Chiropractic... and NO MORE Migraines and Headaches! Headaches are one of the most common complaints that we see at our Elkhorn office. Headaches come after neck and back pain. Although there are many causes of headaches we have found that many different types of headaches originate from mechanical problems in the neck. Some headaches such as migraine and cluster headaches are related to vascular problems. These often include nausea and/or vomiting and can be quite disabling and require rest in a dark, quiet place sometimes for a half or a whole day. Other headaches can be categorized as "tension" headaches. These usually result from tightness in the muscles in the neck and upper back caused from stress, work, lack of sleep, sinusitis, trauma such as whiplash, and others. Pain can be felt in the upper neck or the back of the head as well as in the frontal, sinus region, top or sides of the head. It can vary from a throbbing pain to an ache to just a constant pain.
So "how does chiropractic work?" To answer this, let's first discuss what we do when the headache patient comes in. First, the history is very important! Here, we'll ask "how/when did the headaches start. This may glean the actual cause of headaches such as a car accident or injury of some sort. Next, we'll ask about activities that increase or create the headache, which gives us ideas of how we might help manage the headache patient. For example, when certain activities precipitate the onset of a headache, we will modify the workstation and/or give specific exercises on a regular schedule to keep the neck tension under control. When information gathered about what decreases or helps the neck pain and headaches we will offer adjustments, icing and natural ways to fight inflammation without drugs. What most people don't realize is that mechanical dysfunction of the vertebrae of the neck will cause increased muscle tension as well as irritate the delicate nerves that control blood flow into the head. Improving the movement or alignment of the bones in the neck can relieve the pressure and irritation that results in headaches. How do we get misalignments or dysfunction in the joints of the neck? This can be due to trauma such as falls or car accidents. Repetitive stress such as hours of work on a computer, poor posture or stress can also take a toll over time. In many patients it is a combination of activities that took place often years before which has led to chronic and recurring headaches. The examination evaluates these issues as well as attempts to rule out other more serious causes, which can occur but are more rare. Nerve function by checking reflexes, sensation and muscle strength as well as correlating information like positions that decrease arm or leg pain will be included as any position that reduces pain in the arm or leg must be incorporated into an exercise. As you can see, if is very important do a thorough evaluation so headache patients can be properly managed. Treatment approaches include: 1. Adjustments; 2. Soft tissue therapy (trigger point stimulation, myofascial release); 3. Posture correction exercises and other exercises; 4. Education about job modifications; 5. Nutritional and natural ways to cut out inflammation. Call your local Elkhorn Chiropractor today!
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While chiropractic care has been around for over a hundred years, there are still many misconceptions about what chiropractic is all about, what it feels like, sounds like and why. And, if you’re hesitant about giving it a try, we’re here to calm your nerves and tell you a little bit more about what we’re all about.
We don’t snap, crackle or pop — we adjust. An adjustment is a specific, highly accurate thrust that gently aligns your spine, as it should be, with absolutely no cracking of anything. Sometimes a popping sound is heard which is just the gas being released when your body moves into place. Chiropractors have many years of education. Today’s chiropractor receives a broad education very similar to medical doctors. In fact, it’s quite comparable to the education received by medical practitioners. Often, before acceptance to a five-year chiropractic college, prospective chiropractors must complete a minimum of four years of undergraduate work with a heavy emphasis on the basic sciences. A medical doctor (MD) and a chiropractor (DC) while different have both received a degree from a government accredited medical school or chiropractic college and are licensed to practice. Once you go, you don’t have to go forever… but you’ll probably want to! Your health is completely up to you. You can come for relief, or to keep your body in shape and functioning as it should. Preventative care keeps you feeling your best and helps your body prevent aches and pains in the future. It’s just like visiting your dentist regularly! Yes you can see a chiropractor after surgery. Have you had surgery in the past? We’d love to sit down with you and talk to you about how chiropractic care can help. Rest assured that we would avoid the surgically modified areas of your spine. Adjustments are gentle. Most people explain that they feel calm and refreshed after an adjustment. Since repeated adjustments may be necessary, an adjustment must feel good to get the patients to return to finish their care… and they do! We’re experts at making adjustments feel good and ensuring you’re comfortable. Chiropractors don’t just adjust your spine. Wrist. Jaw. Shoulder. Elbow. Hip. Ankle. Back. Knee. Feet. Hands. We adjust them all! Chiropractic care works so well and can be used virtually anywhere in the body and has effects on virtually every function of your body. We’re here to support you. Being a chiropractor is more than just helping your body realign itself, it’s about supporting you and helping you achieve your best potential, goals and a truly joyous life. We’re here to encourage you while you discover true wellness. If you have questions and would like to sit down and talk, we’d love to listen. Remember, the whole reason why we’re here… is you. Call your local, trusted Elkhorn Wellness Chiropractor today! Slipped Disc
A disc can’t slip. But it can wedge, bulge, protrude and herniate. Chiropractic care may help. Space for Nerves The disc is a special cartilage between the bones of your spinal column. It attaches to the vertebra above and below it. This creates the separation between spinal bones so pairs of nerves can exit the spine. Turning and Bending Each spinal disc has a jelly-like “ball bearing” core that is contained by bands of fibrous tissue. Healthy discs give you flexibility for normal turning and bending. Improper lifting, slips, falls and car accidents can cause the core to shift: Herniation - disc wedging narrows nerve openings. Obvious symptoms may not be present. Protrusion – like a blister, the disc bulges where it is the weakest, causing nerve pressure. Prolapse – with the cushioning and separating compromised by rupture, movement is painful. Chiropractic First Chiropractic has been a natural solution helping people with a variety of disc problems. Joint Health Keeping your joints healthy and moving well means 2 things: 1.) Your spine, nerves and nervous system is under minimal stress and 2.) The joints of your spine are healthy. We suggest that you get checked for subluxation, nerve stress, or joint fixation every 7-10 days because when a joint is "stuck" or fixated for more than 14 days it starts to become arthritic. Arthritis or arthritic changes are near impossible to reverse. Getting adjusted once per week for maintenance of spinal hygiene or spinal health may seem like a lot or may sound expensive... And it probably would be at other Elkhorn, Delavan, and Walworth County chiropractic offices but we do not accept insurance. It use to cost us thousands of dollars per month to bill insurance. By cutting out the middle man we can offer the savings to the people that mean the most to us - our patients! Call our Elkhorn Chiropractic office today! Whether you're looking for symptom relief or true health maintenance, you've found the right office! Elkhorn Chiropractor and Sciatica Pain Sciatica is a distracting pain that begins in the lower back and extends down one or both legs. It typically worsens with periods of sitting or standing. The discs between the spinal bones of the lower back are often involved. Trauma can cause one or more discs to bulge. This crowds nearby nerves, causing irritation and inflammation. Coughing, sneezing or other kinds of movement can be painful. If neglected, the nerve irritation extends down one or both legs along the sciatic nerves. The pain appears in the leg, but the culprit is often the lower back! Common symptoms of sciatica include:
Fortunately, there is hope. Improving joint motion in the lower back with a program of chiropractic adjustments has produced results for many people.
It all starts with a consultation and thorough examination. If we think we can help, we’ll tell you. And if we don’t think we can help, we’ll tell you that too and refer you to someone we think can. Get started today by calling our chiropractic office in Elkhorn, WI. We've helped many in the Delavan and Lake Geneva areas through chiropractic. Why not you? Chiropractic and Sciatic pain
Sciatica pain is often so debilitating that it forces people to miss work and other normal activities. Of all patients with low-back pain, sciatica patients have the highest level of disability (1). In fact, patients with sciatica are disabled for an average of 72 days according to Norwegian public-health records. Fortunately, a recent study offers hope to sciatica patients: chiropractic care can speed the recovery from sciatica flare ups and allow patients to return to work sooner (2). The study evaluated 44 Norwegian workers after they came to the hospital with severe sciatica pain. Most of those patients had been experiencing pain for three or more weeks prior to their hospital visit. The hospital chiropractor examined each patient to evaluate his/her posture and gait, range of motion, and palpation of the lumbar spine. The chiropractic then performed various joint adjustments to the spine and other limbs that had been injured through patients compensating for pain. Ice treatment was also used to relieve soft tissue soreness. Patients were treated daily in the hospital and later three times a week for the first two weeks. Some patients needed additional follow-up treatment but typically did not exceed 14 treatments. In matter of 21 days, 91% of patients returned to work full-time. Two patients returned to work part time. Researchers concluded this study demonstrates the potent benefits of collaboration between chiropractors and orthopedic surgeons. Chiropractic care can put an end to your sciatica pain so you can begin living your life fully again. If you or someone you know is struggling with sciatic or back pain symptoms don't hesitate to call or email us. Your local Elkhorn Chiropractor: serving Delavan, Lake Geneva, Fontana, Williams Bay, East Troy and the surrounding Walworth County areas.
How many times have you blamed your back pain on the humidity or change in barometric pressure? Well, research published in Arthritis Care & Research suggests that weather has absolutely nothing do to with your aches and pains – contrary to this extremely popular belief.
In a case-crossover study, researchers in Australia interviewed 993 individuals who experienced a sudden bout of back pain and compared them to meteorological reports for the timeframe of onset of pain, as well as one week and one month prior. This study occurred over the course of one year (between October 2011 and November 2012) allowing them to view data such as humidity, air pressure, temperature, wind direction, and precipitation, from every season. They found that regardless of what the weather was doing outside, it had no considerable impact on what was happening inside the study participant’s bodies when it came to back pain. They did notice a small effect of wind speed on back pain, increasing it slightly when winds picked up, but noted that the effect was so minimal that it “was not clinically important.” So, what does this mean? Perhaps there are other factors that make it appear that weather is the cause of more achiness and hurt. For instance, maybe you are more active when rain is in the forecast because you know that your activities are going to be limited in the days ahead. Or, it is even possible that the pain is triggered simply because you expect it. No matter what the cause, regular chiropractic care can minimize your back pain and help you live a more active life. That way you can enjoy yourself – rain or shine. Contact your local Elkhorn Chiropractor: Serving children and families for the Delavan, Lake Geneva, Williams Bay, Fontana, East Troy and surrounding Walworth County areas. Reference Steffens D, et al. Weather does not affect back pain: Results from a case-crossover study. Arthritis Care & Research. DOI: 10.1002/acr.22378. Chiropractic for Children
Why would a child have a spine and nervous system problem? Traumatic births. Learning to walk. Slips. Falls. The list is endless. Yet, because children have such an adaptive capacity, these problems are often brushed off as “growing pains” or just a “phase they’re going through.” “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.” When a child has some form of physical trauma or physical stress it puts their nervous system into a higher state of stress, or what we call "fight/flight". How does this happen? Most individuals and parents understand that the central nervous system is a very important system, if not, the MOST important system in maintaining and coordinating health. But most people don't understand the details of the central nervous system. The nervous system works in two modes of operation: 1.) sympathetic or "fight/flight" or "gas pedal" and 2.) parasympathetic or "growth/development" or "brake pedal". These two modes of operation, for the most part, are an autonomic (or automatic) response to our environment or our lifestyle. When your little one is running around the soccer field, his/her sympathetic nervous system automatically engages to enhance other systems like the cardio-respiratory centers to increase heart rate, increase breathing, pushing blood and oxygen to fuel their muscles, and at the same time it weakens the response for systems such as immune modulation, growth and digestion. This "fight or flight" mode is designed to be "turned on" for a short period of time and then "turned off". So when your little one shakes hands at mid field and goes back to the van with mom and dad, the parasympathetic nervous system should automatically turn on while the sympathetic or "gas pedal/fight/flight" should be turned off so they can absorb and digest their healthy post-soccer game snack that mom has prepared for them. Make sense? So what's the big problem? One thing we must understand is "we cannot be in GROWTH and PROTECTION mode at the same time". The biggest problem we see is the sympathetic or "gas pedal - protection mode" response gets "STUCK ON" for kids at an early age because of some sort of birth trauma (scheduled C-section, emergency C-section, vacuum, forcep delivery, increased in-utero constraint, breech position, etc), early childhood slips and falls, or mom experiences a very stressful pregnancy. Because this protective "gas pedal" response gets "stuck on" the nervous system never has a chance to "grow and develop" and coordinate the other immature or developing systems such as: immune system, digestive system, endocrine, etc... The BIGGER problem. We live in a time where more children are suffering from chronic illnesses than ever before (allergies, ADD/ADHD, autism, breathing difficulties, gut problems, immune system imbalances, eczema, auto-immune disorders, etc) and the reason is simply STRESS (stressful pregnancy for mom, birth trauma for baby, GMO food, environmental chemicals, etc...) that has caused our "gas pedal" response to get "stuck on" and our body, or our children's bodies, never get to "grow and develop" as they are designed to. How does Chiropractic and keeping your pregnancy less stressful help PREVENT this epidemic of sickness in our kids? Your nervous system's role is to "perceive your environment and coordinate the behavior of every cell." When mom conceives, a half cell from dad and half cell from herself meet to form one cell (This ONE cell has all the functions of growth, respiration, reproduction, digestion, perception, etc that the ENTIRE body will need after it is bore into the world in roughly 9 months). This cell then undergoes replication and division for the next 9 months to grow a perfectly healthy baby.... but only if mom is under minimal stress. When mom's nervous system perceives a stressful environment it activates her "gas pedal" response. When this happens, mom's nervous system, which is coordinating the behavior (development) of her soon-to-be baby's tissues, organs, nervous system, etc.., does so, stressfully. Under these stressful circumstances; fear, pressure, poor diet, lack of movement, environmental toxins, etc..., it is very difficult to "grow and develop" a baby with healthy, well-functioning tissues, organs and systems. The chiropractic adjustment, because it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, applies the "brakes" and slows mom's nervous system down and hence, allowing the "growth and development" of her baby to happen normally and naturally and a good doula or midwife will educate and empower soon-to-be mommas with the knowledge to make the best informed decisions for herself but more importantly, the baby - minimizing the emotional (mental) stress of mom during her pregnancy and help minimize the risk of birth trauma and other unnecessary interventions. Chiropractors, doulas and midwives work together to help keep mom and the baby in "growth and development" mode. Because let's face it..... the 9 months of pregnancy is the biggest growth and development phase anyone will ever go through! This is a great reason to consider a doula or midwife as well as a chiropractor for your pregnancy. - Chad Schleiger, D.C. Imagine balancing a 12 lb. (5.5 kg.) bowling ball on the tips of your fingers.... all day long. That’s just one of many things your neck must do. Your neck and shoulders work hard. Even the smallest deviation in the relationships of the seven bones of your cervical spine (neck) can cause pain and reduced head and neck mobility. Minor and Major Generally, we see two types of neck pain cases. Minor neck and shoulder pain involve sensations of discomfort, stiffness or soreness. If these symptoms last for more than 14 days or the joints have been stuck for 14 days or longer, they start to undergo arthritic changes -arthritis! These changes are irreversible so we consider them major. Just small minor stressors that build up over time such as, credit card bills, flat tire, family relationships, etc can cause ill-health in our bodies, especially our spine and nervous system. Response to Stress Physical, emotional or chemical stress can affect the frequency and severity of neck pain. For many of us, the neck and shoulders are the “weakest link in the chain” and so stress shows up here. Often, emotional stress is the overlooked culprit. Ever hear of something being a “pain in the neck”? Fear, anger or frustration can trigger the tightening of our neck muscles without our even being conscious. In time, chronic muscle spasms set in. Which can lead to headaches. Some over-the-counter pain reliever might dull the pain, but it ignores the underlying cause.
Sometimes this can be the tricky part of a chiropractor's job because most (90% or more) of spinal misalignments or what we call "subluxation" occur without any symptoms at all.
So we use a couple of outside measures to find internal mishaps in your body. During the examination on your first visit to our practice, we use a number of tools and techniques to determine the presence and extent of any misalignments in your spine. When your spine is not aligned properly, nerve interference is often the result. This can affect your entire body, even your immune system. Chiropractic care is designed to reduce this nerve interference, which then permits your body to assume its true, healthful vigor. How do we determine whether there are misalignments in your spine? Well, we generally use a number of different diagnostic tests, which may include one or more of the following: Leg length tests – A contracted leg, causing one leg to appear shorter than the other can be a common sign of spinal misalignment. Gait – We may have you walk as we notice any pelvic or spinal abnormalities that affect your stride or the way your heels strike the floor. Bending – Bending in different directions and at different angles can reveal spinal problems such as inflexibility or scoliosis. Rotation – Restricted movement when turning your head to the right or left can be a significant clue that misalignments are present. Posture – Checking your posture from the side can reveal a forward leaning head and other postural distortions. From behind, we’ll note a high shoulder or hip. Palpation - This is an easy check that chiropractor do with their hands while they feel your spine to look for any imbalances in your spinal column. In the early, easiest-to-correct stages, spinal misalignments often produce no noticeable symptoms. Yet. A spinal checkup in our practice can reveal problem areas that we can address before they become headaches, back pain or more serious health issues. Call our Elkhorn Wellness Chiropractic Office today!
You’re valued. Your loved ones adore you! No matter how many or few, near or far, they cherish you and need you around for a long time.
You deserve health. You deserve to feel your best, to have energy, be happy and move easier. You truly deserve to live the incredible life you’ve been blessed with. You can. Health is about being better than you used to be. Your fitness is all mental; your body won’t go where your mind doesn’t push it. So push yourself and you’ll be amazed at what you’ll achieve. You have time. One hour is roughly 4% of your day. So work smarter, not harder and get up early enough to take care of yourself each day for that jog, gym class or stroll around the park. It’s not about having time, it’s about making time. You’re in charge. There are many aspects of life that are far beyond our reach, out of our control. But the way you treat your body, the way you care for yourself, you can control that. “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll You’re an example. So much about parenting, leading and living is about setting the example. If you want to inspire others to do good, be healthy and enjoy life, then go out there and do the same! You’ll enjoy it. It’s amazing how much feeling goes into your health. Taking care of you is the gift that keeps on giving. By eating right you’ll feel great, by sleeping enough you’ll feel energetic and through exercise you’ll feel empowered and happy. In the end, we’re all blessed. Don’t take for granted the opportunity you have to live the most incredible life. We’re here to remind you of this because we value you, we know you deserve it, we know you can and we know your best life is just around the corner! Call our Elkhorn Chiropractic office today! |
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