent unnecessary burns.

You can also get your vitamin D from fortified foods such as milk, or take a quality vitamin D supplement.  The usual recommendation is 400 IU (international units) but many nutritionists recommend as much as 1000 IU.

Vitamin D has been shown to play a number of roles in our health.  It promotes the absorption of calcium, which increases bone health.  It boosts your body’s immune function.  Vitamin D can reduce inflammation, and also protect against some forms of cancer.

Our office sells two different Vitamin D formulations:

• D3 1000 IU by Metagenics offers a high potency vitamin D3, which is the most bio-active form of supplemental vitamin D available.
• We also offer D3 5000 IU  for patients who have low vitamin D levels and need a higher dosage.

Why Do I Need Orthotics?

If your feet don't work right, you hurt ALL over.  Remember the old song, "the foot bone's connected to the shin bone, the shin bone's connected to the thigh bone ... all the way up to the neck bone"?  Well, your aching feet, your trick knee, your stiff back or that crick in your neck may come from abnormal foot bio-mechanics.

Your physical therapist, with special training in biomechanics, a branch of medical science dealing with human motion and posture, will evaluate you from head to toe, both dynamically (while moving) and statically (when at rest).

Some of the mechanisms observed during this type of examination are supination (rolling out)  and pronation (collapsing in)  of your feet.  If abnormal, a very important aspect of your treatment will be the prescription of functional foot orthotics.

Here at Schubbe Resch Chiropractic and Physical Therapy Centers, we do prescribe functional foot orthotics.  Functional orthotics capture the neutral position for the sub-talar joint.  During casting, the therapists find the mid-stance position to compensate for foot deformities. Posts or wedges built in the orthotics allow the foot to function around its neutral position.

Our office also offers pre-made orthotics.  This type of orthotic may be helpful for some patients,  however, the orthotics will accommodate whatever position the foot is in along with any deformities that are present.  The off-the -shelf orthotics are not made to correct deformities.  Their main purpose is to redistribute plantar pressure to prevent pain.

Insurance plans may or may not cover custom orthotics, and usually will not cover off-the -shelf orthotics.  However, the cost to the patient may be worth the reduction in foot and spine pain.

What Does Light Therapy Do?

Here is a list of what light therapy can do:

• Increase circulation by increasing the formation of new capillaries, which are additional blood vessels that replace damaged ones.  New capillaries speed up the healing process by carrying more oxygen as well as more nutrients needed for healing and they can also carry more waste products away.
• Stimulate the production of collagen,  Collagen is the most common protein found in the body.  Collagen is the essential protein used to repair damaged tissue and to replace old tissue.  It is the substance that holds cells together and has a high degree of elasticity.  By increasing collagen production, less scar tissue is formed at the damaged site.
• Stimulate the release of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).  ATP is the major carrier of energy to all cells.  Increases in ATP allow cells to accept nutrients faster and get rid of waste products faster by increasing the energy level in the cell.  All food turns into ATP before it is utilized by the cells.  ATP provides the chemical energy that drives the chemical reaction of the cell.
• Increase lymphatic system activity.  Edema, which is the swelling or natural splinting of the body, has two basic components.  The first is a liquid part which can be evacuated by the blood system and the second is comprised of the proteins which have to be evacuated by the lymphatic system.  Research has shown that the lymph vessel diameter and the flow of the lymph system can be doubled with the use of light therapy.  The venous diameter and the arterial diameters can also be increased.  This means that both parts of edema (liquid and protein) can be evacuated at  a much faster rate to relieve swelling.
• Increase RNA and DNA synthesis.  This helps damaged cells to be replaced more promptly.
• Reduce the  excitability of nervous tissue.  The photons of light energy enter the body as negative ions.  The calls upon the body to send positive ions like calcium among others to go to the area being treated.  These ions assist in firing the nerves thereby relieving pain.
• Stimulate fibroblastic activity which aids in the repair process.  Fibroblasts are present in connective tissue and are capable of forming collagen fibers.
• Increase phagocytosis, which is the process of scavenging for and ingesting dead or degenerated cells by phagocyte cells for the purpose of clean up. This is an important part of the infection fighting process.  Destruction of the infection and clean up must occur before the healing process can take place.
• Induce a thermal like effect in the tissue.  The light raises the temperature of the cells although there is no heat produced from the light therapy diodes themselves.
• Stimulate tissue granulation and connective tissue projections, which are part of the healing process of wounds, ulcers, or inflamed tissue.
• Stimulate acetylcholine release.  Acetylocholine causes cardiac inhibition, vasodilation, gastrointestinal peristalsis and other parasympathetic effects.